Biologists sized up an unlikely natural phenomenon: when parasitism actually causes the number of hosts to increase, an effect known as a hydra effect. A study of common water fleas and their fungal parasites includes laboratory components and an analysis of 13 fungal epidemics in nature. The scientists use consumer-resource theory to explain why — and in what types of systems — the hydra effect can occur.
Click here for original story, Behold the humble water flea, locked in a battle of mythological proportions
Source: ScienceDaily