Species interactions can influence ecosystem functioning by enhancing or suppressing the activities of species that drive ecosystem processes, or by causing changes in biodiversity. However, one important class of species interactions – parasitism – has been little considered in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BD-EF) research. Parasites might increase or decrease ecosystem processes by reducing host abundance. Parasites could also increase trait diversity by suppressing dominant species or by increasing within-host trait diversity. These different mechanisms by which parasites might affect ecosystem function pose challenges in predicting their net effects. Nonetheless, given the ubiquity of parasites, we propose that parasite–host interactions should be incorporated into the BD-EF framework.

物种相互作用可以通过增强或抑制驱动生态系统进程的物种的活动，或通过引起生物多样性的变化，来影响生态系统的功能。但是，在生物多样性和生态系统功能（BD-EF）研究中，很少考虑一种重要的物种相互作用类别（寄生）。寄生虫可能通过减少宿主的丰度来增加或减少生态系统过程。寄生虫还可以通过抑制优势种或通过增加寄主内部性状多样性来增加性状多样性。寄生虫可能影响生态系统功能的这些不同机制在预测其净效应方面提出了挑战。尽管如此，鉴于寄生虫无处不在，我们建议将寄生虫与宿主的相互作用纳入BD-EF框架。