Abstract
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•The article presents a history of research on parasite ecology over the past 50 years.•Twelve key advances are highlighted, each one having shaped the course of research.•Seminal contributions are identified, as well as influential research trends.•A quantitative summary of ecological research published in the International Journal for Parasitology is also presented.•Some opportunities and challenges facing ecological parasitology are discussed.
In the five decades since the first publication of the International Journal for Parasitology, ecological parasitology has grown from modest beginnings to become a modern discipline with a strong theoretical foundation, a diverse toolkit, and a multidisciplinary approach. In this review, I highlight 12 advances in the field that have spurred its growth over the past 50 years. Where relevant, I identify pivotal contributions that have altered the course of research, as well as the influence of developments in other fields such as mainstream ecology and molecular biology. The 12 key advances discussed are in areas including parasite population dynamics and community assembly, the regulation of host population abundance and food web structure, parasites as agents of natural selection, the impacts of biodiversity and anthropogenic changes on host-parasite interactions, the biogeography of parasite diversity, and the evolutionary genetics of parasites. I conclude by identifying some challenges and opportunities lying ahead, which need to be met for the future growth of ecological research on host-parasite interactions.