What affects parasite growth, variability, and reproduction?

I also study the reproduction of parasites. The connection between reproduction and parasites has been a subject of study for decades, and the impact that parasites have on host organisms over evolutionary and ecological scales, both temporally and spatially. However, reproduction and fitness in parasite species has received less attention. I aim to determine patterns in parasite reproduction. My earlier work examines the relationship between body size, infrapopulation (all parasites of a single species on an individual host) density, and reproduction. There is a positive relationship between parasite body size and infrapopulation density in monogeneans on bluegill sunfish that was dependent on environmental conditions. However, this relationship did not translate to improved reproductive capacity. I have also performed experiments on the benefits of sexual and asexual reproduction under variable environmental conditions, using the protest, Paramecium multimicronucleatum, as a model organism. The sex lives of monogeneans are also mysterious in a lot of ways. These organisms, like other flatworms, are hermaphroditic and have the ability to reproduce by self-fertilization or cross-fertilization, and some species can reproduce clonally. In the future, I want to answer the following questions:

• How often do monogeneans, or other hermaphroditic organisms, reproduce sexually or clonally?

• When, in facultatively sexually reproducing organisms, is sexual reproduction preferred?

• Does diversity within populations or parasite abundance/density improve reproductive output/fitness?

• Does body size play a role in the frequency of sexual reproduction in hermaphroditic parasites?

• Does reproductive success change with sexual vs asexual reproduction in parasites?