The physiological performance of organisms depends on their environmental context, resulting in performance–response curves along environmental gradients. Parasite performance–response curves are generally expected to be broader than those of their hosts due to shorter generation times and hence faster adaptation. However, certain environmental conditions may limit parasite performance more than that of the host, thereby provi...

Two patterns of bacterial growth response upon drying and rewetting (DRW) of soils have previously been identified. Bacterial growth can either start increasing immediately after rewetting in a linear fashion (“type 1” response) or start increasing exponentially after a lag period (“type 2” response). The effect of repeated DRW cycles was studied in three soils with different response patterns after a single DRW cycle (“type 1...