Invasive species are a major threat to biodiversity. In Madagascar, one quarter of freshwater fish fauna consist of introduced species. The introduction of non-native species affects native biota by means of direct interactions but also through indirect interactions including those mediated by parasites, as parasites are usually co-introduced with their hosts. Almost nothing is known about the parasites co-introduced with their fish hosts into Madagascar and their potential impact on native endemic fish fauna. We studied the metazoan parasites of native and introduced cichlid fishes (and some non-cichlids) in the northern part of Madagascar.Using parasite data we evaluated the effect of fish introduced from mainland Africa on native Malagasy cichlid fauna.We documented the co-introduction into Madagascar of parasite species from mainland Africa and also probably from Eurasia. Malagasy cichlids and some other species living in sympatry with non-native cichlids acted as competent hosts for generalist parasites and also for host-specific parasites of African mainland cichlids. However, African mainland cichlids were not susceptible to infection by parasites specific to Malagasy cichlids. The different compositions of parasite communities and infection parameters in endemic and non-native cichlids in the regions investigated may be potentially explained by the different sources and timings of fish introductions. In addition, native endemic parasite fauna even seem to be outcompeted by introduced parasites, which cross the barriers of host specificity. The transmission of non-native parasites associated with the introduction of non-native freshwater fishes may represent a serious risk to endemic freshwater fish and parasite fauna in Madagascar.

The genus Typhleotris contains three poorly known blind fish species, inhabiting aquifers in the limestone plateau of south-western Madagascar. Until recently these species were known from only few localities, and their pattern of genetic differentiation remains poorly studied. In this study we analyse 122 Typhleotris tissue samples collected from 12 localities, spanning the entire known range of the genus, and use DNA sequences to assign these samples to the three species known. The phylogeny based on the mitochondrial marker cox1 revealed three main clades corresponding to the three species: Typhleotris madagascariensis, T. mararybe and T. pauliani, differing by uncorrected pairwise sequence divergences of 6.3-9.8%. The distribution ranges of the three species overlapped widely: T. mararybe was collected only in a southern group of localities, T. madagascariensis was found in both the southern and the central group of localities, and T. pauliani occurred from the northernmost site to the southern group of localities; yet the three species did not share haplotypes in two nuclear genes, except for three individuals that we hypothesize are hybrids of T. pauliani with T. madagascariensis and T. mararybe. This pattern of concordant mitochondrial and nuclear divergence despite sympatry strongly supports the status of all three taxa as separate species. Phylogeographic structure was obvious in T. madagascariensis, with two separate shallow mitochondrial clades occupying (1) the central vs. (2) the southern group of populations, and in T. pauliani, with separate mitochondrial clades for (1) the northern vs. (2) the central/southern populations. The widespread occurrence of these three cave fish species suggests that the aquifers in south-western Madagascar have at least in the past allowed episodic dispersal and gene flow of subterraneous organisms, whereas the phylogeographic pattern of T. madagascariensis and T. pauliani provides evidence for isolation and loss of connectivity in the more recent past.

Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science +Business Media Dordrecht. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be selfarchived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com".Abstract The sub-arid southwest of Madagascar is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots combined with exceptional poverty and high risk of further temperature increase that will aggravate the living and health conditions of the people. As bases for future water management, we measured the physicochemical and microbiological quality of water sources across different forms of land use in the protected Tsimanampetsotsa National Park, and the agricultural and pastoral regions of the Mahafaly plateau on limestone and the coastal plain on sand during the dry and wet season of 2012-2013. We investigated spatial and seasonal variation of water characteristics and their relationships with bacterial contamination. Portable meters were used for the physicochemical measures. The compact dry method was used for microbial analyses. The pH was neutral to slightly alkaline and within the permissible limits of WHO and Malagasy standards. Electric conductivity (EC) and total dissolved solids (TDS) were very high and above the permissible limits in the coastal plain, moderately high in the park and low on the plateau. The concentrations of nitrogen components (NH 4 , NO 3 and NO 2 ) were high in the rainy season, with the highest concentrations in wells. Phosphate concentration was high throughout the study area. Total coliforms, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Vibrio spp. were present through-Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (out the study area year-round, representing a serious health hazard. Their concentrations were not correlated with any physicochemical characteristics in any systematic fashion that would allow to use the physicochemical characteristics as proxy for microbial contamination. Poor sanitary conditions are the principal causes of the water contamination that could be reduced substantially by simple behavioural changes of the local human population. The finding that water temperature in wells of the plateau and to a lesser extent of the coastal plain increases during the hot wet season indicates a substantial contribution of surface rather than subterranean water to the water available for human and livestock consumption. This limits the options for future increase of water consumption by people, livestock and agriculture in...

The karstic subterranean aquatic system of the Mahafaly Plateau in south-western Madagascar is inhabited by two species of cavefish: Typhleotris madagascariensis and Typhleotris mararybe. Knowledge about both cavefish species is scant. In order to learn more about the distribution of the two species, 15 caves and sinkholes spread over the Mahafaly Plateau were inventoried for their presence. Abiotic water quality and interspecific relations of the two species were investigated in six of these caves and five of the sinkholes during the dry and the rainy seasons. Typhleotris madagascariensis was present in all sampled water bodies while T. mararybe was restricted to five sites in the region around the town of Itampolo. The inventories extend the known range of both species of Typhleotris on the Mahafaly Plateau. Abiotic water characteristics did not differ between seasons. The abundances of both species were negatively correlated with iron concentrations. Further correlations between the abundance of either fish species and abiotic water characteristics remained inconclusive as these water characteristics co-varied with geographical latitude that in turn was correlated with fish abundance. For both species neither the abundance nor a condition factor based on body mass showed any significant seasonal variation. Also the presence of T. mararybe had no influence on the abundance and the condition of T. madagascariensis. Thus, no evidence for competition was noticed between the two species. REVIEW ARTICLE Subterranean BiologyPublished by The International Society for Subterranean Biology A peer-reviewed open-access journal Jean R. Rasoloariniaina et al. / Subterranean Biology 18: 1-16 (2016) 2