Fish trophic level and the similarity of non-specific larval parasite assemblages

Timi, Juan T.; Rossin, María Alejandra; Alarcos, Ana Julia; Braicovich, Paola E.; Cantatore, D; Lanfranchi, Ana L.

doi:10.1016/j.ijpara.2010.10.002

Cited by 50 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…They also display larger surface areas for parasite attachment and can ingest larger quantities of food, resulting in a higher exposure to infective stages (Guégan et al , ; Poulin, ; Valtonen et al , ). Larger fishes can also feed on larger prey items, increasing the number and broadening the set of potential parasites (Timi et al , , ). Therefore, fish length must be considered in comparisons among samples from different localities to avoid attributing ontogenetic variability in parasite loads to a locality effect, leading to misinterpretation of spatial patterns and stock structure (Cantatore & Timi, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the role of host traits as drivers of the abundance of long‐lived parasites in fish‐stock assessment studies

Braicovich

Ieno²,

Saez

et al. 2016

Journal of Fish Biology

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In order to identify the best tools for stock assessment studies using fish parasites as biological indicators, different host traits (size, mass and age and their interaction with sex) were evaluated as descriptors of cumulative patterns of both parasite abundance and infracommunity species richness. The effect of such variables was analysed for a sample of 265 specimens of Percophis brasiliensis caught in the Argentine Sea. The abundances and species richness were modelled using generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) with negative binomial and Poisson distribution respectively. Due to collinearity, separate models were fitted for each of the three main explanatory variables (length, mass and age) to identify the optimal set of factors determining the parasite burdens. Optimal GLMMs were selected on the basis of the lowest Akaike information criteria, residual information and simulation studies based on 10 000 iterations. Results indicated that the covariates length and sex consistently appeared in the most parsimonious models suggesting that fish length seems to be a slightly better predictor than age or mass. The biological causes of these patterns are discussed. It is recommended to use fish length as a measure of growth and to restrict comparisons with fish of similar length or to incorporate length as covariate when comparing parasite burdens. Host sex should be also taken into account for those species sexually dimorphic in terms of morphology, behaviour or growth rates.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the role of host traits as drivers of the abundance of long‐lived parasites in fish‐stock assessment studies

Braicovich

Ieno²,

Saez

et al. 2016

Journal of Fish Biology

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show abstract

“…Diphyllobothrium species were more aggregated in trout with many larval specimens in the largest fish. Increasing amounts of evidence suggest that trophic level can structure parasite communities in fish (Poulin & Valtonen, 2001;Marcogliese, 2002;Timi et al, 2011, Strona & Lafferty, 2013, and higher aggregations of trophically transmitted parasites can be the result of a higher position in the trophic chain (Lester, 2012). Shifts in trophic level during the ontogeny of a fish should, therefore, be followed by an increase in trophically transmitted parasites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ontogenetic dynamics of infection with Diphyllobothrium spp. cestodes in sympatric Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus (L.) and brown trout Salmo trutta L.

et al. 2015

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The trophic niches of Arctic charr and brown trout differ when the species occur in sympatry. Their trophically transmitted parasites are expected to reflect these differences. Here, we investigate how the infections of Diphyllobothrium dendriticum and D. ditremum differ between charr and trout. These tapeworms use copepods as their first intermediate hosts and fish can become infected as second intermediate hosts by consuming either infected copepods or infected fish. We examined 767 charr and 368 trout for Diphyllobothrium plerocercoids in a subarctic lake. The prevalence of D. ditremum was higher in charr (61.5%) than in trout, (39.5%), but the prevalence of D.dendriticum was higher in trout (31.2%) than in charr (19.3%). Diphyllobothrium spp. intensities were elevated in trout compared to charr, particularly for D. dendriticum. Large fish with massive parasite burdens were responsible for the high Diphyllobothrium spp. loads in trout. We hypothesize that fish prey may be the most important source for the Diphyllobothrium spp. infections in trout, whereas charr predominantly acquire Diphyllobothrium spp. by feeding on copepods. Our findings support previous suggestions that the ability to establish in a second piscine host is greater for D. dendriticum than for D. ditremum.

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“…Even with the dominance of generalist parasites in many of the fish species examined, greater abundances of zooplankton and greater foraging would ultimately result in higher abundances of even larval generalist parasites as observed in higher trophic level fishes in the Argentine Sea (Timi et al 2011). It is possible that fish did not remain in the hotspots long enough to reflect differences through their trophically transmitted parasites.…”

Section: Hotspotsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Although the dominance of generalist parasites that use a diversity of zooplankton and fish to complete their life cycles could mask subtle differences in food web structure, parasite species and their abundances were sufficiently different to result in significantly different parasite communities among many host species. However, even with assemblages of only larval stages of generalist parasites, with differences in abundances, it has been possible to determine fish trophic levels in the northern Argentine Sea (Timi et al 2011). …”

Section: Trophic Structure Of the Pelagic Food Webmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasite communities indicate effects of cross-shelf distributions, but not mesoscale oceanographic features on northern California Current mid-trophic food web

Jacobson¹,

Baldwin²,

Reese³

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Mesoscale physical oceanographic features, such as jets and eddies, can influence the structure of marine ecosystems. We used trophically transmitted parasite communities of pelagic fishes in the northern California Current to examine effects of physical oceanographic features on pelagic ecosystem structure. We tested the hypotheses that (1) oceanographic features associated with a coastal promontory, Cape Blanco, Oregon (USA), produced a faunal break resulting in different pelagic ecosystems north and south of the cape, and that (2) the use of biological hotspots in the area by pelagic nekton is reflected in the trophic interactions of mid-and upper trophic level fishes. We recovered 19 taxa of trophically transmitted parasites from 10 common pelagic fish species caught between Newport, Oregon, and Crescent City, California. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling of parasite communities reflected a trophic structure among these fish species; results were similar to published diet studies. We found no evidence in the trophically transmitted parasites of spatial differences between the pelagic ecosystems north or south of Cape Blanco, or within versus outside of the biological hotspots. However, we found significant cross shelf differences in parasite communities. Therefore, Cape Blanco does not seem to be a strong faunal boundary, rather the strongest influence is cross-shelf transport associated with coastal upwelling.KEY WORDS: Marine parasites · Pelagic fish · Cape Blanco · Hotspot · Inshore−offshore Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

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Fish trophic level and the similarity of non-specific larval parasite assemblages

Cited by 50 publications

References 55 publications

Assessing the role of host traits as drivers of the abundance of long‐lived parasites in fish‐stock assessment studies

Assessing the role of host traits as drivers of the abundance of long‐lived parasites in fish‐stock assessment studies

Ontogenetic dynamics of infection with Diphyllobothrium spp. cestodes in sympatric Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus (L.) and brown trout Salmo trutta L.

Parasite communities indicate effects of cross-shelf distributions, but not mesoscale oceanographic features on northern California Current mid-trophic food web

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