Influence of environmental factors on Argulus japonicus occurrence of Guangdong province, China

Abstract

To assess the effects of abiotic factors on Argulus japonicus occurrence in freshwater ecosystem, we sampled fish, free-swimming parasites, and submerged objects from rivers, fish farms, and ponds (reservoirs and lakes) at 27 locations in Guangdong province, China, from July, 2010, to March, 2013. Friedman's test and Spearman's correlation coefficient (r) were used to investigate relationship between A. japonicus occurrence and abiotic factors in three aquatic systems. Correlation of monthly density, mean density, prevalence, abundance, and intensity of A. japonicus with water temperature, biochemical oxygen demand of 5 days, chemical oxygen demand, and ammonia were very significant, but negative relation with pH, dissolved oxygen, and total phosphorus components. Nevertheless, total nitrogen components showed an insignificant impact on A. japonicus incidence. In addition, water temperature and stability were two key factors controlling A. japonicus infestation. Our study revealed the capability of A. japonicus to inhabit and prevail in heavily polluted freshwater. Results demonstrate that A. japonicus has good adaptability to the environmental factors' stress but cannot be used as a biological indicator of environmental pollution.

Low levels of crustacean parasite infestation in fish species from the Matapi River in the state of Amapá, Brazil

“…Among the 48 parasite specimens collected, there was high abundance of three taxa (Branchiura, Copepoda and Isopoda) with diversity of six species (Table 2). Alsarakibi et al (2014) reported that the density of argulids was lower in lotic environments such as rivers, in comparison with lentic environments such as fish farms. Vasconcelos & Tavares-Dias (2016) studied the crustacean parasite fauna in six species of fish in a reservoir in the state of Amapá and reported prevalence of 30.4%.…”

“…Oliveira et al (2017) reported that in 13 host species of the Jari River (state of Amapá), the prevalence of parasites was 63.8%; they collected 399 parasite specimens. However, the diversity of crustacean parasites and their levels of infestation can be influenced by various factors relating to the biology of parasites and hosts, and by environmental factors, among others (CARVALHO et al, 2003;MAMANI et al, 2004;FONTANA et al, 2012;ALSARAKIBI et al, 2014;MIKHEEV et al, 2015;VASCONCELOS & TAVARES-DIAS, 2016). Fish hosts may be are used by these parasites for transportation (CARVALHO et al, 2003), which could be facilitated by migrating fish species.…”

First study on infestation of Excorallana berbicensis (Isopoda: Corallanidae) on six fishes in a reservoir in Brazilian Amazon during dry and rainy seasons

“…In temperate climatic regions, temperature has been considered to be the most important factor influencing the seasonality of parasite infracommunities. Consequently, it can directly or indirectly influence ectoparasites crustacean infestations (Jones, 1974;Guzmán et al, 1988;Kadlec et al, 2003;Pech et al, 2010;Alsarakibi et al, 2014 (Sá-Oliveira et al, 2013. These six fish species presents different life habits, once H. unimaculatus has omnivorous diet, mainly consuming algae, detritus and other aquatic invertebrates, and P. falcata is detritivorous, feeding on detritus and microorganisms associated with the substrate.…”

Ecological study of Carassotrema schistorchis in wild silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix

“…Changes in water temperature may directly influence the rates of parasite establishment and development, the release of infective stages, and transmission between hosts ( Karvonen et al, 2013 ). pH and DO are also related to the prevalence of aquatic parasites ( Alsarakibi et al, 2014 ). In the present study, the abundance of C. schistorchis showed no correlation with water temperature, pH, or DO.…”