Temporal and spatial variations in the metazoan parasite communities of the Panama spadefish,Parapsettus panamensis(Pisces: Ephippidae), from the Pacific coast of Mexico

Abstract

In the tropics, variations in the structure and species composition of marine fish parasite communities over several years have received limited attention. Changes in water temperature in the tropics are not as extreme as in temperate climes, and the processes that generate variations in these parasite communities are as yet unclear. The parasite communities in populations of Parapsettus panamensis from four locations on the south-central Pacific coast of Mexico were quantified and analyzed. Four hundred forty-six fish were collected over a 6-year period (2012; 2013; 2016a, b; and 2017). Twenty-three metazoan parasite species were recovered and identified: three species of Monogenea (present as adults); eight species of Digenea (adults); one species of Acanthocephala (juveniles); one species of Cestoda (larvae); three species of Nematoda (two present as adults and one present as larvae); four species of Copepoda; and three species of Isopoda (two present as adults, and one present as larvae). At the component community level, parasite species richness varied significantly from 10 (Marquelia 2016) to 17 species (Acapulco Bay 2012). The component communities and infracommunities of P. panamensis exhibited a similar pattern: low species numbers, low diversity, and dominance by a single parasite species. Parasite community structure and species composition varied between sampling years and locations. The main factors responsible for these variations were host traits such as feeding behavior and body size, and occurrence of a set of distinctive parasite species. K E Y W O R D S marine fish, Mexico, Pacific coast, Parapsettus panamensis, parasites

Factors linked to interannual variation in the metazoan parasite communities of black skipjack, Euthynnus lineatus (Pisces: Scombridae)

“…Aggregation is a typical parasite dispersion pattern in marine fishes (Alves & Luque, ; Amarante, Tassinari, Luque, & Pereira, ; Iannacone et al, ; Rohde, ; Santos‐Bustos et al, ; Villalba‐Vasquez et al, ). Dispersion index ( DI ) values of the parasite communities indicated that 70% of the identified parasite species exhibited an aggregate dispersion in one or more sampling years (Table ).…”

“…Diet diversity and host body size were also determinants of higher species richness and diversity in the E. lineatus parasite infracommunities (Figure ). Host diet is vital in structuring the intestinal parasite communities of marine fish (Luque et al, ; Santos‐Bustos et al, ; Sasal et al, ; Tavares & Luque, ; Villalba‐Vasquez et al, ). As mentioned above, the predatory habits and voracity characteristic of E. lineatus (Collette & Nauen, ) expose individuals of this species to a wide variety of parasites (e.g., digeneans, cestodes, acanthocephalans, and nematodes) acquired through ingestion of infected prey.…”

“…In the tropics, structural changes in marine fish parasite communities have been linked principally to host traits such as age, body size, feeding behavior, host density, and vagility. All are factors which can promote high exposure to, and colonization rates of, new parasite species, and these factors have been associated with higher species richness in parasite communities (Luque, Mouillot, & Poulin, ; Santos‐Bustos et al, ; Sasal, Morand, & Guegan, ; Soares et al, ; Villalba‐Vasquez et al, ). However, the influence of abiotic environmental factors such as local fluctuations in surface temperature, salinity, or dissolved oxygen concentrations have received only limited attention in parasitological studies (Henriquez & Gonzalez, ; Santos‐Bustos et al, ; Soares et al, ; Villalba‐Vasquez et al, ).…”

“…All are factors which can promote high exposure to, and colonization rates of, new parasite species, and these factors have been associated with higher species richness in parasite communities (Luque, Mouillot, & Poulin, ; Santos‐Bustos et al, ; Sasal, Morand, & Guegan, ; Soares et al, ; Villalba‐Vasquez et al, ). However, the influence of abiotic environmental factors such as local fluctuations in surface temperature, salinity, or dissolved oxygen concentrations have received only limited attention in parasitological studies (Henriquez & Gonzalez, ; Santos‐Bustos et al, ; Soares et al, ; Villalba‐Vasquez et al, ). Large‐scale climate fluctuations such as El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO: sea temperature warming phase) and La Niña (cooling phase) are known to affect many ecological processes, including transmission of many metazoan parasites (Alvitres, Chaname, Fupuy, Chambergo, & Cortez, ; Oliva, Barrios, Thatje, & Laudien, ).…”

Interannual variation in the metazoan parasite communities of bigeye trevally Caranx sexfasciatus (Pisces, Carangidae)

“…Studies of parasite communities are conducted mainly at two different hierarchical levels: component community (between locations or host populations) and infracommunity (between individual hosts) [14,17,51]. In recent years, a central theme in parasite ecology has been the identification of the factors (biotic or abiotic) determining species richness and composition in these communities.…”