Parasites of a marine benthic fish in the Southwestern Atlantic: searching for geographical recurrent patterns of community structure.
Parasite communities of Raneya brasiliensis are described and its parasites used as biological tags to discriminate its populations. Fish were caught in two zones of the Argentine Sea: one sample from San Jorge Gulf (Patagonian Region) and three samples from off the coast of Buenos Aires (Bonaerense Region). A total of 183 fish were examined for parasites and 11 species were found. Host body size and its ecology are pointed out as drivers of the paucity of taxa found. Multivariate similarity analyses allowed the identification of three stocks: one in the San Jorge Gulf, and two other in the Bonaerense Region. The parasite species that contributed most to the separation of the samples were generally those identified as biological markers in previous studies in the area. Patterns of distance decay in similarity among communities in R. brasiliensis were found; with dissimilarity values between distant localities being higher than between close ones. Whereas the composition and structure of parasite assemblages in Bonaerense waters reflect those of other fish species in this region, being mainly determined by the composition of the compound community, no repeatable patterns were found in the composition of parasites assemblages when R. brasiliensis was compared with other hosts species in Patagonia.
Vales
Damián Gustavo
DG
Laboratorio de Mamíferos Marinos, Centro Nacional Patagónico, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Boulevard Brown 2915, 9120, Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
García
Néstor Aníbal
NA
Crespo
Enrique Alberto
EA
Timi
Juan Tomás
JT
D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D044822:Biodiversity; D049628:Body Size; D017753:Ecosystem; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes / Q000469:parasitology*; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D008297:Male; D010271:Parasites / Q000502:physiology*; D010273:Parasitic Diseases, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*