title: Vulnerability and diet breadth predict larval and adult parasite diversity in fish of the Bothnian Bay.
abstract: Recent studies of aquatic food webs show that parasite diversity is concentrated in nodes that likely favour transmission. Various aspects of parasite diversity have been observed to be correlated with the trophic level, size, diet breadth, and vulnerability to predation of hosts. However, no study has attempted to distinguish among all four correlates, which may have differential importance for trophically transmitted parasites occurring as larvae or adults. We searched for factors that best predict the diversity of larval and adult endoparasites in 4105 fish in 25 species studied over a three-year period in the Bothnian Bay, Finland. Local predator-prey relationships were determined from stomach contents, parasites, and published data in 8,229 fish in 31 species and in seals and piscivorous birds. Fish that consumed more species of prey had more diverse trophically transmitted adult parasites. Larval parasite diversity increased with the diversity of both prey and predators, but increases in predator diversity had a greater effect. Prey diversity was more strongly associated with the diversity of adult parasites than with that of larvae. The proportion of parasite species present as larvae in a host species was correlated with the diversity of its predators. There was a notable lack of association with the diversity of any parasite guild and fish length, trophic level, or trophic category. Thus, diversity is associated with different nodal properties in larval and adult parasites, and association strengths also differ, strongly reflecting the life cycles of parasites and the food chains they follow to complete transmission.
authors.affiliation: Aquatic Biodiversity Section, Watershed Hydrology and Ecology Research Division, Water Science and Technology Directorate, Science and Technology Branch, St. Lawrence Centre, Environment Canada, 105 McGill, 7th Floor, Montreal, QC, H2Y 2E7, Canada.
authors.forename: Sean A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Locke
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Marcogliese
authors.forename: E Tellervo
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Valtonen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D061006:Bays; D044822:Biodiversity; D004032:Diet; D005387:Finland; D005399:Fishes / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000502:physiology; D020387:Food Chain; D006376:Helminths / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007814:Larva / Q000469:parasitology / Q000502:physiology; D010271:Parasites / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D011235:Predatory Behavior
references.citation: Parasitology. 2002;124 Suppl:S83-99
references.pmid: 12396218
references.citation: Trends Ecol Evol. 1997 Aug;12(8):320-5
references.pmid: 21238094
references.citation: J Fish Biol. 2013 Feb;82(2):522-37
references.pmid: 23398066
references.citation: Evolution. 2011 Aug;65(8):2286-99
references.pmid: 21790575
references.citation: Oecologia. 2011 Jul;166(3):731-8
references.pmid: 21249395
references.citation: Science. 2011 Jul 22;333(6041):445-8
references.pmid: 21778398
references.citation: Parasitology. 2001 Apr;122(Pt 4):471-81
references.pmid: 11315181
references.citation: PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e26798
references.pmid: 22046360
references.citation: Parasitology. 2013 Mar;140(3):309-17
references.pmid: 23068294
references.citation: Mol Biol Evol. 2011 Oct;28(10):2731-9
references.pmid: 21546353
references.citation: Ecol Lett. 2008 Jun;11(6):533-46
references.pmid: 18462196
references.citation: Parasitology. 2004 Jun;128(Pt 6):671-82
references.pmid: 15206470
references.citation: J Parasitol. 2010 Apr;96(2):273-84
references.pmid: 19891512
references.citation: Parasitology. 2004 Nov;129(Pt 5):635-42
references.pmid: 15552408
references.citation: Int J Parasitol. 2011 Mar;41(3-4):309-16
references.pmid: 21081133
references.citation: Oecologia. 2010 Jan;162(1):139-52
references.pmid: 19756761
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2005 May 22;272(1567):1059-66
references.pmid: 16024365
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jul 25;103(30):11211-6
references.pmid: 16844774
references.citation: Int J Parasitol. 2010 Feb;40(2):243-54
references.pmid: 19682450