Do algae blooms dilute the risk of trematode infections in threespine sticklebacks?
نویسندگان
چکیده
Human-induced growth of macro-algae is often assumed to increase trematode infections in fishes by increasing the abundance and condition of the parasite’s intermediate host – snails – as this can boost the release of trematode larvae, cercariae, from the intermediate hosts. However, macro-algae can also impose barriers to the transmission of cercariae and reduce infections. We investigated whether an increased growth of filamentous algae affects the transmission of Diplostomum pseudospathaceum cercariae to the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus, a common fish in eutrophied shallow waters. We exposed sticklebacks to trematode cercariae in the absence and presence of artificial filamentous algae, and recorded effects on the proportion of sticklebacks infected and the number of encysted metacercariae per fish. No significant effect of artificial algae on cercariae transmission was detected. However, the body size and the sex of the sticklebacks were strongly correlated with the number of encysted metacercariae per infected fish, with females and larger individuals being more infected. We discuss different factors that could have caused the difference in parasite transmission, including sex-related differences in body size and behaviour of sticklebacks [Current Zoology 61 () : – , 2015 ].
منابع مشابه
The Evolutionary Biology of the Threespine Stickleback
Because the study of variability lies at the heart of evolutionary biology, species that exhibit considerable variation across their geographic range are of special interest to comparative biologists interested in understanding evolutionary patterns and processes at the species level. Few vertebrates match threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in the extent of geographic variation in...
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