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Parasites as biological tags to track an ontogenetic shift in the feeding behaviour of Gadus morhua off West and East Greenland

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Abstract

Parasites, being an integral part of every ecosystem and trophically transmitted along the food webs, can provide detailed insights into the structure of food webs and can close the information gap between short-term stomach content analyses and long-term fish otolith analyses. They are useful for tracking ontogenetic shifts in the host’s diet, the occurrence of specific organisms or migratory behaviour of their hosts, even in inaccessible environments. In the present study, stomach content analyses and parasitological examinations were performed on 70 Atlantic cod Gadus morhua, one of the most important high-level predators of small fish in the North Atlantic, caught during one research vessel cruise from West and East Greenlandic waters. Analyses revealed significant differences in fish size with higher values for East Greenland (average total length (TL) of 50.5 cm) compared to West Greenland (average TL of 33.3 cm). Clear differences were also present in prey and parasite composition. Crustacea was the main food source for all fish (IRI = 10082.70), while the importance of teleosts increased with fish size. With a prevalence of 85 % in West Greenland and 100 % in East Greenland, Nematoda were the most abundant parasite group. The results indicate an ontogenetic shift in the diet, which are discussed in the context of the common distribution theory, stock dynamics and migratory behaviour.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. R Bray for the identification of digenean specimens and Prof. Dr. C. Bridges for supervising the preceded study. The study was financially supported by the research funding programme “Landes-Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz (LOEWE)” of Hesse’s Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and the Arts and the Ichthyological Association (GFI).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Ecology, Evolution and Diversity; Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Goethe University, Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung; Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60438, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

    Julian Münster, Sven Klimpel & Thomas Kuhn

  2. Thuenen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Palmaille 9, 22767, Hamburg, Germany

    Heino O. Fock

  3. Department of Zoology, University of Aberdeen, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ, Scotland, UK

    Ken MacKenzie

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  1. Julian Münster
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  2. Sven Klimpel
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  3. Heino O. Fock
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  4. Ken MacKenzie
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  5. Thomas Kuhn
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Correspondence to Thomas Kuhn.

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Münster, J., Klimpel, S., Fock, H.O. et al. Parasites as biological tags to track an ontogenetic shift in the feeding behaviour of Gadus morhua off West and East Greenland. Parasitol Res 114, 2723–2733 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4479-y

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