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Parasite communities in three sympatric flounder species (Pleuronectiformes: Paralichthyidae)

Similar ecological filters driving toward repeatable assemblages

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Abstract

The relative role of host phylogeny and ecology on parasite community structure is analyzed in three sympatric paralichthyids from Argentine waters: the carcinophagous Xystreurys rasile and the piscivorous Paralichthys isosceles and P. patagonicus. Their relatedness, inherited ecological and physiological traits and shared past histories should result in certain similarities in their parasite assemblages. With this as our null hypothesis, we focused on the effects of measurable traits (size, age and diet) across fish species, with departures from a general pattern being interpreted as a consequence of ecological filters preventing homogeneous infections. The percentage of individuals/species that host-specific parasites contributed to each component community, as well as their effect on similarity of assemblages within/across host species, showed that they were not important contributors to abundance, richness and similarity, being irrelevant for the repeatability within component communities and across fish species as a phylogenetically related group. To minimize the effect of variables other than diet or trophic level only trophically transmitted nonspecific parasites were included in further analyses. After controlling for fish size, the congeneric host species harboured assemblages significantly different from those found in X. rasile, but were similar to each other because of their shared high trophic levels. Assemblages of equivalent structure harboured by fish with different age–size relationships showed that these variables seem to act at dissimilar rates on different features of the parasites assemblages. Indeed, age affected mainly the parasite abundance, whereas body size influenced mostly species richness. In conclusion, similar ecological filters produce analogous infections across host species driving towards homogeneous parasite communities.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mr. Roque Bruno from Santa Cecilia fish market and Mr. Jorge Ricci, Necochea, for kindly providing fish samples. We also thank Dr. K. MacKenzie (School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK) for his valuable suggestions on the manuscript. Financial support was provided by grants from CONICET (PIP 112-200801-00024), FONCyT (PICT 02199/07) and Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (EXA 531/10).

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  1. Laboratorio de Parasitología, Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Funes 3350, 7600, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    Ana J. Alarcos & Juan T. Timi

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  1. Ana J. Alarcos
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  2. Juan T. Timi
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Correspondence to Ana J. Alarcos.

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Alarcos, A.J., Timi, J.T. Parasite communities in three sympatric flounder species (Pleuronectiformes: Paralichthyidae). Parasitol Res 110, 2155–2166 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-011-2741-5

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