Quantifying the biomass of parasites to understand their role in aquatic communities.

ABSTRACT: By infecting multiple host species and acting as a food resource, parasites can affect food web topography and contribute to ecosystem energy transfer. Owing to the remarkable secondary production of some taxa, parasite biomass - although cryptic - can be comparable to other invertebrate and vertebrate groups. More resolved estimates of parasite biomass are therefore needed to understand parasite interactions, their consequences for host fitness, and potential influences on ecosystem energetics. We developed an approach to quantify the masses of helminth parasites and compared our results with those of biovolume-based approaches. Specifically, we massed larval and adult parasites representing 13 species and five life stages of trematodes and cestodes from snail and amphibian hosts. We used

SUBMITTER: Lambden J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3728967 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature