Invaders, natives and their enemies: distribution patterns of amphipods and their microsporidian parasites in the Ruhr Metropolis, Germany.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The amphipod and microsporidian diversity in freshwaters of a heterogeneous urban region in Germany was assessed. Indigenous and non-indigenous host species provide an ideal framework to test general hypotheses on potentially new host-parasite interactions, parasite spillback and spillover in recently invaded urban freshwater communities.

Methods

Amphipods were sampled in 17 smaller and larger streams belonging to catchments of the four major rivers in the Ruhr Metropolis (Emscher, Lippe, Ruhr, Rhine), including sites invaded and not invaded by non-indigenous amphipods. Species were identified morphologically (hosts only) and via DNA barcoding (hosts and parasites). Prevalence was obtained by newly designed parasite-specific PCR assays.

Results

Three indige

SUBMITTER: Grabner DS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4534018 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature