Parasites of an Arctic scavenger; the wolverine (Gulo gulo).

ABSTRACT: Parasites are fundamental components within all ecosystems, shaping interaction webs, host population dynamics and behaviour. Despite this, baseline data is lacking to understand the parasite ecology of many Arctic species, including the wolverine (Gulo gulo), a top Arctic predator and scavenger. Here, we combined traditional count methods (i.e. adult helminth recovery, where taxonomy was confirmed by molecular identification) with 18S rRNA high-throughput sequencing to document the wolverine parasite community. Further, we investigated whether the abundance of parasites detected using traditional methods were associated with host metadata, latitude, and longitude (ranging from the northern limit of the boreal forest to the low Arctic and Arctic tundra in Nunavut, Canada). Ad

SUBMITTER: Watson SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7591336 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature