Long-term change in the parasite burden of shore crabs (Hemigrapsus oregonensis and Hemigrapsus nudus) on the northwestern Pacific coast of North America.

ABSTRACT: The abundances of free-living species have changed dramatically in recent decades, but little is known about change in the abundance of parasitic species. We investigated whether populations of several parasites have shifted over time in two shore crab hosts, Hemigrapsus oregonensis and Hemigrapsus nudus, by comparing the prevalence and abundance of three parasite taxa in a historical dataset (1969-1970) to contemporary parasite abundance (2018-2020) for hosts collected from 11 intertidal sites located from Oregon, USA, to British Columbia, Canada. Our data suggest that the abundance of the parasitic isopod Portunion conformis has varied around a stable mean for the past 50 years. No change over time was observed for larval acanthocephalans. However, larval microphalli

SUBMITTER: Quinn J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7934900 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature