scholarly journals Parasite communities in two sparid fishes from the western Mediterranean: a comparative analysis based on samples from three localities off the Algerian coast

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Benhamou ◽  
D. Marzoug ◽  
Z. Boutiba ◽  
A. Kostadinova ◽  
A. Pérez-Del-Olmo

Summary We provide the first known comparative assessment of metazoan parasite communities in two taxonomically and ecologically related sparids, Boops boops and Spicara maena, that are common in the coastal infralittoral habitats in the Mediterranean. Using abundant data for infracommunities in three localities off the Algerian coasts of the Mediterranean, we tested the general prediction that the phylogenetic proximity of the two hosts, their overlapping geographical distribution and habitat occupation, as well as the similar feeding habits and diet would contribute to a homogenization of their parasite community composition and structure. The regional fauna of parasites of B. boops and S. maena along the Algerian coasts of the western Mediterranean was species-rich (36 species) and dominated by heteroxenous species (27 spp; of these 20 digenean spp.). The phylogenetic relatedness between the two hosts resulted in a large number of shared parasites (56 %, 20 spp.). However, the significant overlap in the parasite faunas of the two sparid hosts and their similar feeding habits and diet did not translate into homogeneous parasite community pattern; a significant differentiation in terms of both, composition and structure, was observed.

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-80
Author(s):  
Kseniya Viktorovna Polyaeva ◽  
Gennady Nikolaevich Dorovskikh ◽  
Yuliya Konstantinovna Chugunova

Tugun Coregonus tugun (Pallas, 1814) is an endemic of Siberia. Information about the species composition and structure of tugun parasite community on the stage of spawning migration is described in this paper. We carried out ichtioparasitologic studies in the Yenisey and the Khatanga Rivers in 2011-2014. Tugun parasite complex from the Khatanga River remains statistically identical in species composition, number of individuals and biomass and differs from those of the Yeniseis tugun over the entire study period. Apparently two different stocks of tugun were investigated in the Yenisei River. One of them lives in the Yeniseis streambed, the other one lives in the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. The composition of the parasitic fauna of tugun from two rivers is formed by generalist species. Tugun parasites component communities from all material collection stations have high values of the Shannon index and two dominant species (by numbers of parasites and by biomass). We found out that the species biomasses differ significantly on the graphic community structure. The description of tugun parasite communities corresponds to characteristic of a climax community on the stage of destruction except the graphic structure. In the analyzed parasitic communities the processes of egg laying and larval appearance, the death of parasites of previous year generation and infection with this year parasites occur simultaneously. The stages of formation and destruction of the community overlap. The described state of tugun parasites communities has an adaptive value. The load on the host body is reduced which ensures the long-term existence of parasites.


2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. A. Soares ◽  
J. L. Luque

Abstract A study of seasonal variation of metazoan parasite community of Pagrus pagrus was conducted between January and December 2012. Two hundred forty specimens of Pagrus pagrus were collected in four seasons (autumn and winter in dry season and spring and summer in rainy season) from off the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Twenty one species of metazoan parasites were found, with larvae of Hysterothylacium sp. being the dominant species. The highest values of prevalence and abundance was during the rainy season with peak prevalence of monogeneans and nematodes, period of action of the South Atlantic Central Waters (SACW) and reproductive activity of the host, suggesting that the sasonal variation in the parasites community was influenced for these phenomena.


Parasitology ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 119 (6) ◽  
pp. 635-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. SASAL ◽  
N. NIQUIL ◽  
P. BARTOLI

The aim of this work was to study the structure of the parasite communities of Digeneans of 2 families of Teleost fishes (Sparidae and Labridae) of the Mediterranean sea. We tried to quantify the importance of both the microhabitat requirements of the parasite species and the effect of host biological factors on the parasite communities. We applied, for the first time in parasite community studies, the Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) to analyse (i) the spatial distribution of parasite species within the digestive tract of the hosts; (ii) the host's biological factors (such as diet, host length, gregariousness and abundance) that may influence this spatial distribution of parasite species. Our results showed that potential microhabitats were vacant in the 2 host families studied revealing a lack of niche saturation because either there was little inter- and/or intraspecific competition or there were enough available space and resources within the host. Our results also indicated that the position of the parasite in the digestive tract is much more important than host biological factors for the structure of parasite community. Finally, we highlight the potential use of the CCA method for controlling for phylogenetic constraints in multi-species analyses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
ALI BAKALEM ◽  
PATRICK GILLET ◽  
JEAN-PHILIPPE PEZY ◽  
JEAN-CLAUDE DAUVIN

The data analyzed to inventory of all polychaetes in Algerian waters make it possible to estimate the diversity of this group to 534 species. The most diversified families are Syllidae (66 species), Spionidae (37 species) and Terebellidae (27 species).The presence of these listed species along the Algerian coast is compared with their occurrence in nine other areas of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Black Sea and in four other areas of the World Ocean. Comparison are also made with respect to the indications of the biogeographical origin for each species. The polychaete fauna of the Algerian coast is among the richest of the Mediterranean Sea and comparable to that reported for the French Mediterranean continental shelf  and the Aegean Sea, but higher that that found in the bordering coastlines of Morocco and Tunisia. Most of the species have an Atlantic origin and are present in the western Mediterranean Sea; this inventory includes eight Non-Indigenous Polychaete Species in the Algerian waters.


2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-216
Author(s):  
Lotfi Bensahla-Talet ◽  
Ahmed Bensahla-Talet

On the 29th of October 2018, one specimen of the spotted weever, Trachinus araneus measuring 47.3 cm in total length and weighting 968 g was captured by trammel net operating in Oran Bay (Kristel fishery) Western Algerian coast at 100 m depth. Up to date, this length is a new record of maximum length reached for this trachinid in the Mediterranean basin.


Parasitology ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. PÉREZ-DEL OLMO ◽  
M. FERNÁNDEZ ◽  
J. A. RAGA ◽  
A. KOSTADINOVA ◽  
R. POULIN

SUMMARYWe examined the patterns of composition and structure of parasite communities in the Mediterranean sparid fish Boops boops along a gradient of fish sizes, using a large sample from a single population. We tested the hypothesis that species forming the core of the bogue parasite fauna (i.e. species which have a wide geographical range and are responsible for recognizable community structure) appear early in the fish ontogeny. The sequential community development observed supported the prediction that core species appear in the fish population earlier than rare and stochastic species. There was also a strong correlation between the order of ‘arrival’ of the species and their overall prevalence. Six key species were responsible for recognizable community structure across size/age cohorts; the addition to this baseline community of key parasite species resulted in a nested structure that is linked to differential species abundance rather than fish size. Information on the life-cycles, distribution and host range of the parasites is used to explain the observed patterns of parasite community structure. We conclude that the small mouth size of B. boops coupled with suction feeding may provide a setting for passive sampling as a mechanism leading to non-random parasite community structure.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Coussin ◽  
Aurelie Penaud ◽  
Nathalie Combourieu-Nebout ◽  
Odile Peyron ◽  
Yannick Miras ◽  
...  

<p>Past and present oceanographic and climatic conditions along the Algerian coast involve complex mechanisms. Atlantic Ocean surface waters enter the Mediterranean Sea by the Gibraltar strait and become the Algerian current flowing along the North African coast forming a succession of eddies. Deep-water upwelling plumes is another recurrent feature of the ocean circulation along the Algerian margin. Past vegetation changes and the role of paleohydrological changes have been poorly described in this region. This work combines palynological (pollen and dinoflagellate cysts) and biomarker data to assess changing environmental and climatic conditions over the past 14 ka BP (late glacial and Holocene) acquired from the marine core MD04-2801 (Algerian coast, 2067 m water depth, Prisma cruise).</p><p>A total of 79 samples have been analyzed over the last 14 000 years BP. Palynological and organic biomarker proxy data were used to investigate the links between past sea surface temperature (SSTs) and hydrological changes on the observed regional environmental changes documented at centennial timescale resolution. Our data indicate (i) recurrent upwelling cells during relatively dry climatic conditions of the Younger Dryas (12.7 to 11.7 ka BP), the Early Holocene (11.7 to 8.2 ka BP) and from 6 ka BP onwards, (ii) an increase of fluvial discharges between 8.2 and 6 ka BP during the African Humid Period, and the concomitant colonization of coastlands by the Mediterranean forest. The comparison between our results and other western Mediterranean palynological records underlines the singularity of our results along the Algerian margin in terms of dinocyst assemblages and notably the over-representation of heterotrophic taxa. Palynological data shows direct links between continental dryness and marine hydrological conditions. Finally, we applied the Modern Analogue Technique to our pollen assemblages along the core in order to reconstruct seasonal and annual precipitations and temperatures and compare our local climatic patterns to regional climate signals at basin scale for the Holocene period.</p>


Author(s):  
M. Carrassón ◽  
J. Matallanas

The feeding habits of Polyacanthonotus rissoanus, the sixth most abundant species below 1000 m on the deep slope of the Catalan Sea (western Mediterranean), were studied in the Mediterranean Sea. Samples were obtained at depths between 1000 and 2250 m. Diet was analysed for two seasons (summer and autumn) and three different bathymetric strata. The most important food items found were small epibenthic and suprabenthic crustaceans and polychaetes, and occasionally other groups such as Priapulida, Gastropoda and Foraminifera. At 1000–1425 m, the mysids were preferential prey, while in summer at all depths analysed, isopods were a dominant prey. Polychaetes have certain incidence in the diet only at 1000–1425 m, being a dominant prey in autumn. Individuals at the 1000–1425 m depth ingest larger numbers of prey of higher average sizes than those at 1425–2250 m. The scarcity of resources below 1200–1400 m resulted in diversification of diet and encouraged preying on deposited foraminiferans, molluscs or moving copepods.


2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Ramírez-Amaro ◽  
Francesc Ordines ◽  
Bàrbara Terrasa ◽  
Antonio Esteban ◽  
Cristina García ◽  
...  

The composition and structure of demersal chondrichthyan assemblages and the biological parameters of their main species were compared in four geographical subareas (GSAs) established by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean in the western Mediterranean:northern Alboran Sea (GSA01) and Alboran Island (GSA02), Balearic Islands (GSA05) and northern Spain (GSA06), with the first two being considered jointly. Data were obtained from 199 hauls undertaken from May to June 2013 during the Spanish International Bottom Trawl Survey in the Mediterranean (MEDITS). Twenty-five different chondrichthyan species were caught in all GSAs: seven were common to all areas, five appeared only in GSA01, nine appeared only in GSA05 and one appeared only in GSA06. Analysis of community structure (clusters, multidimensional scaling, analysis of similitude) revealed two assemblages related to depth, with very similar bathymetric ranges in all GSAs, namely continental shelf (from 41 to 252m) and slope (from 284 to 813m). The highest diversity, biomass and abundance values on the shelf and slope assemblages were recorded in GSA05 and GSA01 respectively. These results highlight the effects of the distinct fishing and oceanographic parameters related to the GSAs. Generally, the biological parameters of the most important species did not show differences between GSAs, which could suggest the existence of a single population in the western Mediterranean.


2017 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 438-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.M. Toledo ◽  
H.O. Schwartz ◽  
H.A.Q. Nomura ◽  
A. Aguiar ◽  
R.A.M.V. Velota ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study aimed to evaluate the community composition and structure of the helminths found in 13 anuran species, and to evaluate whether this parasite community is determined by anuran characteristics. We found that the helminth fauna of the amphibians from five anuran families consisted of 13 taxa and that Cosmocercidae gen. sp. was the most prevalent taxon, followed by Oswaldocruzia subauricularis. Host body size was a determining factor of the composition and structure of the parasitic fauna. Helminth abundance and richness were positively correlated with host body size. The host Leptodactylus latrans had the highest helminth richness (n = 8). The frog Hypsiboas faber had the greatest helminth diversity (H′ = 0.711). The mean helminth species richness and diversity differed significantly between host species (P < 0.05). Taken together, our data indicate that, in sympatric species of amphibians, the morphological and behavioural characteristics of the hosts are important for structuring the helminth parasite communities.


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