Infection of Salmincola edwardsii (Copepoda: Lernaeopodidae) in an age‐structured population of Arctic charr—a long‐term study

• Published in: Journal of Fish Biology
• Main Authors: Amundsen, P.‐A., Kristoffersen, R., Knudsen, R., Klemetsen, A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1997
• Subjects: Aquatic Science; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Arctic charr; Arctic; Northern Norway; Salvelinus alpinus
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.1997.tb01542.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1095-8649.1997.tb01542.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1095-8649.1997.tb01542.x

The parasite‐host relationships between Salmincola edwardsii (Copepoda: Lernaeopodidae) and Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus were studied in lake Takvatn, northern Norway, over an 8‐year period. The infection levels were modest, with an overall prevalence of 16·1% and an abundance of 0·5 parasites fish −1 . Most of the infected fish (54·1%) had only one parasite attached, whilst only 4·3% had more than 10. In general, parasite infection increased with increasing age, and hence size of the fish. The increase was modest up to age 7, whereafter a steep increment in parasite burdens occurred. Within each age class there was little effect of either fish size, gender, maturation or choice of macrohabitat upon parasite abundance. There was also little year‐to‐year variation in infection of the different age classes, indicating a high degree of stability of the parasite‐host interactions in this system. The infection levels exhibited seasonal changes, being lowest in early summer and highest during winter. The infection rates seemed to be related to seasonal and ontogenetic habitat shifts of the charr.