High parasite diversity in the amphipod Gammarus lacustris in a subarctic lake ...

• Main Authors: Shaw, Jenny, Henriksen, Eirik, Knudsen, Rune, Kuhn, Jesper, Kuris, Armand, Lafferty, Kevin, Siwertsson, Anna, Soldánová, Miroslava, Amundsen, Per-Arne
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2020
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Knudsen; Norway; Northern Norway; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25349/d9b89t; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.25349/D9B89T

Amphipods are often key species in aquatic food webs due to their functional roles in the ecosystem and as intermediate hosts for trophically transmitted parasites. Amphipods can also host many parasite species, yet few studies address the entire parasite community of a gammarid population, precluding a more dynamic understanding of the food web. We set out to identify and quantify the parasite community of Gammarus lacustris to understand the contributions of the amphipod and its parasites to the Takvatn food web. We identified seven parasite taxa: a direct life cycle gregarine, Rotundula sp., and larval stages of two digenean trematode genera, two cestodes, one nematode, and one acanthocephalan. The larval parasites use either birds or fishes as final hosts. Bird parasites predominated, with trematode Plagiorchis sp. having the highest prevalence (69%) and mean abundance (2.7). Fish parasites were also common, including trematodes Crepidostomum spp., nematode Cystidicola farionis, and cestode ... : Study area and collection Takvatn (69o07’N, 19o05’E) is a subarctic, oligotrophic, and dimictic lake in northern Norway that has been the focus of intensive ecological and food web studies for more than 30 years (details in Amundsen et al., 2009, 2013, 2019). The lake is situated 214 m above sea level with a surface area of 15 km2 and a maximum depth of ca 80 m. There is little macrovegetation in the lake, but the littoral zone (3-10 m depth) has dense beds of the grass-like macroalgae Nitella sp., which contain the highest abundances of G. lacustris (Frainer et al., 2016). We sampled gammarids in the littoral zone (0-8 m depth) by dragging a benthic sled along Nitella sp. beds as described in Knudsen et al. (2001). Gammarids were collected from each haul, placed in buckets with lake water and vegetation, and brought back to the lab for dissection within 48 hours. Individuals not dissected within 24 hours were kept cool overnight in the refrigerator or outdoors (at approx. 4-8 oC). To obtain a broader range ...