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Interspecific and intraspecific interactions in the monogenean communities of fish: a question of study scale?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2007

A. KARVONEN ,
A. M. BAGGE  and
E. T. VALTONEN
A. KARVONEN*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014University of Jyväskylä, Finland
A. M. BAGGE
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014University of Jyväskylä, Finland
E. T. VALTONEN
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014University of Jyväskylä, Finland
*
*Corresponding author. Tel: +358 14 2602332. Fax: +358 14 2602321. E-mail: anssi.karvonen@bytl.jyu.fi
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Summary

Monogenean communities of fish have generally been considered non-interactive as negative interspecific interactions have rarely been reported. Most of the earlier studies on monogenean communities, however, have been conducted not only in systems with relatively low parasite abundances but, more importantly, at study scales where microhabitat-level interactions between the parasites are easily overlooked. We examined the communities of 3 abundant Dactylogyrus (Monogenea) species on the gills of crucian carp (Carassius carassius) by analysing the interactions at the scale of individual gill filaments, where interactions between the species, if any, should most likely take place. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find evidence for competitive exclusion between the species, which suggests that monogenean communities are non-interactive even in high parasite abundances. At the species level, individual parasites were highly aggregated within the filaments, essentially showing a strong tendency to occur at either end of a filament. This, together with the result of differences in the distribution of juvenile parasites within the filaments compared to adults, suggests that these parasites are able to actively seek out their conspecifics in small-scale microhabitats during maturation, which again could enhance their mate-finding.

Keywords

parasite communitycompetitionnichemicrohabitataggregationMonogeneaCarassius carassius
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 134 , Issue 9 , August 2007 , pp. 1237 - 1242
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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