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Mesopredatory fishes from the subtropical upwelling region off NW-Africa characterised by their parasite fauna

Eastern boundary upwelling provides the conditions for high marine productivity in the Canary Current System off NW-Africa. Despite its considerable importance to fisheries, knowledge on this marine ecosystem is only limited. Here, parasites were used as indicators to gain insight into the host ecol...

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Autores principales: Alt, Katharina G., Kuhn, Thomas, Münster, Julian, Klapper, Regina, Kochmann, Judith, Klimpel, Sven
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6087424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30123696
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5339
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author Alt, Katharina G.
Kuhn, Thomas
Münster, Julian
Klapper, Regina
Kochmann, Judith
Klimpel, Sven
author_facet Alt, Katharina G.
Kuhn, Thomas
Münster, Julian
Klapper, Regina
Kochmann, Judith
Klimpel, Sven
author_sort Alt, Katharina G.
collection PubMed
description Eastern boundary upwelling provides the conditions for high marine productivity in the Canary Current System off NW-Africa. Despite its considerable importance to fisheries, knowledge on this marine ecosystem is only limited. Here, parasites were used as indicators to gain insight into the host ecology and food web of two pelagic fish species, the commercially important species Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758, and Nealotus tripes Johnson, 1865. Fish specimens of T. lepturus (n = 104) and N. tripes (n = 91), sampled from the Canary Current System off the Senegalese coast and Cape Verde Islands, were examined, collecting data on their biometrics, diet and parasitisation. In this study, the first parasitological data on N. tripes are presented. T. lepturus mainly preyed on small pelagic Crustacea and the diet of N. tripes was dominated by small mesopelagic Teleostei. Both host species were infested by mostly generalist parasites. The parasite fauna of T. lepturus consisted of at least nine different species belonging to six taxonomic groups, with a less diverse fauna of ectoparasites and cestodes in comparison to studies in other coastal ecosystems (Brazil Current and Kuriosho Current). The zoonotic nematode Anisakis pegreffii occurred in 23% of the samples and could pose a risk regarding food safety. The parasite fauna of N. tripes was composed of at least thirteen species from seven different taxonomic groups. Its most common parasites were digenean ovigerous metacercariae, larval cestodes and a monogenean species (Diclidophoridae). The observed patterns of parasitisation in both host species indicate their trophic relationships and are typical for mesopredators from the subtropical epi- and mesopelagic. The parasite fauna, containing few dominant species with a high abundance, represents the typical species composition of an eastern boundary upwelling ecosystem.
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spelling pubmed-60874242018-08-17 Mesopredatory fishes from the subtropical upwelling region off NW-Africa characterised by their parasite fauna Alt, Katharina G. Kuhn, Thomas Münster, Julian Klapper, Regina Kochmann, Judith Klimpel, Sven PeerJ Ecology Eastern boundary upwelling provides the conditions for high marine productivity in the Canary Current System off NW-Africa. Despite its considerable importance to fisheries, knowledge on this marine ecosystem is only limited. Here, parasites were used as indicators to gain insight into the host ecology and food web of two pelagic fish species, the commercially important species Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758, and Nealotus tripes Johnson, 1865. Fish specimens of T. lepturus (n = 104) and N. tripes (n = 91), sampled from the Canary Current System off the Senegalese coast and Cape Verde Islands, were examined, collecting data on their biometrics, diet and parasitisation. In this study, the first parasitological data on N. tripes are presented. T. lepturus mainly preyed on small pelagic Crustacea and the diet of N. tripes was dominated by small mesopelagic Teleostei. Both host species were infested by mostly generalist parasites. The parasite fauna of T. lepturus consisted of at least nine different species belonging to six taxonomic groups, with a less diverse fauna of ectoparasites and cestodes in comparison to studies in other coastal ecosystems (Brazil Current and Kuriosho Current). The zoonotic nematode Anisakis pegreffii occurred in 23% of the samples and could pose a risk regarding food safety. The parasite fauna of N. tripes was composed of at least thirteen species from seven different taxonomic groups. Its most common parasites were digenean ovigerous metacercariae, larval cestodes and a monogenean species (Diclidophoridae). The observed patterns of parasitisation in both host species indicate their trophic relationships and are typical for mesopredators from the subtropical epi- and mesopelagic. The parasite fauna, containing few dominant species with a high abundance, represents the typical species composition of an eastern boundary upwelling ecosystem. PeerJ Inc. 2018-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6087424/ /pubmed/30123696 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5339 Text en ©2018 Alt et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Alt, Katharina G.
Kuhn, Thomas
Münster, Julian
Klapper, Regina
Kochmann, Judith
Klimpel, Sven
Mesopredatory fishes from the subtropical upwelling region off NW-Africa characterised by their parasite fauna
title Mesopredatory fishes from the subtropical upwelling region off NW-Africa characterised by their parasite fauna
title_full Mesopredatory fishes from the subtropical upwelling region off NW-Africa characterised by their parasite fauna
title_fullStr Mesopredatory fishes from the subtropical upwelling region off NW-Africa characterised by their parasite fauna
title_full_unstemmed Mesopredatory fishes from the subtropical upwelling region off NW-Africa characterised by their parasite fauna
title_short Mesopredatory fishes from the subtropical upwelling region off NW-Africa characterised by their parasite fauna
title_sort mesopredatory fishes from the subtropical upwelling region off nw-africa characterised by their parasite fauna
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6087424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30123696
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5339
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