First account on the seasonal occurrence of parasitic forms on the zooplankton of Southampton Water

Abstract

In the past half century, a number of studies have described the general composition of the mesozooplankton of Southampton Water, but little attention has been paid to the occurrence of parasitic and commensal species. In order to fill this gap, the occurrence and distribution of parasitic/commensal species was investigated in three fixed stations along the estuary in 2001/2002. A total of 16 parasitic taxa were identified, including 11 new records for the zooplankton of Southampton Water. The most frequent and abundant parasitic taxa observed in the estuary were Peltogaster paguri, Sacculina carcini, Siphonostomatoida copepodites and cryptonistic forms of isopods. This study is the first report on ‘free-forms’ of parasitic/commensal species within the mesozooplankton of Southampton Water being also a reasonable indicator of the presence of the infected/associate host in the estuary or surrounding areas.