High mortality in a copepod population caused by a parasitic dinoflagellate

Abstract

Infection of copepods by parasitic dinoflagellates has been known for many years, but the ecological consequences of this parasitism have been largely neglected. We estimated mortality rates in the copepodParacalanus indicus Wolfenden due to parasitism by the dinoflagellateAtelodinium sp. by applying laboratory mortality rates to a field population of infected copepods in Port Phillip Bay, Australia, sampled in 1982–1985. Adult female copepods were most often infected, with an incidence of 0 to 28.5% (median 6.2%). Stage V female copepodites were less often infected, and males were never infected. The median mortality rate in females was about 7% d−1, or about one-third of total mortality, and the maximum was 41% d−1. The frequent occurrence of dinoflagellate parasitoids in some species of copepod implies an important, species-specific mechanism for the regulation of populations.