Influence of biotic and abiotic factors on the metazoan parasite communities of a native prey fish: study in 28 Andean Patagonian lakes

Abstract

Galaxias maculatus (small puyen) is a prey fish which plays a main role in lake food webs of Patagonia. Previous studies, at local scale, have shown that the richness and composition of parasitic metazoan component communities associated to G. maculatus in a group of small shallow lakes in the surroundings of the Nahuel Huapi Lake, are affected by the composition of the native fish assemblage in each lake. The aims of this work were: a) to characterize the helminth community of G. maculatus at regional scale, including data of 28 Andean lakes of the Neuquen and Rio Negro Provinces, and b) to identify biotic and abiotic factors of these lakes influencing the occurrence and prevalence of the different helminth species parasitizing this highly abundant and widely distributed prey fish in Patagonia. The analysis indicates that the parasite community of different populations of G. maculatus varies according to the basin, lake area, altitude and the fish assemblage of the lake.