Abstract
In the face of ongoing habitat degradation and the biodiversity crisis, natural reserves are important refuges for wildlife. Since most free-living organisms serve as hosts to parasites, the diverse communities in protected areas can be expected to provide suitable habitats for a species-rich parasite fauna. However, to date, assessments of parasite diversity in protected nature reserves are rare. To expand our knowledge of parasite communities in natural habitats, we examined 1994 molluscs belonging to 15 species for trematode infections in a central European natural reserve. The parasitological examination revealed an overall prevalence of 17.3% and a total species richness of 40 trematode species. However, the parasite diversity and prevalence did not differ markedly from trematode communities in non-protected environments, which might be partly explained by a dilution effect caused by a high number of non-host organisms in our study system. The proportion of complex and long life cycles of parasites in the present study is high, indicating complex biotic interactions. We conclude that life cycle complexity, in addition to parasite diversity and trematode species richness, can provide valuable information on ecosystem health and should therefore be considered in future studies.
Highlights
With about 25,000 described species and a cosmopolitan distribution, digenean trematodes represent one of the most diverse and widespread groups of metazoan parasites on the planet[38]
Parasitological examination of molluscs revealed an overall prevalence of 17.3% and a total species richness of 40 digenean trematode species
While we can confirm our hypothesis that the studied freshwater nature reserve supports diverse and species-rich trematode communities, no significant differences in parasite life cycle complexity could be shown in comparison to other habitats, and the patchy data basis on host specificity of digenean trematodes hinders accurate conclusions on the role of rare host taxa in our study system
Summary
With about 25,000 described species and a cosmopolitan distribution, digenean trematodes represent one of the most diverse and widespread groups of metazoan parasites on the planet[38]. Knowledge of the occurrence of specific trematodes in a habitat can provide valuable information on the presence of the hosts required by the parasite (see e.g.39), meaning that trophically transmitted parasites in particular can act as cross-taxon surrogates for the presence of their h osts[40]. In contrast to well-studied “man made” and anthropogenically influenced freshwater systems (e.g.51–54), our knowledge of these parasites in natural systems is often still limited This is especially true for protected areas, since such habitats are increasingly rare and usually not accessible. Due to restrictions and protection measures, assessments of parasite biodiversity in such areas encounter various obstacles and are inevitably associated with high administrative burdens This shortcoming remains a fundamental obstacle, as the knowledge on trematode diversity in protected areas might represent the best approximation of a natural status of the parasites in these regions, which can be used as a basis to assess changes in trematode community composition in heavily modified ecosystems. The aim of the present study is to assess the diversity of trematodes in a protected European freshwater natural reserve and to relate these data to other well-studied freshwater systems
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