Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Berhampur University, Bhanja Bihar, Berhampur, Odisha, 760007, India.
Estuarine Biology Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Gopalpur-on-Sea, Odisha, 761002, India.
Parasitol Res. 2024 Apr 18;123(4):188. doi: 10.1007/s00436-024-08208-y.
Patterns in parasite diversity are shaped by their environmental and ecological settings, and to better understand their interactions with hosts and the corresponding biology, it is crucial to understand these context-dependent patterns. To achieve this, we use cymothoid isopods, an important group of fish parasites, to test a long-standing hypothesis about parasite diversity and prevalence pattern: whether semi-enclosed water bodies allow low diversity and high prevalence of parasitic isopods. Specifically, we compare these patterns between Chilika lagoon (Odisha, India), a semi-enclosed water body, and the adjoining Odisha coast (India). Our finding reveals that the semi-enclosed Chilika lagoon has a considerably lower diversity of parasitic isopods than its adjoining open sea along the Odisha coast. Additionally, the parasitic isopod infection levels in Chilika lagoon are noticeably higher, and isopod assemblage is less even than those in coastal waters along the Odisha coast. Our results support the hypothesised association between enclosed water bodies, parasite diversity, and host prevalence and contribute to an enhanced comprehension of the ecology of parasitic isopods in distinct marine environments.
寄生虫多样性的模式受其环境和生态背景的影响，为了更好地理解它们与宿主的相互作用以及相应的生物学特性，了解这些依赖于背景的模式至关重要。为了实现这一目标，我们使用重要的鱼类寄生虫——食木虱为例，来检验一个关于寄生虫多样性和流行模式的长期假设：半封闭水体是否允许寄生食木虱的低多样性和高流行率。具体来说，我们比较了印度奥里萨邦的半封闭奇利卡泻湖和毗邻的奥里萨邦海岸之间的这些模式。我们的发现表明，半封闭的奇利卡泻湖的寄生食木虱多样性明显低于其毗邻的奥里萨邦海岸的开阔海域。此外，奇利卡泻湖的寄生虫感染水平明显更高，食木虱组合也不如奥里萨邦海岸沿海水域均匀。我们的结果支持了关于封闭水体、寄生虫多样性和宿主流行率之间存在关联的假设，并有助于更好地理解寄生食木虱在不同海洋环境中的生态学。
