Skip to main content

Parasites of non-native freshwater fishes introduced into england and wales suggest enemy release and parasite acquisition.

Sheath, D.J., Williams, C.F., Reading, A.J. and Britton, J.R., 2015. Parasites of non-native freshwater fishes introduced into england and wales suggest enemy release and parasite acquisition. Biological Invasions, 17 (8), 2235 - 2246 .

Full text available as:

[img]
Preview
PDF (OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE)
BIOL INV.10.1007_s10530-015-0857-8.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.

538kB

DOI: 10.1007/s10530-015-0857-8

Abstract

When non-native species are introduced into a new range, their parasites can also be introduced, with these potentially spilling-over into native hosts. However, in general, evidence suggests that a high proportion of their native parasites are lost during introduction and infections by some new parasites from the native range might occur, potentially resulting in parasite spill-back to native species. These processes were investigated here using parasite surveys and literature review on seven non-native freshwater fishes introduced into England and Wales. Comparison of the mean numbers of parasite species and genera per population for each fish species England andWaleswith their native ranges revealed\9 % of the native parasite fauna were present in their populations in England and Wales. There was no evidence suggesting these introduced parasites had spilled over into sympatric native fishes. The non-native fishes did acquire parasites following their introduction, providing potential for parasite spill-back to sympatric fishes, and resulted in non-significant differences in overall mean numbers of parasites per populations between the two ranges. Through this acquisition, the non-native fishes also had mean numbers of parasite species and genera per population that were not significantly different to sympatric native fishes. Thus, the non-native fishes in England and Wales showed evidence of enemy release, acquired new parasites following introduction providing potential for spill-back, but showed no evidence of parasite spill-over.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:1387-3547
Uncontrolled Keywords:Freshwater ecosystems ; Invasive species ; Non-native fish ; Pathogen
Group:Faculty of Science & Technology
ID Code:22885
Deposited By: Symplectic RT2
Deposited On:10 Nov 2015 15:18
Last Modified:14 Mar 2022 13:54

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

More statistics for this item...
Repository Staff Only -