Long-term ecological research in freshwaters enabled by regional biodiversity collections, stable isotope analysis, and environmental informatics.

Biodiversity collections are experiencing a renaissance fueled by the intersection of informatics, emerging technologies, and the extended use and interpretation of specimens and archived databases. In this article, we explore the potential for transformative research in ecology integrating biodiversity collections, stable isotope analysis (SIA), and environmental informatics. Like genomic DNA, SIA provides a common currency interpreted in the context of biogeochemical principles.

A reconstruction of parasite burden reveals one century of climate-associated parasite decline.

Long-term data allow ecologists to assess trajectories of population abundance. Without this context, it is impossible to know whether a taxon is thriving or declining to extinction. For parasites of wildlife, there are few long-term data-a gap that creates an impediment to managing parasite biodiversity and infectious threats in a changing world.

Parasite communities in English Sole () have changed in composition but not richness in the Salish Sea, Washington, USA since 1930.

Earth is rapidly losing free-living species. Is the same true for parasitic species? To reveal temporal trends in biodiversity, historical data are needed, but often such data do not exist for parasites. Here, parasite communities of the past were reconstructed by identifying parasites in fluid-preserved specimens held in natural history collections.

STABLE ISOTOPE SIGNATURES OF AN ACANTHOCEPHALAN AND TREMATODE FROM THE HERBIVOROUS MARINE FISH KYPHOSUS BIGIBBUS (PERCIFORMES: KYPHOSIDAE).

Stable isotope analyses of carbon and nitrogen (δ13C and δ15N) are useful for elucidating consumer relationships of free-living organisms, as carbon isotopes indicate dietary carbon sources and incremental increases in nitrogen isotopic enrichment are correlated with increases in trophic position. However, host-parasite relationships are more difficult to interpret using isotopes, as data from different host-parasite systems rarely show any consistent pattern. This inconsistency of pattern reflects the complexity of host-parasite relationships, but also the scarcity of data from a diverse assemblage of host-parasite systems.

Fluid-preserved fishes are one solution for assessing historical change in fish trophic level.

There are few resources available for assessing historical change in fish trophic dynamics, but specimens held in natural history collections could serve as this resource. In contemporary trophic ecology studies, trophic and source information can be obtained from compound-specific stable isotope analysis of amino acids of nitrogen (CSIA-AA-N).We subjected whole and to formalin fixation and 70% ethanol preservation.

A new genus and species of fish parasitic cymothoid (Crustacea, Isopoda) from the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa, with a key to the externally attaching genera of Cymothoidae.

. is described from Sodwana Bay, north-eastern South Africa. The monotypic genus is characterised by the broadly truncate anterior margin of the head with a ventral rostrum, coxae 2-5 being ventral in position not forming part of the body outline and not or barely visible in dorsal view, and the posterolateral margins of pereonites 6 and 7 are posteriorly produced and broadly rounded.

Hooked on you: shape of attachment structures in cymothoid isopods reflects parasitic strategy.

Background: Parasite attachment structures are critical traits that influence effective host exploitation and survival. Morphology of attachment structures can reinforce host specificity and niche specialisation, or even enable host switching. Therefore, it is important to understand the determinants of variation in attachment structures.

Redescription and molecular characterisation of the fish ectoparasite Anilocra capensis Leach, 1818 (Isopoda: Cymothoidae), with description of six new species of Anilocra Leach, 1818 from Africa.

Background: Anilocra capensis Leach, 1818 is the only named species of Anilocra Leach, 1818 from South Africa. Anilocra is a large genus (> 40 species) with high levels of diversity reported from the Caribbean and Indo-West Pacific. Considering it is highly unlikely that all records of Anilocra from South Africa can be of a single species, the aim of this study was to better understand the diversity of Anilocra from this region and continent.

Understanding growth relationships of African cymothoid fish parasitic isopods using specimens from museum and field collections.

Cymothoid isopods are a diverse group of ectoparasites of fish species, and are particularly conspicuous as they are large and attach to the body surface, mouth, and gill chamber of fish hosts. These parasites transition from juvenile to male to female, and how their size changes with ontogeny and correlates with host size is not well understood. To better understand these relationships, data from field and museum collected samples of South Africa were combined to test for the associations between host and parasite length for three mouth and one gill chamber-infesting genera (, , , and respectively).

Apparent kleptoparasitism in fish-parasitic gnathiid isopods.

Gnathiid isopods are common external parasites/micropredators that feed on the blood of marine fishes. During the course of processing samples of gnathiid isopods collected from light traps in the central Philippines, we observed a gnathiid attached to and apparently feeding from the abdomen of another gnathiid. Because the abdomens of both gnathiids were enlarged, it was unclear whether one actually fed on the blood meal of the other.

Molecular assessment of three species of (Isopoda, Cymothoidae) ectoparasites from Caribbean coral reef fishes, with the description of sp. n.

A morphological review and molecular characterization of Bunkley Williams & Williams, 1981, were completed using specimens collected from Desmarest, 1823 (French grunt) and Linnaeus, 1758 (red hind). Molecular and morphological data suggest that the isopods parasitizing and are different species. The specimens collected from are recognized as a new species, Differences between and include but are not limited to the pleonites 1-3 of .

Drought-associated absence of alien invasive anchorworm, (Copepoda: Lernaeidae), is related to changes in fish health.

Recently, Mozambique tilapia ( Peters, 1852) were listed on the IUCN Red List as near-threatened as their populations are at risk due to hybridization. Another factor that potentially contributes to their population decline is that they are regularly infected by the invasive parasitic copepod anchorworm, Linnaeus, 1758. Considering anchorworm-infected Mozambique tilapia are common, understanding their condition with respect to infection is difficult as uninfected fish from the same localities have been unavailable for comparison.