Environmental parasitology: stressor effects on aquatic parasites.

Recent findings indicate a dramatic decline of parasites with complex life cycles in the past decades. Anthropogenic stressors such as global warming, habitat alteration, and pollution could be major drivers of this species loss or shifting host–parasite dynamics. Parasites are sensitive indicators of stressor effects. Anthropogenic stressors are causing fundamental changes in aquatic habitats and to the organisms inhabiting these ecosystems. Yet, we are still far from understanding the diverse responses of parasites and their hosts to these environmental stressors and predicting how these stressors will affect host–parasite communities. Here, we provide an overview of the impacts of major stressors affecting aquatic ecosystems in the Anthropocene (habitat alteration, global warming, and pollution) and highlight their consequences for aquatic parasites at multiple levels of organisation, from the individual to the community level. We provide directions and ideas for future research to better understand responses to stressors in aquatic host–parasite systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]