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Macroparasite Burden of Obligate and Facultative Symbionts in Symbiotic Communities of Scleractinian Corals
- Source :
- Biology Bulletin Reviews. 10:456-463
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Pleiades Publishing Ltd, 2020.
-
Abstract
- A variety of symbionts inhabit colonies of scleractinian corals, the main component of coral reef ecosystems. Obligate symbionts spend almost their whole lives (except the pelagic larvae stage) on or in the host, while facultative symbionts are less tightly associated with the host and easily leave them when food becomes scarce and competition and predation increase. The influence of parasites on the life traits of obligate and facultative symbionts has not yet been studied. The first step in this direction is the study of basic parameters of parasite infracommunities associated with coral symbionts. It was suggested that obligate symbionts that are tightly associated with their hosts and their symbiotic communities are more often infected. An alternative hypothesis suggests that facultative symbionts are more frequently infected because they easily change habitats and consume a broad food spectrum. For several years, we studied parasites of obligate and facultative symbionts (fish, decapods crustaceans, mollusks) associated with the corals Acropora and Pocillopora in the Nha Trang Bay (South China Sea). The highest abundance and diversity of macroparasites (Monogenea, Cestoda, Trematoda, Nematoda, Copepoda) were found in facultative symbionts of corals, fish-parabionts. Obligate fish-inbionts were infected much less often (Cestoda, Trematoda, Nematoda). Obligate symbionts predominated in the invertebrate symbionts, which were also weakly infected. The low abundance and diversity of parasites in obligate symbionts suggest that there should be significant investments in antiparasitic defense, which, together with efficient antipredation defense, minimize the mortality of obligate symbionts. Their fecundity and population number are usually low. Facultative symbionts presumably suffer higher mortality than obligate symbionts, but a more intensive use of resources and higher population numbers may compensate for this. A significant increase in the infection rate with an increase in host body size is typical of facultative symbionts, which are less protected than obligate symbionts. The latter showed low infection levels in all size groups. The results suggest that the role of parasites in shaping the life strategies of symbionts is no less important than the role of predators.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
animal structures
Population
Zoology
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
03 medical and health sciences
Acropora
education
Facultative
education.field_of_study
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
Obligate
fungi
food and beverages
General Medicine
Coral reef
biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition
biology.organism_classification
030104 developmental biology
bacteria
Macroparasite
Trematoda
Pocillopora
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20790872 and 20790864
- Volume :
- 10
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Biology Bulletin Reviews
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........d2646330d8e3c09514e9d0b75f3a7814