Introduced marine ecosystem engineer indirectly affects parasitism in native mussel hosts
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Introduced marine ecosystem engineer indirectly affects parasitism in native mussel hosts M. Anouk Goedknegt . Christian Buschbaum K. Mathias Wegner . David W. Thieltges
. Jaap van der Meer
.
Received: 29 July 2019 / Accepted: 20 July 2020 Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The alteration of habitat structure by introduced ecosystem engineers imposes direct impacts on native biota but can also exert traitmediated indirect effects. In this study, we show that the habitat structure provided by invasive Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) can also indirectly affect parasitism in native blue mussels (Mytilus edulis). We conducted a 3-month field experiment, in which uninfected mussels were positioned at the bottom and top of two intertidal oyster reefs in the Wadden Sea. On one reef, we detected a significantly higher prevalence of parasitic copepods (Mytilicola spp.) in mussels positioned on top of oysters than in mussels at the bottom, but no difference in infection intensity. For trematodes (Renicola roscovita), a different pattern was observed, with higher prevalence (one reef) and
significantly higher infection intensities (both reefs) in mussels positioned at the bottom of the oyster reef. We suggest that the contrasting pattern results from differences in parasite life cycles. Mytilicola spp. larvae spend 2–3 weeks in the water column before infecting their hosts and, therefore, mussels positioned at the top are exposed to higher numbers of planktonic larvae than mussels at the bottom. In contrast, infective trematode larvae spend less than 12 h in the water column and primarily infect mussels during low tide, which may explain higher prevalence and intensity of R. roscovita in mussels near the bottom of the oyster reef. Our results demonstrate that indirect effects leading to alterations of parasite-host interactions may be a more common but hitherto rarely considered impact of biological invasions.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02318-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Keywords Trait-mediated indirect effects Invasive species Ecosystem engineer Parasite-host interaction Renicola roscovita Mytilicola Crassostrea gigas Mytilus edulis
M. A. Goedknegt (&) J. van der Meer D. W. Thieltges Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] C. Buschbaum K. M. Wegner Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Wadden Sea Station Sylt, Alfred Wegener Institute, Hafenstrasse 43, 25992 List, Sylt, Germany
Introduction Introduced species are considered as one of the greatest threats to ecosystem biodiversity and ecological communities worldwide (Elton 1958; Vitousek et al. 1996; Mack et al. 2000). In particular, invasive
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M. A. Goedknegt et al.
ecosystem eng
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