Coastal ecosystems on a tipping point: Global warming and parasitism combine to alter community structure and function

Global Change Biology
K N MouritsenBrian L Fredensborg

Abstract

Mounting evidence suggests that the transmission of certain parasites is facilitated by increasing temperatures, causing their host population to decline. However, no study has yet addressed how temperature and parasitism may combine to shape the functional structure of a whole host community in the face of global warming. Here, we apply an outdoor mesocosm approach supported by field surveys to elucidate this question in a diverse intertidal community of amphipods infected by the pathogenic microphallid trematode, Maritrema novaezealandensis. Under present temperature (17°C) and level of parasitism, the parasite had little impact on the host community. However, elevating the temperature to 21°C in the presence of parasites induced massive structural changes: amphipod abundances decreased species-specifically, affecting epibenthic species but leaving infaunal species largely untouched. In effect, species diversity dropped significantly. In contrast, four degree higher temperatures in the absence of parasitism had limited influence on the amphipod community. Further elevating temperatures (19-25°C) and parasitism, simulating a prolonged heat-wave scenario, resulted in an almost complete parasite-induced extermination of the amph...Continue Reading

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