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Large-Scale Patterns In Trematode Richness And Infection Levels In Marine Crustacean Hosts, David W. Thieltges, Brian L. Fredensborg, Anja Studer, Robert Poulin

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Little is known about the patterns of variation in parasitism in marine hosts. Trematodes, the dominant parasites in intertidal systems, are transmitted from their first intermediate hosts (snails) to a range of second intermediate hosts, including crustaceans. Using published studies of trematode infections in crustacean hosts, we investigated general patterns of variation in trematode species richness and infection levels (i.e. percentage of hosts infected and mean number of individual parasites per host). Since the production and release of infective stages in snails is strongly temperature dependent, we also investigated a potential decrease in trematode infection levels with increasing latitude (as …