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The Role Of Ontogenetic Habitat Shifts On The Parasite Communities Of Five South Florida Fishes, Brittany Nicole White

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Many reef fishes initially recruit into mangroves, and then migrate out to reef habitats as they grow and mature. Each ontogenetic habitat shift exposes migrants to previously unencountered parasite taxa, potentially increasing parasite species richness and driving changes in parasite community structure. However, studies on this topic rarely attempt to distinguish between the location effects of habitat shifts versus a simple increase in physical size. Therefore we contrasted parasite community richness and structure in Great Barracuda Sphyraena barracuda (N=84), Atlantic Needlefish Strongylura marina (N=49), Crevalle Jack Caranx hippos (N=59), White Mullet Mugil curema (N=90), and Yellow-fin Mojarra Gerres cinnerus (N=60) …