Trophic interactions between native and alien palaemonid prawns and an alien gammarid in a brackish water ecosystem

Macroalgae are an important habitat for small mobile invertebrates such as gammarid amphipods and palaemonid prawns. Gammarid amphipods are important grazers of micro- and macroalgae whereas palaemonid prawns are feeding on macroalgae and small aquatic invertebrates including gammarids. Recently the invasive palaemonid prawn Palaemon elegans established in the Baltic Sea. As P. elegans occurs within the same habitats as the native Palaemon adspersus, it is expected that this invasion modifies the existing trophic interactions. To address this question, we experimentally investigated the feeding of the native P. adspersus and the invasive P. elegans on the benthic macroalga Cladophora glomerata and on the invasive gammarid amphipod Gammarus tigrinus. In the course of the experiment neither G. tigrinus nor Palaemon spp. had effects on filamentous macroalgae. The presence of prawns drastically increased the mortality of amphipods with no difference in the feeding efficiency between the two prawn species. To conclude, the alien prawn does not add an extra function to the trophic system of the coastal ecosystem of the Baltic Sea. Nevertheless, due to its progressively increasing densities and wide habitat range, P. elegans is expected to exert stronger predation pressure on gammarid amphipods as compared to P. adspersus alone

Distribution and prevalence of the myxozoan parasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae in northernmost Europe: analysis of three salmonid species

Global climate change is altering the abundance and spread of many aquatic parasites and pathogens. Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) of salmonids caused by the myxozoan Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae is one such emerging disorder, and its impact is expected to increase with rising water temperature. Yet, the distribution and prevalence of T. bryosalmonae in Northern Europe remain poorly characterized. Here, we studied 43 locations in 27 rivers in northernmost Norway and Finland to describe T. bryosalmonae infection frequency and patterns in 1389 juvenile salmonids. T. bryosalmonae was discovered in 12 out of 27 rivers (44%) and prevalence ranged from 4.2 to 55.5% in Atlantic salmon and from 5.8 to 75% in brown trout among infected rivers. In sympatric populations, brown trout was more frequently infected with T. bryosalmonae than was salmon. Age-specific parasite prevalence patterns revealed that in contrast to lower latitudes, the infection of juvenile fish predominantly occurs during the second summer or later. Temperature monitoring over 2 yr indicated that the mean water temperature in June was 2.1 to 3.2 degrees C higher in rivers containing T. bryosalmonae compared to parasite-free rivers, confirming the important role of temperature in parasite occurrence. Temporal comparison in T. bryosalmonae prevalence over a 10 yr period in 11 rivers did not reveal any signs of contemporary parasite spread to previously uninfected rivers. However, the wide distribution of T. bryosalmonae in rivers flowing to the Barents Sea indicates that climate change and heat waves may cause new disease outbreaks in northern regions

Distribution and prevalence of the myxozoan parasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae in northernmost Europe: analysis of three salmonid species

Global climate change is altering the abundance and spread of many aquatic parasites and pathogens. Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) of salmonids caused by the myxozoan Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae is one such emerging disorder, and its impact is expected to increase with rising water temperature. Yet, the distribution and prevalence of T. bryosalmonae in Northern Europe remain poorly characterized. Here, we studied 43 locations in 27 rivers in northernmost Norway and Finland to describe T. bryosalmonae infection frequency and patterns in 1389 juvenile salmonids. T. bryosalmonae was discovered in 12 out of 27 rivers (44{\%}) and prevalence ranged from 4.2 to 55.5{\%} in Atlantic salmon and from 5.8 to 75{\%} in brown trout among infected rivers. In sympatric populations, brown trout was more frequently infected with T. bryosalmonae than was salmon. Age-specific parasite prevalence patterns revealed that in contrast to lower latitudes, the infection of juvenile fish predominantly occurs during the second summer or later. Temperature monitoring over 2 yr indicated that the mean water temperature in June was 2.1 to 3.2{\textdegree}C higher in rivers containing T. bryosalmonae compared to parasite-free rivers, confirming the important role of temperature in parasite occurrence. Temporal comparison in T. bryosalmonae prevalence over a 10 yr period in 11 rivers did not reveal any signs of contemporary parasite spread to previously uninfected rivers. However, the wide distribution of T. bryosalmonae in rivers flowing to the Barents Sea indicates that climate change and heat waves may cause new disease outbreaks in northern regions.</p

Influence of the local abiotic environment, weather and regional nutrient loading on macrobenthic invertebrate feeding groups in a shallow brackish water ecosystem

This study evaluated the extent to which depth, sediment type, exposure to waves and coastal slope inclination modulate the relationships between regional nutrient loading, weather patterns and the species composition and dominance structure of macrobenthic invertebrate feeding groups in a brackish water ecosystem of the Baltic Sea. Irrespective of feeding function, the species composition and dominance structure of benthic invertebrate communities were determined by local abiotic variables such as exposure, depth and sediment type. Regional weather variables (average southerly winds, salinity, water temperature, ice conditions) either separately or interactively contributed to the variability of benthic invertebrates. Nutrient loading had significant effects on benthic invertebrates only in interactions with local abiotic or regional weather variables. Herbivores, deposit feeders and suspension feeders exhibited a stronger response to the studied environmental variables than carnivores. All this suggests that (1) the dynamic coastal habitats studied in this work are not very sensitive to shifts in nutrient loading and (2) local abiotic conditions and weather patterns largely define the observed biotic patterns. We believe that the benthic invertebrate time series will only be a better reflection of the nutrient loading signal if more years covering extreme events are included

Distribution and prevalence of the myxozoan parasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae in northernmost Europe: analysis of three salmonid species

Global climate change is altering the abundance and spread of many aquatic parasites and pathogens. Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) of salmonids caused by the myxozoan Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae is one such emerging disorder, and its impact is expected to increase with rising water temperature. Yet, the distribution and prevalence of T. bryosalmonae in Northern Europe remain poorly characterized. Here, we studied 43 locations in 27 rivers in northernmost Norway and Finland to describe T. bryosalmonae infection frequency and patterns in 1389 juvenile salmonids. T. bryosalmonae was discovered in 12 out of 27 rivers (44%) and prevalence ranged from 4.2 to 55.5% in Atlantic salmon and from 5.8 to 75% in brown trout among infected rivers. In sympatric populations, brown trout was more frequently infected with T. bryosalmonae than was salmon. Age-specific parasite prevalence patterns revealed that in contrast to lower latitudes, the infection of juvenile fish predominantly occurs during the second summer or later. Temperature monitoring over 2 yr indicated that the mean water temperature in June was 2.1 to 3.2°C higher in rivers containing T. bryosalmonae compared to parasite-free rivers, confirming the important role of temperature in parasite occurrence. Temporal comparison in T. bryosalmonae prevalence over a 10 yr period in 11 rivers did not reveal any signs of contemporary parasite spread to previously uninfected rivers. However, the wide distribution of T. bryosalmonae in rivers flowing to the Barents Sea indicates that climate change and heat waves may cause new disease outbreaks in northern regions