Prevalence of key observed species and pathological conditions (lesions).

Data obtained at three sites in Ireland, and one site in France (Arcachon), between April 2018 and October 2019. Additionally, a Sphenophyra-like ciliate was detected in one individual in Dundalk and fungus was detected in another individual in Dundalk. (DOCX)</p

Violin plots (visualising the kernel probability density), demonstrating the relationship between the presence of pathogens and seawater temperature, at each of the sites.

Mean ± 1 SD of temperature is represented by the vertical line and point within the violin plots. (DOCX)</p

Results of a Dunn test comparing seawater temperature by bed.

(DOCX)</p

Heat map demonstrating a species co-occurrence matrix, showing relationships between parasite species and cockle pathologies (underlined) as determined by a probabilistic co-occurrence model from the “cooccur” package in R.

Species names indicate the pairwise comparisons made.</p

Description of the four sites and the beds examined within.

Typical activities occurring in the general area of the sites are described.</p