Long-term host-parasite dynamics in Lake Müggelsee
[Alena Gsell, Deniz Özkundakci, Sabine Hilt, Justyna Wolinska, Ellen van Donk, Rita Adrian]
Parasitism is the most common consumer lifestyle as almost all free-living species are affected by at least one parasite species. Nevertheless, parasites are often omitted in food web research, despite several recent studies highlighting the contribution of parasites to species diversity, biomass and food-web complexity and their effect on carbon and nutrient cycles in aquatic ecosystems. In particular, quantitative studies of aquatic parasites and their food web effects remain rare, hampering the development of predictive models for disease impact. Here, we reassessed 12 years of weekly pelagic Lake Müggelsee monitoring samples for chytrid infections of phytoplankton. We show long-term and seasonal chytrid infection dynamics and combine the infection time series with the Müggelsee long-term database to assess the position of chytrid parasites in the interaction network of the pelagic plankton community.
Host: Rita Adrian