Impact of mangrove fisheries on fish-parasite communities: a first species survey in West Africa

Abstract

Mangrove forests provide a series of important ecosystem services to humans, including protection from flooding and erosion, provision of firewood, and carbon storage. Fisheries production is perhaps one of the most frequently cited resources. However, fisheries also put substantial pressure on aquatic communities, including fishes and their metazoan parasites. In the present study, we aim to provide the first quantitative survey of metazoan parasite communities in mangrove forests. To test the effect of fisheries on these communities,vwe sampled the gills (n = 105) and guts (n = 72) of 22 different fish species in the Saloum Delta in Senegal. This area was selected for its inclusion of a marine protected area (MPA), whose effects on fish assemblages and trophic dynamics have been extensively studied in the past both inside and outside the MPA. We mainly targeted seven omnivorous and arthropodivorous host species. Overall, 1,100 parasite specimens were collected, including monopisthocotylans, acanthocephalans, nematodes, copepods, and cestodes—several of which may represent new species. The samples were dominated by monopisthocotylans and acanthocephalans. Due to the currently limited sample sizes, no differences in prevalence, infection intensity, or species diversity could be detected. However, this survey provides a first baseline for the parasite biodiversity of West African mangrove fishes and will serve as a reference library for morphological and molecular data.