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Effect of host size and temporal exposure on metacercarial infection levels in the intertidal cockle Cerastoderma edule

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2008

David W. Thieltges
David W. Thieltges*
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Wadden Sea Station Sylt, Hafenstrasse 43, 25992 List, Germany
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: David W. ThieltgesDepartment of Zoology University of OtagoPO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In a field survey and a field experiment the relative importance of host size and temporal exposure in determining metacercarial infection levels in an intertidal bivalve was investigated. While cockles (Cerastoderma edule) of different age (indicated by winter rings on shells) collected at the same site showed strong positive correlations between host size and infection levels over the total sample, correlations were weak or absent within the age groups. Mean infection levels in cockles strongly increased with age suggesting temporal exposure and not size to be the main determinant of infection levels in the cockles. This was supported by a field experiment in which small and large cockles were exposed for one or two months on a tidal flat. While infection levels significantly increased with temporal exposure, host size had no significant effect. This suggests that bivalve hosts on temperate tidal flats accumulate parasites during a distinctive infection window during summer more or less independent of their size. With every additional year of exposure, infection levels of the parasites increase. Hence, it is important to take host age into account when comparing individual infection levels within and among different host populations.

Keywords

trematodesbivalvestransmission
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 88 , Issue 3 , May 2008 , pp. 613 - 616
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2008

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