Authors

N Smitt³; T Miller¹; R Adlard²;  ¹ Fish Health Laboratory, Dept. of Fisheries Western Australia;  ² Natural Environments Program, Queensland Museum;  ³ Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University

Discussion

Parasites are extraordinarily diverse in aquatic ecosystems, where parasitism likely first arose. Evidence for such an ancient association is increasingly recognised in fossil records. However, many of these ancient associations are now changing in response to our rapid changing world, especially since environmental changes have direct abiotic as well as indirect biological consequences. The latter includes shifts in species distribution, timing of reproduction, change in physiological functioning and change in interspecific relationships. Because of the nature and complexity of the aquatic parasitic lifestyle, they are as a group one of the most susceptible to global changes. Aquatic wildlife is also increasingly subjected to emerging diseases often due to perturbations of the existing dynamic balance between hosts and their parasites. Accelerating changes in environmental factors, together with anthropogenic translocation of hosts and parasites, act synergistically to produce hard to predict disease outcomes. In this review, in part published in a special issue of Trend in Parasitology (Vol 31 no 4), we explore the interactions of parasites in aquatic wildlife in terms of their biodiversity, emerging diseases and their response to environmental change. This work highlights the clear need for inter-disciplinary approaches to better understand aquatic parasitology in a changing world.