Authors
M Reynolds1; J Cable 1; F Hockley1; Z Smallbone2; C Wilson2; 1 Cardiff School of Biosciences; 2 Cardiff University, School of Engineering Discussion
Climate change is predicted to have profound indirect impacts on aquatic animal health with respect to infectious disease. Freshwater habitats significantly influence disease ecology, from facilitating transmission of water-borne diseases amongst hosts, to providing habitats for larval vectors. Although temperature remains the predominant abiotic factor affecting aquatic parasite ecology, it is increasingly recognised how changes in hydrology also impact host-parasite dynamics. Natural flow regimes have endured intensive anthropogenic modification and climate change constitutes another factor in flow alteration, thus exposing fish to variable flow conditions. Whilst the effects of flow rate on fish swimming behaviour have been extensively studied, the implication flow has on parasite transmission remains overlooked. This study investigates the effects of flow rate on Gyrodactylus turnbulli transmission and shoaling behaviour in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata). This research highlights how host-parasite interactions respond to a changing environment, and can be used to advise aquaculture and the aquarium trade of the optimal maintenance conditions for minimising epidemics in stocks. 
