Meeting Abstract
Most research into effects of climate change on parasitic organisms concerns pathogens of man or commercially important species. Most of these parasites are terrestrially-based in whole or in part. Yet parasites themselves are important components of biodiversity and affect food web structure and function, as has been shown in numerous freshwater and marine ecosystems. Parasites in aquatic systems will respond directly to changes in temperature but also indirectly to changes in other abiotic parameters that are mediated directly on the parasite or indirectly through changes in the distribution and abundance of their hosts. Clearly effects of temperature are best studies and understood, but it is imperative to explore effects of contaminants, eutrophication, habitation fragmentation, stratification, ice cover, acidification, water levels and flow rates, oceanic currents, ultraviolet-light penetration, invasive species, weather extremes, and other forms of anthropogenic interference on the distribution of both hosts and parasites, as these biotic and abiotic factors and stressors do not operate independently of climate. Herein, effects of some of these on the distribution and abundance of parasites in aquatic ecosystems will be examined and discussed, often with counterintuitive consequences. Evaluation of the potential response of parasites of aquatic organisms to climate change illustrates the complexity of host–parasite systems and the difficulty of making accurate predictions for biological systems.
