Amphipods are often key species in aquatic food webs due to their functional roles in the ecosystem and as intermediate hosts for trophically transmitted parasites. Amphipods can also host many parasite species, yet few studies address the entire parasite community of a gammarid population, precluding a more dynamic understanding of the food web. We set out to identify and quantify the parasite ...

Ontogenetic dietary shifts are common in fish and often impact trophically transmitted parasite communities. How parasite species composition and relative abundances change among size classes, and at what rate these changes occur, is rarely examined. Hosts with a broad trophic niche are potentially exposed to a large variety of parasite species. The degree of ontogenetic changes in parasite species ...

We explore the long-term developments in population biology and life history during the invasion and establishment of the fish species vendace Coregonus albula in a subarctic watercourse by comparing life-history traits and molecular genetic estimates between the source and the colonist population. The two populations exhibited highly contrasting life-history strategies. Relative to the source ...

Prey preference of top predators and energy flow across habitat boundaries are of fundamental importance for structure and function of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, as they may have strong effects on production, species diversity, and food-web stability. In lakes, littoral and pelagic food-web compartments are typically coupled and controlled by generalist fish top predators. However, the ...

Life history strategies and potential marine niche use of Arctic charr <i>Salvelinus alpinus</i> (<i>n</i> = 237, 84–652 mm, total body length, <i>L_T</i>) were determined during the ice‐free season (2012) at three different watercourses in south‐western Greenland. All Arctic charr were collected from freshwater habitats. Based on stable isotopes of δ³⁴S, the Arctic charr were ...

To identify trematode diversity and life-cycles in the sub-Arctic Lake Takvatn, Norway, we characterised 120 trematode isolates from mollusc first intermediate hosts, metacercariae from second intermediate host fishes and invertebrates, and adults from fish and invertebrate definitive hosts, using molecular techniques. Phylogenies based on nuclear and/or mtDNA revealed high species richness (24 ...

Introduced species can alter the topology of food webs. For instance, an introduction can aid the arrival of free-living consumers using the new species as a resource, while new parasites may also arrive with the introduced species. Food-web responses to species additions can thus be far more complex than anticipated. In a subarctic pelagic food web with free-living and parasitic species, two fish ...

Parallel phenotypic evolution occurs when independent populations evolve similar traits in response to similar selective regimes. However, populations inhabiting similar environments also frequently show some phenotypic differences that result from non-parallel evolution. In this study, we quantified the relative importance of parallel evolution to similar foraging regimes and nonparallel lake-specific ...

The new data on the parasites fauna of the Lake Kronotskoe sympatric charr forms (genus Salvelinus (Nilsson) Richardson, 1836) is presented. Parasites fauna of Bigmouth and Smallmouth charr forms are described for the first time. The information about Longhead charr, Nosed charr and White charr parasites is added. 29 species of parasites from 9 classes were found: Oligohymenophorea, Myxosporåà, ...

Aim: High repeatability among assemblages of closely related but ecologically distinct ecotypes implies predictability in evolution and assembly of communities. The conditions under which ecotype assemblages form predictably, and the reasons, have been little investigated. Here, we test whether repeatability declines as the number of ecotypes builds.<p> <p>Location: Postglacial lakes with a ...