Ecosystem energetic implications of parasite and free-living biomass in three estuaries
Ecosystem energetic implications of parasite and free-living biomass in three estuaries
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DOI：
10.1038/nature06970
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发表时间：
2008-07-24
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Lafferty, Kevin D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kuris, Armand M.;Hechinger, Ryan F.;Lafferty, Kevin D.
寄生虫可以产生强烈的影响，但被认为对生态系统的生物量贡献很小（1-3）。我们量化了加州和下加利福尼亚的太平洋沿岸的三个河口的自由生活和寄生物种的生物量。在这里，我们表明，寄生虫在这些生态系统中有大量的生物量。我们发现寄生虫的生物量超过了顶级捕食者。吸虫的生物量特别高，与丰富的鸟类、鱼类、穴居虾和多毛类动物的生物量相当。营养型传播的寄生虫和寄生性寄生虫比其他寄生性功能群包含更多的生物量。由寄生虫控制的扩展表型生物量有时超过其未感染的宿主。自由游动吸虫传播阶段的年产量大于所有量化寄生虫的生物量总和，也大于鸟类生物量。这种寄生虫的生物量和生产力意味着在这些河口的感染过程中发挥着深远的作用。
Parasites can have strong impacts but are thought to contribute little biomass to ecosystems(1-3). We quantified the biomass of free-living and parasitic species in three estuaries on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California. Here we show that parasites have substantial biomass in these ecosystems. We found that parasite biomass exceeded that of top predators. The biomass of trematodes was particularly high, being comparable to that of the abundant birds, fishes, burrowing shrimps and polychaetes. Trophically transmitted parasites and parasitic castrators subsumed more biomass than did other parasitic functional groups. The extended phenotype biomass controlled by parasitic castrators sometimes exceeded that of their uninfected hosts. The annual production of free-swimming trematode transmission stages was greater than the combined biomass of all quantified parasites and was also greater than bird biomass. This biomass and productivity of parasites implies a profound role for infectious processes in these estuaries.