Parasite communities of trout: initial colonization and subsequent dispersal among host cohorts

众所周知，鱼类寄生于各种不同类型的寄生虫，并形成了极其丰富的寄生虫群落，无论是在鱼类个体层面（当地寄生虫群落）还是在栖息地层面（寄生虫物种池）。已知这些群落的成员和结构随宿主生活史和环境因素（纬度、经度、水文制度、栖息地演替和生态系统健康）而变化。所有这些研究中缺少的是对非常年轻的鱼类寄生虫的关键研究，因此我们对鱼类寄生虫群落早期定植序列的信息很少。我们建议在布雷顿角高地的两个实验研究湖中研究鳟鱼寄生虫群落的发展，重点研究寄生虫群落的初始定殖/发展顺序。上述研究还缺少对鱼类寄生虫群落在宿主群体中实际生物量的后续扩散的研究。因此，在每年秋季，我们将进行标记重新捕获，以估计每个队列中的鳟鱼数量。这些信息将与基本流行率（%）、强度（寄生虫/受感染鱼的平均数量）和寄生虫重量相结合，形成数据，以便估计整个寄生虫群落相对于宿主鳟鱼的生物量。所有这些都将与已知的寄生虫生活史联系起来进行解释，并为生物群落如何形成以及寄生虫生物量如何融入当地食物网等更广泛的问题提供思考的素材。

It is well known that fish are parasitized by all sorts of different types of parasites, and that they form enormously rich parasite communities, at both the level of individual fish (local parasite community) and the level of habitat (parasite species pool). These communities are known to vary in membership and structure with host life history and environmental factors (latitude, longitude, hydrological regimes, habitat succession, and ecosystem health). What is missing from all of this research is a critical study of parasites of very young fish and as a result we have little information on sequences of early colonization by fish parasite communities. We propose studying the development of parasite communities of brook trout in two experimental study lakes in the Cape Breton Highlands, focusing on the sequence of initial colonization/development of the parasite communities. What is also missing from the mentioned research is the study of subsequent dispersal of fish parasite communities among host cohorts in terms of real biomass. Thus, in the fall of each year, we will undertake mark-recapture to estimate the numbers of trout in each cohort. This information will be integrated with basic prevalence (%), intensity (mean number of parasites/infected fish) and parasite weight to create data that will allow an estimate of the biomass of the entire parasite community in relation to that of the host trout. All of this will be interpreted in relation to the known life history of the parasites and should provide food for thought in broader issues of how biological communities form and how parasite biomass fits into local food webs.