TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kuhn, Thomas
A1  - Zizka, Vera Marie Alida
A1  - Münster, Julian
A1  - Klapper, Regina
A1  - Mattiucci, Simonetta
A1  - Kochmann, Judith
A1  - Klimpel, Sven
T1  - Lighten up the dark : metazoan parasites as indicators for the ecology of Antarctic crocodile icefish (Channichthyidae) from the north-west Antarctic Peninsula
T2  - PeerJ
N2  - Due to its remote and isolated location, Antarctica is home to a unique diversity of species. The harsh conditions have shaped a primarily highly adapted endemic fauna. This includes the notothenioid family Channichthyidae. Their exceptional physiological adaptations have made this family of icefish the focus of many studies. However, studies on their ecology, especially on their parasite fauna, are comparatively rare. Parasites, directly linked to the food chain, can function as biological indicators and provide valuable information on host ecology (e.g., trophic interactions) even in remote habitats with limited accessibility, such as the Southern Ocean. In the present study, channichthyid fish (Champsocephalus gunnari: n = 25, Chaenodraco wilsoni: n = 33, Neopagetopsis ionah: n = 3, Pagetopsis macropterus: n = 4, Pseudochaenichthys georgianus: n = 15) were collected off South Shetland Island, Elephant Island, and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (CCAML statistical subarea 48.1). The parasite fauna consisted of 14 genera and 15 species, belonging to the six taxonomic groups including Digenea (four species), Nematoda (four), Cestoda (two), Acanthocephala (one), Hirudinea (three), and Copepoda (one). The stomach contents were less diverse with only Crustacea (Euphausiacea, Amphipoda) recovered from all examined fishes. Overall, 15 new parasite-host records could be established, and possibly a undescribed genotype or even species might exist among the nematodes.
KW  - Channichthyidae
KW  - Anisakid nematodes
KW  - Contracaecum
KW  - Pseudoterranova
KW  - Champsocephalus gunnari
KW  - Chaenodraco wilsoni
KW  - Neopagetopsis ionah
KW  - Pagetopsis macropterus
KW  - Pseudochaenichthys georgianus
KW  - Antarctica
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/46542
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-465429
SN  - 2167-8359
N1  - This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
VL  - 6
IS  - e4638
SP  - 1
EP  - 19
PB  - PeerJ, Inc.
CY  - London [u. a.]
ER  -