Parasitism at the ecosystem level in the Baltic Sea

Abstract

The Baltic Sea is characterized by organisms that can tolerate brackish water. Because of the Sea's history during glacial times, its flora and fauna (and also their parasites) can be traced to marine, freshwater and genuine brackish elements beside glacial relics. Snails, planktonic copepods, benthic amphipods and isopods are important intermediate hosts of diverse helminths; in addition polychaetes, bivalves and fishes may also act as final hosts. The most important final hosts, beside fishes, were seals and birds; these were able to disperse the parasites over the whole of the Baltic. Decreasing salinity from west to east limits the distribution of many parasites. Several marine and genuine brackish water species have almost spread over the whole Baltic. Freshwater species, however, have a lower tolerance than marine species and are only rarely found in the western part. A serious problem in the Baltic is eutrophication which can lead to massive abundances of generalist parasites, in host populations as well as host individuals. The final stage of this influence can cause a general decrease of host abundance and, as a consequence, of all kinds of parasites, due to oxygen deficiency. In comparison with the species spectrum of other brackish waters in Europe, the Baltic presents some endemic parasites as well as sharing parasite species with the Mediterranean and even the Black Sea.