Acta Protozool.

(2014) 53: 51–62

Acta
http://www.eko.uj.edu.pl/ap
doi:10.4467/16890027AP.14.006.1443

Protozoologica
Special issue:
Marine Heterotrophic Protists
Guest editors: John R. Dolan and David J. S. Montagnes
Review paper

Dirty Tricks in the Plankton: Diversity and Role of Marine Parasitic

Protists

Alf SKOVGAARD
Laboratory of Aquatic Pathobiology, Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract. Parasitism is an immensely successful mode of nutrition and parasitic organisms are abundant in most ecosystems. This is also
the case for marine planktonic ecosystems in which a large variety of parasitic species are known. Most of these parasites are protists and
they infect a wide range of hosts from the marine plankton, ranging from other protists to larger planktonic invertebrates. Parasites often
have morphologies and life cycles that are highly specialized as compared to their free-living relatives. However, this does not mean that
parasites are necessarily odd or rare phenomena; on the contrary parasites constitute numerically and ecologically important components of
the ecosystem. This review gives an overview of the existing knowledge on the diversity and occurrence of parasitic protists in the marine
plankton and examines the available information on the potential effects and role of parasitism in this ecosystem. Importance is given to the
fact that prevalence and impact of parasitic organisms in marine planktonic systems appear to be overwhelmingly understudied.

Key words: Parasite, parasitoid, phytoplankton, plankton, zooplankton.

INTRODUCTION food web. For example, phytoplankton cells leak a sub-

stantial amount of organic carbon fixed through photo-
Early studies on energy transfer between compo- synthesis, by which primary production is exploited by
nents of the marine plankton tended to consider the route bacteria rather than by eukaryotic grazers (e.g. Azam
of energy transfer as a relatively simple food chain in et al. 1983). Furthermore, the traditional perception
which organic matter is transferred from photoautotro- that plankton predators are typically an order of mag-
phic phytoplankton to larger heterotrophic zooplankton nitude larger than their prey (e.g. Sheldon et al. 1977)
and onwards to higher trophic levels (e.g. Steele 1970). has turned out not to be a general rule. On the contrary,
However, in the late 20th century, an awareness has ap- some of the dominating microeukaryotic predators, the
peared that energy transfer between trophic levels in dinoflagellates, feed on prey cells of approximately
the marine plankton occurs through a highly complex their own size (Hansen et al. 1994). When a protist cell
Address for correspondence: Alf Skovgaard, Laboratory of Aquatic
feeds on a prey larger than itself, the feeding strategy
Pathobiology, Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, Univer- can in many cases be characterized as parasitism.
sity of Copenhagen, Stigbøjlen 7, 1870 Friederiksberg C, Denmark; Parasitism in general is considered the most com-
E-mail: [email protected] mon consumer strategy in nature and it may be argued
52 A. Skovgaard

that roughly half of the species on Earth are parasites to various degrees in many protist groups and the diver-
(Windsor 1998, de Meeûs and Renaud 2002). On the sity of these parasites is exemplified by the following
ecosystem level parasites have substantial biomasses examples of the most characteristic species.
that may exceed the biomass of top predators in aquatic
Fungi
ecosystems (Kuris et al. 2008). It is, therefore, not sur-
prising that parasitism is also very common among the True fungi are abundant in the marine environment,
different components of the marine plankton (Théodor- but only relatively few species are known to infect plank-
idès 1989, Park et al. 2004, Skovgaard and Saiz 2006). ton organisms and knowledge on the biological interac-
Current evidence does not fully justify that parasitism tions and effects of fungal infections in marine plankton
needs to be taken into account when attempting to un- is still limited. A few examples are known among the
derstand the marine planktonic food web. However, as Chytridiomycetes, such as Olpidium and Rhizophydium,
discussed below, it is probable that only a minority of that able to infect the marine diatoms Pseudo-nitzschia
parasites of planktonic hosts has been identified so far and Chaetoceros (Elbrächter and Schnepf 1998, Wang
and that parasitism is severely underestimated in cur- and Johnson 2009). In addition to the true fungi, sev-
rent perception of the marine planktonic ecosystem. eral species of aquatic ‘fungi’ of the Stramenopiles are
Few studies have addressed the ecological impor- known from marine phytoplankton (see below).
tance of parasitism in the marine plankton, which is in Amoebozoa
contrast to large research efforts dedicated to the func-
tion and evolutionary ecology of plankton parasitol- Amoeba biddulphiae was described almost a century
ogy in freshwater phytoplankton (Kagami et al. 2007, ago from the marine diatom Odontella (Biddulphia) si-
Rasconi et al. 2012) and zooplankton (Burns 1989, nensis (Fig. 1A, Zuelzer 1927). Another amoeba, Rhiz-
Decaestecker et al. 2005, Ebert 2008). In the follow- amoeba schnepfii (Tubulinea, Adl et al. 2005), also
ing it is attempted to highlight the immense diversity infects and feeds on marine diatoms, but unlike A. bid-
of known protistan parasites (including parasitoids and dulphiae, it is able to exploit a suite of diatom species
parasitic castrators) in the marine plankton and to ex- (Kühn 1997a). Pseudophelidium schnepfii (Mesomyce-
pose the current vast lack of knowledge about some of tozoa, Adl et al. 2005) is a parasite of the centric ma-
these microbial pathogens. rine diatom Thalassiosira punctigera (Schweikert and
Schnepf 1996) and the amoeba Janickina spp. are endo-
parasites in chaetognates (Weinstein 1973).
DIVERSITY OF PARASITES IN MARINE Rhizaria
PLANKTON
Several distantly related rhizarian species are para-
sites of plankton organisms, in particular marine dia-
In the following, the term protist is used as a popular toms. Among these are species of the cercozoan genera
term as suggested by Adl et al. (2005), including thus Cryothecomonas (Drebes et al. 1996) and Pseudopirso-
such unicellular eukaryotes as fungi (i.e. uniflagellated nia. Originally considered a stramenopile, Pseudopir-
Ophistokonta) and amoebae, which have not tradition- sonia mucosa has proven a member of Cercozoa. P. mu-
ally been included in the taxon Protista (Adl et al. 2005). cosa infects marine diatoms of the genus Rhizosolenia
A parasite may be defined as an organism utilizing in manner much similar to Pirsonia (Stramenopiles,
a host as habitat on which it is nutritionally dependent Kühn et al. 1996). Also other rhizaria, such as Phago-
and, furthermore, it causes harm to the host (Anderson myxa spp. are parasites in diatoms (Schnepf et al. 2000).
and May 1978). This definition thus excludes protists The paramyxan parasite Marteilia refringens is
living as epibiotic symbionts on marine plankton, e.g. a parasite in European flat oyster, Ostrea edulis, (Berthe
diatoms and apostome ciliates on copepods (Hiromi et et al. 1998), but the presence of M. refringens in plank-
al. 1985, Grimes and Bradbury 1992). However, it is tonic copepods suggests that it utilizes copepods as
acknowledged that the distinction between a symbiotic intermediate or transport host (Audemard et al. 2002).
and a parasitic protist (and even a parasitic and a preda- Carrasco et al. (2008) confirmed these findings and
tory protist) may not always be feasible and that more demonstrated that M. refringens is able to proliferate
specific definitions may be required (Gaines and El- in copepods, but thus far the possible effect of P. refrin-
brächter 1987). Parasitic consumer strategies are found gens on its copepod host remains unknown.
 Planktonic Parasitic Protists 53

Stramenopiles (Heterokonta)
The Chromalveolate groups Stramenopiles and Al-
veolate are particularly well represented among protis-
tan parasites of marine plankton, and some of the major
alveolate groups, such as Apicomplexa, Perkinsozoa,
and the syndinean dinoflagellates, consist exclusively
of parasites and are common in the marine plankton.
The stramenopile fungi are widespread especially in
freshwater habitats (Dick 2001) and are recognized as
important degraders of freshwater phytoplankton (Ka-
gami et al. 2007). Parasitic stramenopiles are less fre-
quently reported from the marine environment. Many
taxa are known only from clone library studies and,
while some of these may be parasitic, they are gener-
ally assumed to be free-living phagotrophs (Massana
et al. 2004). The enigmatic species Solenicola setigera,
which is the first identified member of the marine stra-
menopile clade MAST-3 (Gómez 2007), appears to be
an ectoparasite on the diatom Leptocylindrus mediter-
raneus. However, S. setigera has so far only been found
on empty frustules and its parasitic nature is thus ques-
tionable (Gómez et al. 2011). Nevertheless, a few well-
documented cases exist on coastal phytoplankton being
infected by stramenopiles, such as the Peronosporomy-
cetes Lagenisma (Fig. 1B–C, Drebes 1968) and Ectro-
gella (Sparrow 1960), but knowledge of their impact on
marine phytoplankton populations is scarce. Lagenisma
is an intracellular parasite of large planktonic diatoms.
Fig. 1A–-E. Protistan parasites of marine phytoplankton. A – Amoeba
biddulphiae in the diatom Odontella sinensis. Left: recently attached Ectrogella is a multi-species genus of parasites of pri-
parasite cell. Center: parasitic amoeba inside the host. Rigth: almost marily freshwater diatoms (Sparrow 1960), but some
empty diatom frustule with protoplasm transformed into 10 amoe- species are marine, and among these E. perforans in-
bae (after Zuelzer 1927); B, C – the stramenopile fungi Lagenisma
fects planktonic and epiphytic diatoms in marine and
coscinodisci in the diatom Coscinodiscus sp.; B – host cell protoplasm
transformed into parasite hyphae; C – expulsion of parasite swarmer brackish waters (Sparrow 1960).
cells. Courtesy of Gerhard Drebes, Plankton*Net Data Provider at Another stramenopile genus, Pirsonia, is a cluster of
the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine, http://planktonnet. species that are parasites of marine diatoms. Pirsonia
awi.de; D – Parvilucifera sp. sporangium in a deceased dinoflagel-
attaches to a host cell and produces a pseudopodium
late, Tripos macroceros, from the North Sea; E – Amoebophrya sp.
in the dinoflagellate Tripos fusus from the North Sea. Arrows show that enters the diatom frustule and phagocytizes the en-
extreme points of parasite. All scale bars: 50 µm. tire host protoplasm (Schnepf et al. 1990). Correspond-
ing feeding strategies are found in the little studied par-
asites Victoriniella (Kühn 1997b) and Palisporomonas
(de Saedeleer 1946). Their taxonomic position remains
Species of the genus Paradinium proliferate as unclear, but they are functionally related to Lagenisma
a plasmodium in the tissue of planktonic copepods and and Pirsonia in the sense that these parasites are all
produce a sporangium that stays attached for a while potentially important degraders of centric diatoms too
externally to the anal pore of the host (Chatton 1910a). large to be grazed by many copepods (Kühn 1997b).
Originally thought to be a dinoflagellate (Chatton
1910a, 1920), it has recently been shown, based on Dinozoa – Dinophyceae and Blastodiniales
molecular phylogeny, to form its own clade within the Parasitic life modes are common among dinoflagel-
Rhizaria (Skovgaard and Daugbjerg 2008). lates, and the species traditionally classified among the
54 A. Skovgaard

Blastodiniales are all parasites (Fensome et al. 1993, ditional minor clades (Richards and Bass 2005, Guillou
Coats 1999). Many members of Dinophyceae and Blas- et al. 2008).
todiniales are parasites of marine plankton. Marine Based on molecular phylogeny, the syndineans
diatoms are commonly infected with Paulsenella spp. Amoebophrya and Syndinium are established members
that suck out the diatom cell content through myzo- of Marine Alveolate Group II (group II and IV, respec-
cytosis (Paulsen 1911, Drebes and Schnepf 1988) and tively, according to the scheme of Guillou et al. 2008).
Paulsenella spp. is capable of almost eliminating a dia- Amoebophrya spp. are parasites of various plankton or-
tom population (Drebes and Schnepf 1988). ganisms (Cachon 1964) and may play important roles
Species of the genera Duboscquodinium, Tintin- in the dynamics of bloom-forming dinoflagellates (Park
nophagus, and Duboscquella are all parasites of tinti- et al. 2004, Chambouvet et al. 2008). Other Amoeboph-
nid ciliates (Cachon 1964, Coats et al. 2010). These rya species are found in radiolarians, ciliates, and as
dinophycean parasites of tintinnids are typically lethal hyperparasite in Oodinium (Cachon 1964, Fig. 2B–C).
to their hosts and appear to be widespread and common Syndinium spp. (Fig. 2D–H) are parasitoids that in-
in the marine plankton. fest and devour several species of calanoid copepods
Oodinium spp. are ectoparasites on various plankton (Fig. 2F–H, Chatton 1910b, Skovgaard et al. 2005)
organisms, such as appendicularians (Chatton 1912), and, in addition, the Syndinean genera Merodinium,
chaetognates (McLean and Nielsen 1989), and cteno- Solenodinium, and Keppenodinium infect radiolarians
phores (Mills and McLean 1991). The occurrence of and phaeodarians (Hollande et al. 1953, Hovasse and
Oodinium spp. has been reported in several studies but Brown 1953, Hollande and Enjumet 1955). The latter
more or less coincidentally. The same applies to the three genera have received almost no scientific atten-
morphologically similar Apodinium spp., ectoparasites tion for decades and rDNA sequences are currently not
on appendicularians (Cachon and Cachon 1973). Both available for any of the known syndineans infecting ra-
Oodinium and Apodinium are members of Blastodini- diolarians or phaeodarians.
ales that is today considered a heterogeneous (and para- Until now, only two genera are confirmed members
phyletic) group of core dinoflagellates (Saldarriaga et of the Marine Alveolate Group I clade, which is oth-
al. 2004, Skovgaard et al. 2007, Gómez et al. 2009). erwise comprised by environmental rDNA sequences.
The original type genus of Blastodiniales, Blastodini- Ichthyodinium is parasite of pelagic eggs of numerous
um, comprises photosynthetic parasites that live in gut species of marine fish (Hollande and Cachon 1952,
of marine planktonic copepods, particularly in warm Meneses et al. 2003, Skovgaard et al. 2009). The other
temperate to tropical waters (Chatton 1920, Skovgaard genus, Euduboscquella, comprises parasites of ciliates
et al. 2012). Blastodiniales also includes the peculiar (Harada et al. 2007, Coats et al. 2012) and dinoflagel-
genus Haplozoon (Fig. 2A) and ectoparasites of co- lates (Cachon 1964). In Group I, a number of sequences
pepod eggs, namely Dissodinium and Chytriodinium have been identified from protists associated with ra-
(Cachon and Cachon 1968a, Drebes 1969). Copepod diolarians and phaodarians (Dolven et al. 2007) and
eggs are also exploited by a couple of rarely reported it is likely that these are parasites. Indeed, a recently
dinophycean parasites, Syltodinium and Schizochytrio- observed probable parasite of a radiolarian had similar-
dinium (Drebes 1988, Elbrächter 1988). ity with Euduboscquella (Suzuki et al. 2009). Thus, it
is possible that some of these Marine Alveolate Group
Dinozoa – Syndiniales
I sequences correspond to syndinean parasites from
The Syndiniales (or Syndinea, Cavalier-Smith which no rDNA sequences are yet known.
1993) are an assembly of parasitic dinoflagellates that
Dinozoa – Perkinsidae
are both genetically and morphologically different from
the dinophycean dinoflagellates (Fensome et al. 1993, The Perkinsidae are primarily known for the genus
Guillou et al. 2008). Recent analyses of environmen- Perkinsus which are endocellular parasites of oysters
tal marine rDNA sequences have revealed an extensive (Siddall et al. 1997). However, a parasite of dinoflagel-
diversity of ribotypes related to Syndiniales (López- lates, Parvilucifera infectans, was found to be affiliated
García et al. 2001, Moon-van der Staay et al. 2001). with the perkinsids (Norén et al. 1999, Fig. 1D). Re-
Phylogenetic analyses consistently place these alleged cently, two additional Parvilucifera species were iden-
Syndinean sequences in two main clades (Marine Al- tified (Figueroa et al. 2008, Hoppenrath and Leander
veolate Groups I and II) and, in some analyses, 3–5 ad- 2009), illustrating that species diversity in this group
 Planktonic Parasitic Protists 55

is probably underestimated. Studies of environmental

DNA sequences have supported this by identifying
a large amount of assumed hidden perkinsid taxa pri-
marily from freshwater environments but also from the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal area (Lefèvre et al.
2008, Bråte et al. 2010).
Ciliophora
The ciliates are an overwhelmingly diverse group of
protists in which parasitic life styles are common (e.g.
Bradbury 1994), but comparably few ciliate species are
known to infect marine plankton organisms. A couple of
remarkable exceptions, which may exert profound ef-
fects on their host populations, are Collinia and Pseu-
docollinia infecting euphausiids (Gómez-Gutiérrez et al.
2006, Gómez-Gutiérrez et al. 2012). Collinia and Pseu-
docollinea are parasitoids that may cause mass mortality
in host populations (Gómez-Gutiérrez et al. 2003). Also
live copepods may be infested with ciliates. Two ciliates
species, Uronema rabaudi and Perezella pelagica, were
described from live specimens of Acartia clausi and
Pseudocalanus elongatus, and Paracalanus parvus, re-
spectively (Cépède 1910). Similar endoparasitic ciliates
have been found in the calanoid copepods Calanus fin-
marchicus and Pseudocalanus (Apstein 1911), suggest-
ing that these parasites may be widespread even though
they have now gone unnoticed for decades. An apostome
ciliate, Metaphrya sagittae, occupies the coelom of
chatognates and appears to be very common in a range
of species (Ikeda 1917, Weinstein 1973). It has been
found in most of the world’s oceans (Weinstein 1973),
but recent records of the species are scarce. Ciliates of
the genus Trichodina, which comprises common para-
sites on marine and freshwater fish, exist as ectoparasites
on ctenophores (Estes et al. 1997). Trichodina spp. are
also found on copepods, but have so far only been found
in freshwater (Green and Shiel 2000).
Ellobiopsidae
Fig. 2A–H. Protistan parasites of marine zooplankton. A – the dino-
Several species of the enigmatic group Ellobiopsi-
flagellate Haplozoon inerme (bottom left) parasitizing Appendicu-
laria sicula (after Cachon 1964); B, C – hyperparasitic Amoboph- dae are ectoparasites on planktonic crustaceans. The
rya grassi in Oodinium poucheti, an ectoparasites on Oikopleura genus Ellobiopsis is restricted to copepods, whereas
(after Cachon 1964); B – several early-stage parasites inside the Thalassomyces spp. infect larger crustaceans, including
host; C – macrospore (left) and dividing microspores (right) of euphausiids and mysids (Boschma 1959, Vader 1973).
A. grassi; D, E – the syndinean dinoflagellate Syndinium bogerti
in the acantharian Amphilonche sp. (after Hollande and Enjumet The stalk of the parasite penetrates the host exoskeleton
1955); D – multinuclear parasites inside the host; E – relased para- and nourishes itself from tissue or body fluids of the
site macrospore (left) and microspore (right); F–H – Syndinium- host. Ellobiopsis-like protrusions have also been found
like parasite in the copepod Clausocalanus sp. from the NW Medi- on freshwater copepods, but the exact identity of these
terranean Sea; F, G – dinospores originating from the infected host
in H. Scale bars: 10 µm; H – recently diseased host filled with live is controversial (Rayner and King 1986, Bridgeman et
dinospores. Scale bar: 100 µm. al. 2000, Skovgaard 2004).
56 A. Skovgaard

Apicomplexa is yet available. Another parasite of copepods, tentative-

Apicomplexans are a successful group of parasitic ly named red plasmodial parasite, was shown through
molecular phylogeny to be a member of Marine Alveo-
protists that infect a wide range of organisms, includ-
late Group I (Skovgaard and Daugbjerg 2008), but has
ing invertebrates of the marine plankton (Théodoridès
yet not been formally described. This parasite was also
1989). For example, gregarine apicomplexans com-
observed by Jepps (1937).
monly inhabit the intestine of chaetognates (Leuckart
Even among the formally described protistan par-
1861, Weinstein 1973, Théodoridès 1989). Large frac-
asites, several species have been observed only one
tions of Arctic krill, Euphausia superba, may also be
single or a few times following their original descrip-
infected with the gregarine Cephaloidophora pacifica
tion and then often many decades ago. This is the case
(Takahashi et al. 2008) just as sporadic reports have
for e.g. the blastodinians Syltodinium and Schizochy-
noted parasitic gregarines in copepods. The first report
triodinium (infecting copepod eggs, Drebes 1988, El-
was that of Paraophioidina haeckeli in Sapphirina spp.
brächter 1988), Actinodinium (in copepods, Chatton
in the late 19th century (summarized by Théodoridès
and Hovasse 1937), Cachonella (on siphonophores,
and Desportes 1972) and this genus has subsequently
Rose and Cachon 1951), and Myxodinium (in a pra-
been found in other copepod species (Apstein 1911,
sinophyte, Cachon et al. 1969), and also for such dino-
Levine 1977). Other observations include P. copilia in
phyceans as Filodinium (on appendicularians, Cachon
Copilia vitrea (Rose 1933) and Cephaloidophora petiti
and Cachon 1968b). This also applies to several of the
in Candacia aethiopica (Gobillard 1964). Furthermore,
(often abundant) parasites of diatoms that have been
parasitic gregarines exist in planktonic polychaetes,
reported by few researchers apart from their original
amphipods, hyperiids, mysids, mollusks, and tunicates
authors (Schnepf et al. 1978, Schnepf et al. 1990, Kühn
(Théodoridès 1989), but also in these cases informa-
et al. 1996, Schweikert and Schnepf 1996). In addition,
tion on ecology and impact of parasites is virtually certain species of the better-known genera Amoeboph-
non-existing. rya, Duboscquella and Syndinium have completely
Excavata – Euglenozoa avoided the attention of scientists, e.g. A. grassei in
Oodinium (Fig. 2A), A. acanthometrae in a radiolar-
In contrast to the freshwater environments in which
ian, D. melo in the free-living dinoflagellate Noctiluca
many euglenid species are parasites of plankton organ-
(Cachon 1964), and S. oikopleurae in an appendicu-
isms (Michajłow 1972), only few parasitic euglenozoa
larian (Hollande 1974). In the case of Amoebophrya,
are known from marine plankton. Rhynchopus coscino-
only few species have been described, but the genus
discivorus (Diplonemea) has been described as a para-
represents a considerable genetic diversity which does
site of marine diatoms (Schnepf 1994). This species
point towards the existence of numerous species within
may be a facultative parasite, considering that other spe-
the genus (Salomon et al. 2003, Kim et al. 2008) and
cies of Rhynchopus are free-living phagotrophs (Roy et
the same may be the case for other syndinean genera
al. 2007). A few accounts also exist on the infection of
(Gómez 2014). Likewise, the genetic and morphologi-
chaetognates with the kinetoplastid Trypanophis sag-
cal diversity within the genus Blastodinium suggest that
ittae (Hovasse 1924, Rose and Hamon 1950). Drebes
the number of actual species is larger than currently ac-
(1974) reported on an unidentified euglenid infecting
knowledged (Skovgaard et al. 2012).
eggs of the copepods Temora and Acartia.
Hence, taxonomy and species diversity of marine
plankton parasites is incompletely explored and it is
plausible that the number of protistan species that are
UNRECOGNIZED PARASITE DIVERSITY
parasites of marine plankton is considerably underesti-
mated. This postulation is in line with research having
Many parasites of marine plankton are poorly inves- revealed large numbers of sequences originating from
tigated and the taxonomic affiliation of several parasite unknown taxa affiliated with parasitic groups, such as
species is uncertain. In a Norwegian fjord, for example, syndineans (López-García et al. 2001, Guillou et al.
the copepods Calanus spp. were found parasitized by 2008) and perkinsids (Lefèvre et al. 2008). Given the
an organism producing yellow hypha-like structures fact that DNA sequences are yet not available for the
(Torgersen et al. 2002). It was not possible to identify it majority of known syndinean parasites, it is tempting
solely based on morphology and no genetic information to suggest that at least some of the environmental se-
 Planktonic Parasitic Protists 57

quences that fall within the marine alveolate clades are, wise been justified that parasitism by Cryothecomonas
in fact, syndinean parasites. There appears to be a par- at times may successfully compete with zooplankton in
ticular variety of environmental sequences (i.e. poten- controlling energy flow and food web dynamics (Till-
tial parasites) associated with radiolarians (Gast 2006, mann et al. 1999). Particular interest has arouse with
Dolven et al. 2007). However, some of these cluster the fact that many dinoflagellate species responsible for
with photosynthetic dinoflagellates and one should toxic algal blooms are susceptible to infection by the
keep in mind that radiolarians frequently host photosyn- parasitoid syndinean Amoebophrya, opening potentials
thetic symbionts (Anderson 2014). Furthermore, not all for combatting these blooms through biological control
DNA sequences obtainable may necessarily correspond (Taylor 1968). Amoebophrya does reach high infection
to a valid species, since artifact sequences do occur in prevalence in cultures with the capability to wipe out
large-scale sequencing studies (Bachy et al. 2013). some host species (Coats and Park 2002). This is to
some extent supported by field investigations estimating
that Amoebophrya was capable of inducing 0–5% mor-
EFFECTS AND IMPACT OF PARASITES tality per day among its dinoflagellate host populations
IN MARINE PLANKTON in coastal waters, and up to 54% per day in localized
epidemics (Coats et al. 1996). Gisselson et al. (2002)
estimated mortality rates in Dinophysis norve­gica of
The effect of protistan parasites in the marine plank- max. 2% per day due to Amoebophrya infections and
ton is very variable dependent on parasite species. In referred to unpublished data showing 20% of Dinophy-
the protist hosts, parasites typically have characters of sis infected by Parvilucifera infectans in the Baltic Sea.
parasitoids, i.e. the host cell is killed by the parasite, Thus, as reviewed by Park et al. (2004), these parasites
which is in turn depending on the host for completion can have significant impacts on host bloom dynamics.
of its life cycle. Parasitoids also occur in multicellular This was also demonstrated more recently by Cham-
zooplankton, such as Syndinium infecting copepods or bouvet et al. (2008) showing that a given dinoflagel-
Collinia infecting euphasids. However, not all protistan late host species was infected by a genetically distinct
parasites in zooplankton are lethal to their hosts. Infec- Amoebophrya clade year after year and that a decline
tion with ellobiopsids, e.g., may not be detrimental to in dinoflagellate populations correlated with release of
their hosts, but induces sterility in female copepods free-swimming parasite spores.
(Albaina and Irigoien 2006). Blastodinium appears to Also microzooplankton populations are regulated
stay relative harmless inside the host’s gut, but it does by parasites. Species of the genera Duboscquodinium,
affects the host’s fitness (Skovgaard 2005) and it causes Duboscquella, and Euduboscquella are distributed
sterility in infected females (Chatton 1920). Similar to worldwide and notable infection frequencies are often
the parasitic castrators, parasites infecting zooplankton observed in ciliate population (Coats and Bachvaroff
eggs, such as Dissodinium and Chytriodinium, are not 2013). The syndinean Euduboscquella cachoni was es-
destructive for the adult host, but may have significant timated to remove 7–24% of its ciliate host population
effects on host recruitment. biomass per day in Chesapeake Bay through parasite-
While observations on dramatic effects of parasites induced mortality (Coats and Heisler 1989). Such mor-
on single phytoplankton cells or cell cultures are am- tality rates indicate that parasite-induced mortality of
ple (e.g. Drebes 1966, Kühn 1998), few investigations the ciliates is comparable to predation pressure by larg-
have aimed at determining the impact of such patho- er zooplankton grazers. In general, data on the impact
gens in marine phytoplankton populations. Prevalence of parasitic protists on natural zooplankton populations
data are available in a few examples and, even though rely on field observations of parasite prevalence with
detailed information on parasite growth and generation only little information available from culture work.
time does not always exist, prevalence itself gives an In this manner, Syndinium has been estimated to – in
indication of parasite impact. For example, large-scale peak periods – be prevalent enough to affect copepod
Pirsonia spp. infections have recurrently been found in populations at a magnitude similar to that of predators
several diatom species in coastal waters (Schnepf et al. (Ianora et al. 1987, Skovgaard and Saiz 2006). Syn-
1990, Kühn et al. 1996, Tillmann et al. 1999), giving dinium is a cosmopolitan genus and a study in Sydney
good reasons to assume that these parasites play im- harbor concluded parasite-induced mortality of the
portant roles in regulating host populations. It has like- copepod Paracalanus indicus to be about 1/3 of total
58 A. Skovgaard

mortality (Kimmerer and McKinnon 1990). Otherwise, 1) many parasitic protists are either not described or
reports on high mortalities of zooplankton due to pro- poorly known and 2) ecosystem research teams often
tistan parasites are infrequent, but an unusual excessive lack the incorporation of skills needed for identifica-
number of euphasiid carcasses near the ocean floor in tion and quantification of parasites.
the Pacific Ocean has revealed that the parasitoid ciliate Most studies on the impact of parasites in marine
Collinia is able to cause mass mortalities of euphasiids plankton have been based on detecting parasites us-
(Gómez-Gutiérrez et al. 2003). Earlier studies have ing traditional light microscopy, which most likely un-
shown prevalence as high as 64–98% in similar host- derestimates true parasite prevalence (Skovgaard and
parasite associations (Capriulo et al. 1991). Intuitively, Saiz 2006). Important steps for future research will,
such high prevalence of a parasitoid must have signifi- therefore, be to gain more knowledge about these para-
cant consequences for the host population. sitic protists and to develop improved methodologies
The effects of non-lethal zooplankton parasites are for their quantification. Specific staining of parasites
less evident than the drastic effects of parasitoids on host (Alves-de-Souza et al. 2011) may turn out useful to
individuals. Nevertheless, adverse effects on fecundity quantify more efficiently and accurately the occur-
and recruitment may have profound consequences at the rence of parasites in planktonic organisms. It will be
population level. In a study of Western Mediterranean of importance, however, that such methodologies are
zooplankton it was found that the parasitic blastodinian applicable to a larger number of host organisms, and it
Blastodinium spp. were responsible for an impairment should be possible to screen for parasites in preserved
of reproductive rates of up to 0.16 and 0.03 per day for samples in order for the methods to be of broader use in
the copepods Oncaea cf. scottodicarloi and Paracala- ecological studies.
nus parvus, respectively (Skovgaard and Saiz 2006).
Also in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Blastodinium Acknowledgements: This work was supported through the proj-
ect IMPAQ – IMProvement of AQuaculture high quality fish fry
infections are common and prevalence up to 2–51%
production (J. no. 10-093522), funded by the Danish Council for
were found in different taxonomic groups of copepods Strategic Research.
(Alves-de-Souza et al. 2011), suggesting that these
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