Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Does parasitic infection compromise host survival under extreme environmental conditions? The case for Cerithidea californica (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia)

  • Original Papers
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

This laboratory study examined the influence of parasitic infection by larval trematodes on the survival of extreme environmental conditions by the salt marsh snail, Cerithidea californica. Experimental treatments simulated the durations, combinations, and levels of potentially lethal environmental extremes to which the snail is exposed in its natural habitat, as determined from long-term field measurements. No significant difference was found in the rates of mortality suffered by infected and uninfected snails when exposed to simulated natural extremes of water temperature, water salinity, or exposure in air. Exposure to low levels of dissolved oxygen was the only treatment that caused differential mortality: infected snails died at higher rates than uninfected. This differential mortality was accentuated by high water temperature, and varied with the species of infecting parasite. The potential impact of this interaction between parasitism and anoxia on snail survival and population dynamics is discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson RM (1979) The influence of parasitic infection on the dynamics of host population growth. In: Anderson RM, Turner BD, Taylor LR (eds) Population dynamics. Blackwell Sci Publ, Oxford, pp 245–281

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson RM, May RM (eds) (1982) Population biology of infections diseases. Dahlem Workshop Rep: Life Sci Res Rep no 25. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Augspurger CK (1984) Seedling survival of tropical tree species: interactions of dispersal distance, light gaps, and pathogens. Ecology 65:1705–1712

    Google Scholar 

  • Baillie PW (1986) Oxygenation of intertidal estuarine sediments by benthic microalgal photosynthesis. Est Coast Shelf Sci 22:143–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Bishop YMM, Fienberg SE, Holland PW (1975) Discrete multivariate analysis: theory and practice. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass

    Google Scholar 

  • Cane MA (1983) Oceanographic events during El Niño. Science 222:1189–1195

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng TC, Howland KH, Moran HJ, Sullivan JT (1983) Studies on parasitic castration: aminopeptidase activity levels and protein concentrations in Ilyanassa obsoleta (Mollusca) parasitized by larval trematodes. J Invertebr Pathol 42:42–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobson AP, Hudson PJ, (1986) Parasites, disease and the structure of ecological communities. Trends Ecol Evol 1:11–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Everett R (1988) The role of a seasonal macroalga in determining patterns of distribution and abundance in an intertidal infaunal assemblage. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Fenchel TM, Riedl RJ (1970) The sulfide system: a new biotic community underneath the oxidized layer of marine sand bottoms. Mar Biol 7:255–268

    Google Scholar 

  • Eienberg SE (1970) The analysis of multidimensional contingency tables. Ecology 51:419–433

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes JC (1982) Impact of infectious disease agents on the population growth and geographical distribution of animals. In: Anderson RM, May RM (eds) Population biology of infectious diseases, Dahlem Workshop Rep: Life Sci Res Rep, no 25. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 37–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasschau MR (1975) Changes in concentrations of free amino acids in larval stages of the trematode, Himasthla quissetensis and its intermediate host, Nassarius obsoletus. Comp Biochem Physiol B 51:273–280

    Google Scholar 

  • Lauckner G (1980) Diseases of mollusca: gastropoda. In: Kinne O (ed) Diseases of marine animals, vol I, John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp 311–424

    Google Scholar 

  • Lauckner G (1983) Diseases of mollusca: bivalvia. In: Kinne O (ed) Diseases of marine animals, vol II, Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, Hamburg, pp 477–961

  • Lee FO, Cheng TC (1971) Schistosoma mansoni infection in Biomphalaria glabrata: alterations in heart rate and thermal tolerance in the host. J Invertebr Pathol 18:412–418

    Google Scholar 

  • Lessios HA, Robertson DR, Cubit JD (1984) Spread of Diadema mass mortality through the Caribbean. Science 226:335–337

    Google Scholar 

  • Lunetta JE, Vernberg WB (1971) Fatty acid composition of parasitized and nonparasitized tissue of the mud-flat snail, Nassarius obsoleta (Say). Exp Parasitol 30:244–248

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin WE (1955) Seasonal infections of the snail Cerithidea californica Haldeman, with larval trematodes. In:Essays in the Natural Sciences in Honor of Captain Allan Hancock. University of Southern California Press. Los Angeles, pp 203–210

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin WE (1972) An annotated key to the cercariae that develop in the snail Cerithidea californica. Bull South Cal Acad Sci 71:39–43

    Google Scholar 

  • McCloy MJ (1979) Population regulation in the deposit-feeding mesogastropod Cerithidea californica as it occurs in a San Diego salt marsh habitat. MA thesis, California State University, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • McDaniel SJ (1969) Littorina littorea: lowered heat tolerance due to Cryptocotyle lingua. Exp Parasitol 25:13–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Newell RC (1979) Biology of intertidal animals. Marine Ecological Surveys Ltd, Faversham, Kent

    Google Scholar 

  • Olivier L, von Brand T, Mehlman B (1953) The influence of lack of oxygen on Schistosoma mansoni cercariae and on infected Australorbis glabratus. Exp Parasitol 2:258–270

    Google Scholar 

  • Onuf CP (1987) The ecology of Mugu Lagoon, California: an estuarine profile. US Fish and Wildl Serv Biol Rep no 85 (7.15)

  • Race MS (1981) Field ecology and natural history of Cerithidea californica (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) in San Francisco Bay. Veliger 24:18–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasmusson EM, Wallace JM (1983) Meteorological aspects of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. Science 222:1195–1202

    Google Scholar 

  • Revsbech NP, Sorensen J, Blackburn TH, Lomholt JP (1980) Distribution of oxygen in marine sediments measured with microelectrodes. Limnol Oceanogr 25:403–411

    Google Scholar 

  • Riel A (1975) Effect of trematodes on survival of Nassarius obsoletus (Say). Proc Malac Soc Lond 41:527–528

    Google Scholar 

  • Robson EM, Williams IC (1971) Relationship of some species of Digenea with the marine prosobranch Littorina littorea (L) II. The effect of larval Digenea on the reproductive biology of L. littorea. J Helminthol. 45:145–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott DB, Cass TL (1977) Response of Cerithidea californica (Haldeman) to lowered salinities and its paleoecological implications. Bull South Calif Acad Sci 76:60–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Short FT, Muehlstein LK, Porter D (1987) Eelgrass wasting disease: cause and recurrence of a marine epidemic. Biol Bull (Woods Hole, Mass) 173:557–562

    Google Scholar 

  • Sindermann C, Rosenfield A (1957) The ecology of marine dermatitis-producing schistosomes III. Oxygen consumption of normal and parasitized Nassarius obsoletus (Nassa obsoleta) under varying conditions of salinity. J Parasitol 43 [S]:28

    Google Scholar 

  • Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1981) Biometry, 2nd ed, WH Freeman & Co, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorensen J, Jorgensen BB, Revsbech NP (1979) A comparison of oxygen, nitrate, and sulfate respiration in coastal marine sediments. Microb Ecol 5:105–115

    Google Scholar 

  • Sousa WP (1983) Host life history and the effect of parasitic castration on growth: a field study of Cerithidea californica Haldeman (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) and its trematode parasites. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 73:273–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Sousa WP (1989) Spatial scale and the processes structuring a guild of larval trematode parasites. In: Esch GW, Aho JM, Bush AO, Kennedy CR (eds) Patterns and Processes in Parasite Communities. Chapman and Hall, London (in press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Tallmark B, Norrgren G (1976) The influence of parasitic trematodes on the ecology of Nassarius reticulatus (L) in Gullmar Fjord (Sweden). Zoon 4:149–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Theede H, Ponat A, Hiroki K, Schlieper C (1969) Studies on the resistance of marine bottom invertebrates to oxygen-deficiency and hydrogen sulphide. Mar Biol 2:325–337

    Google Scholar 

  • Vernberg WB, Vernberg FJ (1963) Influence of parasitism on thermal resistance of the mud-flat snail, Nassarius obsoletus Say. Exp Parasitol 14:330–332

    Google Scholar 

  • Vernberg WB, Vernberg FJ (1967) Interrelationships between parasites and their hosts. III. Effect of larval trematodes on the thermal metabolic response of their molluscan host. Exp Parasitol 20:225–231

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts SDM (1971) Effects of larval Digenea on the free amino acid pool of Littorina littorea (L). Parasitology 62:361–366

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoshino TP (1975) A seasonal and histologic study of larval Digenea infecting Cerithidea californica (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia) from Goleta Slough, Santa Barbara County, California. Veliger 18:156–161

    Google Scholar 

  • Zedler JB, Nordby C (1986) The ecology of Tijuana Estuary: an estuarine profile. US Fish and Wildl Serv Biol Rep no 85 (7.5)

  • Zedler JB, Covin J, Nordby C, Williams P, Boland J (1986) Catastrophic events reveal the dynamic nature of salt-marsh vegetation in Southern California. Estuaries 9:75–80

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of California, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Wayne P. Sousa & Mary Gleason

Authors
  1. Wayne P. Sousa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mary Gleason
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sousa, W.P., Gleason, M. Does parasitic infection compromise host survival under extreme environmental conditions? The case for Cerithidea californica (Gastropoda: Prosobranchia). Oecologia 80, 456–464 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00380066

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00380066

Key words

Search

Navigation