Phytoplankton Under Pressure - The Role of Environmental Drivers in Parasitism
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Abstract
Fungal parasitism is attracting growing attention in phytoplankton ecology because of its outstanding importance for aquatic food webs and energy cycling. However, relatively few studies have addressed baseline data on occurrence and environmental factors associated with chytrid parasite infections in natural ecosystems. This work provides insights into occurrence, prevalence, and dynamics of parasitic infections by studying three shallow, freshwater bodies during the growing season over a period of six years. Data were collected each year from April to October, monthly or fortnightly from a central point of each waterbody from 2019 to 2024. Chytrids were detected in each of the studied waterbodies, infecting species of green algae, diatoms, and cyanobacteria. General linear model (GLM) indicated that major factors driving the occurrence of chytrid infections were water temperature, nitrates, phosphates and pH. However, recurring and prevalent infections were observed in only one waterbody, which is classified as a natural, undisturbed aquatic ecosystem. The recorded infection prevalence (IPC) ranged between 0% and 20%, while the mean infection severity remained low throughout the study. Infections were highest in summer (June-August) and were most prominent during cyanobacterial blooms, although the most infected group of phytoplankton was green algae ( Desmodesmus spp.). GLM revealed a significantly positive correlation between IPC and water temperature, precipitation and cyanobacterial bloom. Overall, our results demonstrate that a combination of abiotic and biotic parameters drives the occurrence of parasitic infection more than just indicated by the magnitude of the prevalence alone.
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ARPHA Preprints
https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e160986 (04 Jun 2025)
https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e160986 (04 Jun 2025)
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doi:
10.3897/arphapreprints.e160986
First posted
04 Jun 2025
Authors
Martyna Agnieszka Budziak
- Corresponding author
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
Department of Plankton and Microbial Ecology, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Neuglobsow, Germany
Department of Plankton and Microbial Ecology, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Neuglobsow, Germany
Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Kraków, Poland
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
Conflict of interest
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Supporting agencies
This presentation is based upon work from COST Action Paraqua CA20125 - Applications for zoosporic parasites in aquatic systems (ParAqua), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). MB was supported by a STSM grant.
Field works were supported by the project “Algae – economy based ecological service of aquatic ecosystem” (life17 env/lt/000407), funded by EU Life programme, Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania, National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (Poland), and project partners.
Additional support was provided by the statutory funds of the Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences.
DI and HPG are supported by the Germans Science Foundation (DFG) in the frame of “Polar Parasite” project (GR 1540/48-1) which is part of the SPP 1158 Research in Antarctica.
This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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