Abstract
The big-scale sand smelt (Atherina boyeri) is an Atlanto-Mediterranean amphidromous fish species found within the Black Sea. Here, we assess differences in the parasite fauna of big-scale sand smelt populations from their natural range in the northwestern Black Sea and from their expansion range in the Lower and Middle River Dnipro. In addition, we undertook a microsatellite analysis to assess the genetic similarity of fish from the different locations. We found that the parasite community of fish in their natural range was wider than that from their expansion range. While the Gulf of Odesa was most distant from all other localities by parasite community composition and the Dnipro Reservoir was characterised by an absence of parasites (newest and most distant expansion locality), only fish from the Danube Delta showed a significant genetic difference. Our results suggest that the parasite community of big-scale sand smelt is primarily influenced by environmental factors, such as habitat type, water salinity and/or prey composition. Both microsatellite analysis and parasite community species composition (e.g. the presence of the marine Telosentis exiguus in the Kakhovka Reservoir and freshwater Raphidascaris sp. in the Gulf of Odesa) confirmed that populations in the River Dnipro reservoirs had, at some time, been connected with native marine populations, thus also confirming the species’ amphidromous nature.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Oleh Marenkov (Dnipro National University, Dnipro, Ukraine) for his help with sampling of fish from the Dnipro Reservoir. We also would like to thank Dr. Kevin Roche for proof-reading the English text.
Funding
National Research Foundation of Ukraine: project ‘Development of scientific backgrounds of comprehensive monitoring and threats of distribution of invasive fish species by riverine systems and transitional waters of Ukraine (based on parasite, population and genetic markers)’ (#2020.02/0171).
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YKv wrote the main manuscript, sampled the fish and provided the parasitological analysis and analysed the data and conceptualisation of the study. YKut sampled the fish, organised the field trips and general conceptualisation of the study and participated in the discussion preparation. AB provided the PCR analysis, analysed the microsatellite data and wrote the genetic part of the manuscript. SC analysed the microsatellite data and wrote the genetic part of the manuscript. VD sampled the fish and organised the field trips. AD sampled the fish, organised the field trips and participated in the discussion preparation. SS sampled the fish and organised the field trips. VY sampled the fish, organised the field trips and general conceptualisation of the study and participated in the discussion preparation.
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Kvach, Y., Kutsokon, Y., Bakuma, A. et al. Parasite and genetic diversity of big-scale sand smelt (Atherina boyeri Risso, 1810) populations in their natural and expansion ranges in Ukraine. Parasitol Res 123, 154 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-024-08174-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-024-08174-5