Arctic Biodiversity Assessment
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528 Arctic Biodiversity Assessment Protostrongylus stilesi, a lung nematode typical in Dall’s sheep Ovis dalli from the Brooks Range and Alaska Range of the western North American Arctic, and in muskoxen Ovibos moschatus in the Brooks Range and Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska and Yukon Territories, Canada. Shown is the tail end of an adult male with characteristic copulatory structures which are important in diagnosis of these miniscule parasites. Photo: E.P. Hoberg. 50 µm 529 Chapter 15 Parasites Lead Authors Eric P. Hoberg and Susan J. Kutz Contributing Authors Joseph A. Cook, Kirill Galaktionov, Voitto Haukisalmi, Heikki Henttonen, Sauli Laaksonen, Arseny Makarikov and David J. Marcogliese Contents Summary ..............................................................530 I’ve seen that in caribou. Just a couple of years ago, 15.1. Introduction .....................................................530 » every slice through it, you’d see about 50 little white 15.2. Parasites and their importance in the North ......................532 round things. We were wondering what that was, so we 15.3. Status and knowledge ...........................................533 checked it out, and it was a tapeworm. The whole body 15.4. Ecosystem components in the North .............................534 was completely filled with tapeworms. Yeah. It’s unbe- lievable how they could actually still move and run and 15.5. Terrestrial ecosystems ............................................536 15.5.1. Mammals ..................................................536 their whole body just completely filled with tapeworms. 15.5.1.1. Ungulates ..........................................536 Village elder, Sachs Harbour, Canada, as related to S.J. Kutz. 15.5.1.2. Rodents ...........................................538 15.5.2. Terrestrial birds .............................................539 15.6. Freshwater ecosystems ..........................................539 15.6.1. Fishes ......................................................540 He’s saying that when we go harvesting caribou, moose, 15.6.2. Birds .......................................................541 » whatever, when we’re skinning them, we really watch 15.7. Nearshore and pelagic marine ecosystems �����������������������542 out for all these things. The insides, and that yellow 15.7.1. Fishes .....................................................542 stuff they’re talking about; it’s like a doctor looking at 15.7.2. Seabirds ...................................................543 15.7.3. Marine mammals ..........................................546 things. Like when you take the stomach out, you always look on the inside. You look at the liver; you look in the 15.8. Traditional ecological knowledge on parasites in the North .....547 flesh. Like when they bring the meat home and when 15.9. Conclusions and recommendations ..............................548 15.9.1. New tool development .....................................548 the women make dried meat, sometimes they find those 15.9.2. Anticipated important host-parasite assemblages little white like beans in the meat. That’s what we eat, and processes ..............................................550 so when we skin something we have to make sure to Acknowledgements ....................................................551 look at everything – the heart, the lungs, the liver, the References .............................................................551 stomach, the kidney. Village elder, Fort Good Hope, Canada, as related to S.J. Kutz. 530 Arctic Biodiversity Assessment SUMMARY range for hosts, and emergence of parasites and disease. These facets are essential to our capacity to predict fu- Parasites are among the most common organisms on the ture shifts in ecosystem structure over time, to develop planet, and represent diverse members of all biologi- adaptations, and to mitigate or prevent disease outbreaks cal communities. Parasites tie communities together, among human and wildlife populations. revealing or telling stories about critical connections es- tablished by a history of evolution, ecology (food habits, foraging behavior, interactions among host species) and 15.1. INTRODUCTION biogeography (patterns of geographic distribution) for host populations, species, ecosystems and regional faunas Parasites represent in excess of 40-50% of the organisms that constitute the biosphere. As such these organisms on Earth and are integral components of all ecosystems tell us about the processes, biological (e.g. range shifts, (Dobson et al. 2008). Vertebrates and invertebrates are invasion) and physical (e.g. climate variation), that have hosts for complex assemblages of macroparasites (worms determined the patterns of diversity that we observe in and arthropods including insects) and microparasites high latitude ecosystems. (viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoans) that shape eco- systems, food webs, host demographics and host behav- Parasites can have subtle to severe effects on individual ior (e.g. Marcogliese 2001a, 2005, Hudson et al. 2006, hosts or broader impacts on host populations which may Dobson et al. 2008). Surprisingly, in some ecosystems cascade through ecosystems. Parasitic diseases have dual the biomass of parasites exceeds that of apex predators significance: such as birds and fishes, and these otherwise obscure or- 1. influencing sustainability for species and populations ganisms have extraordinary ecological connectivity with of invertebrates, fishes, birds and mammals, and involvement in over 75% of trophic links within food 2. secondarily affecting food security, quality and avail- webs (Lafferty et al. 2006). A substantial role in nutrient ability for people. cycling and trophic interactions at local to regional scales is evident for these assemblages of parasites (Kuris et al. As zoonoses, some parasites of animals can infect and 2008). cause disease in people and are a primary issue for food safety and human health. Sustainability, security and Parasites are taxonomically complex and diverse, even in safety of ‘country foods’ are of concern at northern high latitude systems characterized by relatively simple latitudes where people maintain a strong reliance on assemblages, and are considerably more species-rich than wildlife species. the vertebrate hosts in which they occur. For exam- ple, consider the 62+ described species of helminths, In the Arctic, we often lack baseline and long-term arthropods and protozoans, not to mention viruses and data to establish trends for parasite biodiversity (host bacteria, which circulate in four species of ungulates and geographic distributions or numerical measures of across high latitudes of North America and Greenland abundance and prevalence) in terrestrial, freshwater and (Kutz et al. 2012). Among 19 of 24 species of relatively marine systems, even for the best known host species. specialized auks (seabirds of the family Alcidae) there Absence of biodiversity knowledge has consequences are in excess of 100 species of helminths and arthropods for understanding the role of parasites in an ecosystem, in addition to viruses, bacteria and protozoans (Muz- and patterns of emerging animal pathogens, including zafar & Jones 2004). Among the five species of loons zoonotic diseases, at local to regional scales. There is (Gaviiformes) there are 97 species of helminths and urgent need to incorporate parasitological information among Holarctic grebes (three species of Podiceps), all of into policy and management plans and to emphasize which breed at high latitudes, there are 145 species of awareness of parasitic diseases to wildlife managers, helminths which contrasts with 244 among all podici- fisheries biologists, public health authorities and local pediforms in the global fauna (Storer 2000, 2002). communities. Further, in a single fish species, Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus, there are over 100 known species of helminths Parasitological knowledge can be incorporated into and protozoans (Dick 1984, Wrona & Reist, Chapter policy and management plans through an integration 13). These observations emphasize the broad distribution of field-based survey, local knowledge, development of of parasites across and within ecosystems in terrestrial baselines linked to specimens, archival data resources and aquatic environments. Considerable complexity and to assess change, and models that can predict potential knowledge gaps, however, suggest that it is currently spatial and temporal distribution for outbreaks of disease intractable to develop a synoptic picture for trends in among people or animals. We recommend that parasites abundance or diversity across phylogenetically dispa- be considered particularly as they relate to biodiversity rate assemblages of vertebrate hosts (fishes, birds and and conservation of populations, availability of subsist- mammals) and their parasites extending from regional ence food resources and concerns for food security to landscape scales. As an alternative, we highlight a and food safety (i.e. zoonoses and wildlife population series of exemplars demonstrating the importance of declines caused by parasites). Further, research is neces- parasites both conceptually and functionally as integral sary to demonstrate linkages among climate change, components of high latitude ecosystems. Our discus- environmental perturbation, shifting abundance and sion explicitly explores the distribution of metazoans Chapter 15 • Parasites 531 (helminths) and protozoans circulating in fishes, birds