Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2021
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E98
Höfundar / Authors: Björn C. Schäffner
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Institute for Experimental Pathology at Keldur, University of Iceland
Kynnir / Presenter: Björn C. Schäffner
Parasites form a major component of the global biodiversity, vital to every ecosystem and biological community. However, the public's perception of parasites is generally negative and they are downgraded to malign disease agents causing major health deficits and economic losses. Although certain parasites match this oversimplified stereotype, the majority might have beneficial attributes for the hosts and environment. They remain unappreciated for their active role as key players for the ecosystem health, function, and diversity. Current conservation schemes only apply for species at higher trophic levels, while parasites have neither been a conservation target nor a priority. Every parasite that becomes extinct represents a loss for the composition of natural systems, leading to cascading negative implications within ecosystems. Elasmobranchs and their parasites display an ancient host-parasite system, dating back at least 270M years. This extensive time of co-evolution might alter the symbiotic relationships from parasitism to commensalism or even mutualism. In this time of unprecedented loss in global biodiversity, it is necessary to improve on existing conservation strategies by incorporating the entirety of threatened species, and not only the ones with the most outward appeal. This includes the conservation of threatened apex predators together with their parasitic organisms (symbionts), as essential components to the health and proper functioning of marine ecosystems.