Líffræðifélag Íslands
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2015
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E53
Bettina Scholz (1), Frithjof C. Küpper (2), Hjörleifur Einarsson (3), Ulf Karsten (4),
1. BioPol ehf. Skagaströnd 2. University of Akureyri
Kynnir / Presenter: Bettina Scholz
Tengiliður / Corresponding author: Bettina Scholz (bettina@biopol.is)
Living organisms in aquatic ecosystems are almost constantly confronted by pathogens. Nevertheless, very little is known about diseases of marine diatoms. In order to observe spatial and temporal changes of benthic and planktonic diatom communities in relation to abundances of chytrids and oomycetes, a monitoring survey was conducted in the coastal areas of north-west Iceland from May to December 2014 and is still ongoing. Infection rates reached up to 36% of the total diatom communities in the Skagaströnd area and were mainly caused by epibiotic fungal parasites. Although only a small portion of the diatom community was infected during each of the sampling events, changes in host abundance during the sampling period were accompanied by increasing numbers of infected diatoms, pointing to significant impacts of diseases on the ecology of individual diatom hosts and the composition of communities at both the producer and consumer trophic levels of food webs.