TY - JOUR A1 - Vivas Munoz, Jenny C. A1 - Feld, Christian K. A1 - Hilt, Sabine A1 - Manfrin, Alessandro A1 - Nachev, Milen A1 - Köster, Daniel A1 - Jochmann, Maik A. A1 - Schmidt, Torsten C. A1 - Sures, Bernd A1 - Zikova, Andrea A1 - Knopf, Klaus T1 - Eye fluke infection changes diet composition in juvenile European perch (Perca fluviatilis) T2 - Scientifc Reports N2 - Intraspecific diet specialization, usually driven by resource availability, competition and predation, is common in natural populations. However, the role of parasites on diet specialization of their hosts has rarely been studied. Eye flukes can impair vision ability of their hosts and have been associated with alterations of fish feeding behavior. Here it was assessed whether European perch (Perca fluviatilis) alter their diet composition as a consequence of infection with eye flukes. Young-of-the-year (YOY) perch from temperate Lake Müggelsee (Berlin, Germany) were sampled in two years, eye flukes counted and fish diet was evaluated using both stomach content and stable isotope analyses. Perch diet was dominated by zooplankton and benthic macroinvertebrates. Both methods indicated that with increasing eye fluke infection intensity fish had a more selective diet, feeding mainly on the benthic macroinvertebrate Dikerogammarus villosus, while less intensively infected fish appeared to be generalist feeders showing no preference for any particular prey type. Our results show that infection with eye flukes can indirectly affect interaction of the host with lower trophic levels by altering the diet composition and highlight the underestimated role of parasites in food web studies. KW - diet specialization KW - parasite KW - eye fluke KW - European perch KW - Perca fluviatilis KW - food web KW - Ökologie KW - Süßwasser KW - Nahrungskette KW - Parasit KW - Flussbarsch KW - stable isotope analysis Y1 - 2021 UR - https://hst.opus.hbz-nrw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/172 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:tr5-1723 VL - 11 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Nature Portfolio ER -