A baseline for aquatic parasite diversity in West African mangroves: host-parasite records, DNA barcodes, and an experimental design for future use
Macroparasites represent a major fraction of biodiversity and biomass in marine ecosystems, yet remain substantially underrepresented in ecological surveys and food-web models, particularly in the Global South. This study addresses this geographic bias by providing the first comprehensive ecological survey of macroparasite communities of fishes in a West African Marine Protected Area (MPA) and adjacent Open-Access Area (OAA) characterised by mangrove forests. We collected 5,020 parasite specimens from 10 fish and one crab species in the Saloum Delta, Senegal, identifying 27 parasite species across all major taxa. Our findings include 15 new records for Senegal of which 11 are also new for West Africa. Additionally, 64% of host-parasite combinations constitute new host records. We provide 208 DNA barcodes, offering the first molecular data for 31% of these species globally and establishing a reference library for future DNA metabarcoding efforts in the region. Using sample size-corrected biodiversity indices and mixed-model analyses, we detected significant variations in parasite infracommunities and component communities between the MPA and OAA, demonstrating the feasibility of using comparative study designs to monitor fisheries impacts on parasite diversity in the Saloum Delta. Furthermore, the identification of trophically transmitted parasites provided evidence of unstudied food-web connections, e.g. predator-prey linkages between fishes and higher-trophic-level definitive hosts including birds and elasmobranchs. By integrating morphological identification, molecular data, and archiving of voucher specimens into publicly accessible, curated collections, this study establishes a new baseline for marine parasite biodiversity in West Africa and provides a methodological blueprint for surveying understudied regions.