Resilience of interspecific relationships in the freshwater environment: insights using mussel-fish interactions

Ing. Juan Felipe Escobar Calderon

Doctoral thesis

Abstract:

Freshwater mussels are one of the most endangered groups of animals in the world. They possess a complex life cycle that include a parasitic life stage called glochidia that must attach to a host fish to complete their development. The dependency that freshwater mussels have on their fish host and the complexity that this interaction can reach make them a perfect model for studying the dynamic of inter-specifc relationships. On top of this, despite some increased interest in previous years, many questions in freshwater mussels research remain difficult to study because of methodological limitations. The current thesis attempts to study host-parasite relationships in freshwater mussels focusing on three main aspects: the effects of intra-population variation on host relationships of native and invasive species, the difference in mussel and larvae behavior under different conditions and the use of artificial rearing techniques in freshwater mussel research. To develop these goals we had to develop some new techniques and approaches that are also described in the thesis. We hope that the thesis contributes to the knowledge of freshwater mussels in general and to an interest in inter-specific relationships in particular.

Keywords

host-parasite relationship, conservation aquaculture, Mussel behavior, host fish, Freshwater mussels

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 14. 3. 2024

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Karel Douda, Ph.D.
• Reader: Antonín Kouba, Ph.D., Ing., externi, Dariusz Halabowski, externi, Keiko Nakamura, externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources

Doctoral programme:
Applied Zoology