ABSTRACT

A full account of the world’s species is important for understanding how natural systems are structured, how they function and how they will respond to natural and anthropogenic pressures in the future. Despite the well-known importance of parasites in natural systems, they are too often underrepresented from studies on biodiversity and ecological functioning. In this review, we provide a quantitative synthesis of the current state of knowledge of helminth biodiversity within New Zealand’s marine environment. We report that records of parasitic helminths within New Zealand marine animals are few and uneven across host taxa. A large proportion of parasite species are taxonomically unresolved, with some differences across parasite taxa. Few parasites have their whole life cycles resolved, and the majority are only reported from one host species at one life stage. Most endemic host species are yet to be investigated for helminths and there is likely an abundance of endemic parasite diversity yet to be discovered. Host species of greater conservation concern are being investigated for helminths less frequently than species of low conservation concern. We conclude that little is known about parasitic helminths in New Zealand’s marine environment and make recommendations on how to improve this situation.

摘要

全面了解世界物种对于了解自然系统的结构、它们的功能以及它们将如何应对未来的自然和人为压力非常重要。尽管寄生虫在自然系统中的重要性众所周知，但它们在生物多样性和生态功能研究中的代表性往往不足。在这篇综述中，我们提供了新西兰海洋环境中蠕虫生物多样性知识现状的定量综合。我们报告说，新西兰海洋动物体内的寄生蠕虫记录很少，而且在宿主分类群中也不均匀。很大一部分寄生虫物种在分类学上尚未得到解决，寄生虫分类群之间存在一些差异。很少有寄生虫的整个生命周期得到解决，大多数仅在一个生命阶段的一种宿主物种中报道。大多数地方性宿主物种尚未进行蠕虫研究，可能还有大量地方性寄生虫多样性尚未发现。与低保护关注的物种相比，对蠕虫的研究更受关注的宿主物种的频率较低。我们得出结论，对新西兰海洋环境中的寄生蠕虫知之甚少，并就如何改善这种情况提出建议。