Impact of anthropogenous environmental factors on the marine ecosystem of trophically transmitted helminths and hosting seabirds: Focus on North Atlantic, North Sea, Baltic and the Arctic seas

Abstract

Alongside natural factors, human activities have a major impact on the marine environment and thus influence processes in vulnerable ecosystems. The major purpose of this review is to summarise the current understanding as to how manmade factors influence the marine biocenosis of helminths, their intermediate hosts as well as seabirds as their final hosts. Moreover, it highlights current knowledge gaps regarding this ecosystem, which should be closed in order to gain a more complete understanding of these interactions. This work is primarily focused on helminths parasitizing seabirds of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean.

Keywords

• helminths
• seabirds
• fisheries
• aquaculture
• climate change
• seawater acidification
• microplastic
• organic pollutants
• trace elements