Parasites as Indicators of Water Quality and the Potential Use of Helminth Transmission in Marine Pollution Studies

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on parasites as indicators of water quality and the potential use of helminth transmission in marine pollution studies. There are good reasons for focusing on parasitic organisms in general and helminth parasites in particular, in the search for highly sensitive indicators. First, there are more parasitic than free-living species. Second, helminth parasites have complex life cycles and the different developmental stages have widely differing requirements, therefore, each stage must be assessed separately for sensitivity to environmental change, thereby widening the choice of potential indicators. Many biotic and abiotic factors affect the numbers and d…