2005). Both

parasitism and epibiosis are considered harmful to planktonic animals. Overgrowths of epizoic Protozoa can reduce swimming speed in Copepoda, especially when the antennae are heavily infested. Heavily-infested specimens are also more visible to predators, becoming easy prey for planktivorous animals (Chiavelli et al., 1993 and Visse, 2007). Kimmerer & McKinnon (1990) described cases of Paracalanus indicus infested with parasitic Dinoflagellata Crizotinib (Atelodinium sp.) in the Indian Ocean. They reported that dinoflagellates formed a plasmodium that wrapped around the host’s body, leading to its death. Other authors examined the effect of the parasite Ellobiopsis sp. on the fecundity of Calanus helgolandicus in the Bay of Biscay. Parasitism by Ellobiopsis sp. has the potential to reduce the fecundity of copepods: a reduction in size of both the seminal vesicle and the developing spermatophore sac

was noted in parasitised males of C. helgolandicus ( Albaina & Irigojen 2006). The mass occurrence of the epizoic protozoan Myoschiston centropagidarum on copepods such as Eurytemora affinis and Acartia tonsa in low-salinity waters adjacent to the western Baltic Sea was reported a long time ago by Hirche (1974). Visse (2007) studied the survival in the Gulf of Riga of Acartia bifilosa infested buy Ipilimumab by Epistylis sp. In the 1980s a serious protozoan infestation by both epibionts (Vorticella and Zoothamnium) and parasite infestation (Ellobiopsis) was detected on Calanoida from the Gulf of Gdańsk ( Wiktor, 1993 and Wiktor

and Krajewska-Sołtys, 1994). Since then, no other reports of infection in the Gulf of Gdańsk have been published. Crustacea, among them Copepoda, are one of the most significant components of marine zooplankton. They comprise more than 90% of marine zooplankton; this also applies to the Baltic Sea (Bielecka et al., 2000, Żmijewska et al., 2000, Józefczuk et al., 2003 and Mudrak and Żmijewska, 2007). Zooplankton – an intermediate link between primary production Alectinib nmr (phytoplankton) and higher trophic levels (planktivorous) – constitute a fundamental step in the marine food web. The main aim of the present study was to investigate taxa-specific infection by parasitic and epibiontic Protozoa on Calanoida from the Gulf of Gdańsk. We also wished to find out whether crustacean zooplankton taxa other than copepods were infected. The study was conducted in shallow and open waters in the western and eastern parts of the Gulf of Gdańsk. Samples were also collected near the mouth of the River Vistula, where conditions are determined by the inflow of often polluted fresh waters, and to a lesser extent by seawaters. The plankton material was collected from on board the r/v ‘Oceanograf-2’ in 1998, 1999 and 2006, during all seasons (Table 1).