1. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology and Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
2. Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del IPN, C.P. 97310, Mérida, Mexico
3. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1003, USA
4. Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
5. Department of Biology, University of Texas Pan-American, Edinburg, Texas 78539, USA
6. Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, Stevens Point, Wisconsin 54481, USA
7. Pacific Islands Fisheries Research Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
8. Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
9. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, 75 North Eagleville Rd. Unit 3043, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA
10. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843, Ancon, Balboa 03092, Panama, Republic of Panama
11. Western Ecological Research Center, US Geological Survey, Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
12. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Correspondence to: Armand M. Kuris^1,12 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to A.M.K. (Email: kuris@lifesci.ucsb.edu).

Abstract

Parasites can have strong impacts but are thought to contribute little biomass to ecosystems^{1, 2, 3}. We quantified the biomass of free-living and parasitic species in three estuaries on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California. Here we show that parasites have substantial biomass in these ecosystems. We found that parasite biomass exceeded that of top predators. The biomass of trematodes was particularly high, being comparable to that of the abundant birds, fishes, burrowing shrimps and polychaetes. Trophically transmitted parasites and parasitic castrators subsumed more biomass than did other parasitic functional groups. The extended phenotype biomass controlled by parasitic castrators sometimes exceeded that of their uninfected hosts. The annual production of free-swimming trematode transmission stages was greater than the combined biomass of all quantified parasites and was also greater than bird biomass. This biomass and productivity of parasites implies a profound role for infectious processes in these estuaries.

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