| Coastal areas, such as shallow water bays and estuaries, serve as nurseries for juveniles of many marine fishes and especially flatfishes. Parasites play an important role in these marine ecosystems, but it remains poorly studied. Little attention has been paid to parasitism as a potential factor of variation in flatfish juveniles biological performances in these habitats. Sole juveniles, Solea solea (Pleuronectiformes, Soleidae), that is a species of primary importance for fisheries, are infected by digenean metacercariae. Thus, the aims of this PhD thesis were: i) to determine the spatio-temporal dynamics of the digenean metacercariae infection of 0-group sole juveniles at different scales; ii) to estimate the effects of this infection at different... |
