Parasite Communities of Fishes from the Northeastern Baltic Sea

Northeastern Bothnian Bay, Baltic Sea, data on parasite communities from 27 sympatric fish host species. The dataset comprises individual-level records for 22 host species, including fish body measurements and parasite identifications. It was originally published in 2001 and later re-analyzed in a 2022 ecological network study.

Use Cases

• Modeling host-parasite network structure based on the detailed species-level data.
• Analyzing the relationship between host traits (like body length and weight) and parasite load.
• Assessing sampling completeness and taxonomic uncertainty in ecological networks as referenced in the 2022 study.

Strengths

• Data covers 27 out of 31 sympatric host species from a specific geographic region.
• Includes individual-level data for 22 host species with associated body measurements.
• Parasite and host species are identified with standardized abbreviations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Valtonen et al., 2001; Llopis‐Belenguer et al., 2022

Collection Method

Field sampling of fish and parasite examination.

Time Range

Sampling occurred in 1977, 1978, and 1979.

Geography

Northeastern Bothnian Bay, Baltic Sea.