Canadian freshwater fish and their metazoan parasites (multiple sources)

Data on host use by parasites were obtained from 7 Canadian freshwater systems, either large lakes or rivers, in which most fish species have been surveyed for parasites. Only fish species for which at least 5 individuals have been examined per locality are included, because estimates of parasite infection level were inaccurate for smaller samples. All species of internal and external metazoan parasites were considered, which include the following groups: nematodes, acanthocephalans, cestodes, trematodes, monogeneans, leeches, copepods and branchiurans. When a species of internal worm occurred among sampled fish as both larval and adult forms, the two forms were treated as functionally distinct species; this convention is justified because larval and adult worms often have different modes of transmission, infect different fish species, and different organs within fish. This collection of data sets is part of the NCEAS hosted online Interaction Web Database at http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/interactionweb/index.html.