Parasites represent up to 50% of all living organisms. They have the ability to alter host behaviour, as well as acting as ecosystem engineers. However they are typically the unseen biodiversity in the environment and more work is still required in order to better understand the diversity and abundance of parasites globally. As part of this professional practice opportunity students will work on identifying parasites found in species from a variety of marine habitats around Ireland. The work will involve sampling in the field, as well as dissections in order to collect tissue samples, identify the infection status of the organisms, and record the parasites infecting them. The work will involve identification of macroparasites mainly using a stereoscope, and tissue samples will be prepared for histological analyses to identify microparasites, so interested students should enjoy general microscopy. It is anticipated that a database for these parasite species will be further developed during the placement period and this work will contribute to several ongoing European and International research projects.
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