Biodiversity and abundance of species support proper ecosystem functions, making it more resistant and resilient to disturbance. However, instead of monitoring all living organisms within an ecosystem, we can study indicator species to measure ecosystem health. These organisms can ‘indicate’ the state of their environment via their need for specific resources. Parasites are organisms that live in or on other organisms for their own benefit and here we test if they can be used as indicator species for freshwater wetlands because of their close association with their hosts. Parasites are abundant in wetland ecosystems and monitoring parasites may provide unique data in comparison to chemical or other abiotic approaches because it can reflect long-term patterns and ecosystem complexity. In this study, we focus on three taxa of flatworms (Class Trematoda), which are obligate parasites that have distinct life cycles involving different wetland taxa, including snails, insects, amphibians, and waterfowl. We surveyed parasites in restored wetlands in the Glacial Habitat Restoration Area in Southeastern Wisconsin. Three species of snails were collected from 16 restoration sites, representing four different management strategies. A total of 293 parasite infections were identified using morphological methods from the 1503 total snails collected. The three most common parasite taxa identified were Armatae, Echinostomes, and Strigea. Future analyses will compare parasite diversity and abundance to field surveys of their specific hosts.
