The Southern Oceans including Antarctic regions are peculiar and very sensitive water biotopes, where animal life and species interrelations are only poorly investigated. Especially the influence of parasites on their host species needs intensive consideration in times of global warming and worldwide pollution.

Introduction (Mehlhorn, Klimpel).- Antarctic biodiversity of aquatic parasites (Marcogliese).- Antarctic Digenea (Bray).- Antarctic Monogenea (Kritsky, Boeger).- Antactic Cestoda and Nematoda (Rocka, Laskowski).- Antarctic anisakid Nematoda (Klimpel, Kuhn, Münster).- Antarctic Acanthocephala (Zdzitowiecki, Laskowski).- Antarctic parasitic Crustacea (Ho or Williams).- Antarctic lice of seals (Mehlhorn).- Antarctic leeches (Bielecki, Rokicka).- Parasite communities of Penguins (Diaz, Barbosa).- Parasite communities of mammals (McFarlane or Mattiucci, Nascetti).- Parasite communities of fish (Mattiucci, Nascetti or George-Nascimento).- History of Antarctic parasitological research (MacKenzie, Hemmingsen).

The Southern Oceans including Antarctic regions are peculiar and very sensitive water biotopes, where animal life and species interrelations are only poorly investigated. Especially the influence of parasites on their host species needs intensive consideration in times of global warming and worldwide pollution. Both factors may influence the finely balanced interrelationships between parasites and endangered hosts especially in specialized regions such as Antarctica. Before this background the present book offers a broad spectrum of important parasite-host interrelations in times of ecosystem changes written by experienced and renown international specialists.

Offers a broad spectrum of important parasite-host interrelations in times of ecosystem changes Provides an overview about the parasites biodiversity of the Southern Oceans Written by experienced and renowned international specialists