The study aimed to characterise the species composition and compare helminth populations and communities in samples of helminths collected from marsh frogs in three localities in the city of Kyiv.Twenty helminth species were recorded in total, of which eight were found in all three localities: the nematodes Cosmocerca ornata and Icosiella neglecta, and the trematodes Diplodiscus subclavatus, Haematoloechus asper, Opisthioglyphe ranae, Pleurogenes claviger, Pleurogenoides medians, and Prosotocus confusus.In helminth infracommunities, species richness and abundance were the highest in frogs from Olzhyn Island (median 7 and 98, respectively).Helminth species richness was the lowest in the infracommunities from Lake Tiahle (median 4), while the abundance was the lowest in the infracommunities from Lake Telbin (median 51.5).From 3 to 4 species predominated in separate helminth component communities based on their high prevalence and abundance in the studied samples: D. subclavatus, I. neglecta, P. medians, and P. confusus in Lake Telbin;Codonocephalus urniger, I. neglecta, O. ranae, and P. confusus in Lake Tiahle; C. urniger, O. ranae, and Tylodelphys excavata in Olzhyn Island.According to our observations, intense urbanisation of Lake Telbin affects rather the abundance than the species richness in helminth communities of the marsh frog.On the other hand, the relatively low abundance of helminths in the infrapopulations from Lake Telbin resulted in comparatively higher diversity indices for the helminth component community in this locality.Moderate urbanisation, on the contrary, results in the strong predominance of some helminth species and low values of the diversity indices.
Dmytrieva et al. (Thu,) studied this question.