Can climate warming save Daphnia from parasites? Reduced parasite prevalence in Daphnia populations from artificially heated lakes

Climate warming might modify infection outcomes and it has been proposed that temperature increase will result in a “sicker world.” We tested this hypothesis by comparing the prevalence of infection in a common freshwater host–parasite system (crustacean Daphnia infected with the ichthyosporean pathogen Caullerya mesnili) between five artificially heated lakes and four nearby non‐heated control lakes. The heated lakes, which receive warm water from two power plants, have experienced an elevation in water temperature of ca. 3–4°C for the last 60 yr. Analyses of 5 yr of field data revealed that Daphnia communities from heated lakes had lower parasite prevalence than communities from control sites. To disentangle a possible direct detrimental effect of elevated temperature on the parasite from differences in baseline levels of host resistance, we compared infection susceptibility between Daphnia clones isolated from heated and control lakes, under laboratory conditions at two different temperatures. Daphnia from heated lakes were less susceptible to infection than clones from control lakes, while experimental temperature did not affect infection outcome. The data did not confirm the “warmer hence sicker world” scenario. Instead, it seems that indirect effects of temperature elevation (via shifts in lake hydrology) may restrict its spread into heated lakes. Then, local adaptation to the host from control lakes further inhibits re‐establishment of the parasite from control to heated lakes. Our results underline the context‐dependency of the impact of temperature increase on host–parasite interactions.