Digenetic trematode parasite species abundance data from 2018-01-18 to 2019-10-19 at sites with artificial and natural shorelines located in Beaufort, NC (NCEI Accession 0284782)

Data were collected in support of a project evaluating trematode parasite diversity at sites with varying habitat complexity. We found that trematode richness, evenness, and diversity were all greater in snails sampled from sites with natural shorelines lacking artificial structures (e.g., bulkheads, seawalls). At the species-level, trematodes requiring polychaetes and estuarine fishes as downstream hosts dominated parasite communities at shorelines with artificial structures, taxa that are ubiquitous but more abundant in degraded environments. In contrast, a trematode species requiring mollusks and shorebirds as hosts was only documented from natural shorelines, indicating that these areas are less degraded and have greater overall host diversity. High parasite diversity in easily collected hosts (e.g., mudsnails) provides evidence that the secondary (polychaetes, crustaceans) and tertiary (fishes, shorebirds) hosts required by the parasites are also present in the system.