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Kirill Nikolaev
Ph.D.
White Sea Biological Station
Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences
Universitetskaya nab., 1
199034, St.-Petersburg, Russia
Tel: +7(812) 7140097
Fax: +7(812) 7140444
E-mail: k-nicolaev@yandex.ru
Research interests:  role of the parasites in the marine ecosystems, host-parasite interactions, trematodes in marine ecosystems.
Education:
2003 - Diploma of the Higher Education, St.Petersburg State University, Biological and Soil Sciences Faculty, Invertebrate Zoology Department.
2008 – PhD student, Zoological Institute RAS
Membership:
Parasitological Community, RAS
Main research areas:
The realization of the life cycle strategies in two trematode species, Himasthla elongata (Echinostomatidae family) and Cercaria parvicaudata (Renicolidae family) in the littoral ecosystems of the Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea is studied. In spite of significant differences in the species morphology and ecological peculiarities, these species are the parasites of the same hosts, which make possible the intraspecific comparison of the life cycle strategy realization. The effectiveness of the invasive transmission from the first intermediate host (gastropod mollusk of Littorina genus) to the second intermediate host (bivalve mollusk Mytilus edulis) is studied. Additionally the season of the parasite transmission and the invasion intensity are evaluated for several areas of the Chupa Inlet (Kandalaksha Bay, the White Sea).

The studies of the seasonal dynamics of the invasion intensity of the key littoral gastropod mollusks, Littorina saxatilis, L. obtusata, Hydrobia ulvae, H. ventrosa, started in 1999. The seasonal dynamics of the parasite abundance and structure of the partenite aggregations are described. The season of the invasion of the intermediate and final hosts is determined. Data obtained by the long-term monitoring are analysed using the state-of-the-art methods of time-series analysis - a singular spectral analysis.

The invasion intensity of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis by metacercarians of Himasthla elongata and Cercaria parvicaudata was performed in 1999-2002. The interrelationships between the metacercarian invasion intensity and size-age host peculiarities were analyzed. The spatial structure and the seasonal dynamics of the trematode subpopulations were studied.

The invasion intensity of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis by metacercarians of diffeent trematode species was studied for different areas of the White Sea and for the first time in the south-eastern Barents Sea (the Pechora Sea) in 2006-2008 (INTAS - 05-1000008-8056 “ Interactions between hosts and parasites in Palaearctic coastal ecosystems: interpretation and modeling of the mussel/bird predator system”).

From 2013 to the present time we have conducted field and experimental research in the framework of the project "System of compromises in the life cycle of trematodes - experimental and theoretical research" (RFBR Grant - 13-04-00875). The project is aimed at identifying the basic mechanisms underlying the maintenance of the stability of the life cycles of trematodes in ecosystems in the northern seas. These data are used to predict the effects of climate oscillations on the transmission of trematodes in coastal waters of the Arctic seas.
Publications
  • Levakin I.A., Nikolaev K.E., Galaktionov K.V. 2023. The effect of host density on parasite infection: a power-law model and an experimental test with trematode larvae infecting mussels. Mar Biol 170, 13.  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Nikolaev K.E., Fedorov D.D., Vinogradova A.A., Levakin I.A., Galaktionov K.V. 2023. No time to relax: age-dependent infectivity of cercariae in marine coastal ecosystems Journal of Helminthology, Dec 22;97:e102  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Abstracts of the XIV Conference "Exploration, sustainable use and protection of natural resources of the White Sea", October 4-7, 2022, Zoological Institute RAS (St.-Petersburg, Russia).  Download
  • Bakhmet I., Aristov D.,Marchenko J., Nikolaev K. 2022. Handling the heat: Changes in the heart rate of two congeneric blue mussel species and their hybrids in response to water temperature. Journal of Sea Research 185, 102218  Abstract  Download
  • Nikolaev K.E., Levakin I.A., Galaktionov K.V. 2021. A month for the mission: using a sentinel approach to determine the transmission window of digenean cercariae in the subarctic White Sea. Journal of Helminthology. 2021. Vol. 95. P.e50.   Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Prokofiev V.V., Galaktionov K.V., Levakin I.A., Nikolaev K.E. 2020. Light or temperature? What regulates the emergency of trematode cercariae from the molluscan hosts and how it is done. Parazitologia, 54 (3): 179-197  Download
  • Nikolaev K.E., Levakin I.A., Galaktionov K.V. 2020. Seasonal dynamics of trematode infection in the first and the second intermediate hosts: A long-term study at the subarctic marine intertidal. Journal of Sea Research, 164: 101931  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Solovyeva A. Nikolaev K., Lebedev E., Potolytsina E.,Galaktionov N., Levakin I. 2020. Reduced infectivity in Himasthla elongata (Trematoda, Himasthlidae) cercariae with deviant photoreaction. Journal of Helminthology, 94. e129, 1–5.  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Bakhmet I., Nikolaev K., Levakin I, Ekimov D. 2019. Influence of Himasthla elongata (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) metacercariae on heart rate in blue mussels (Mytilus edulis). Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, 166, 107220.  Download
  • Galaktionov K.V., Nikolaev K.E., Aristov D.A., Levakin I.A., Kozminsky E.V. 2019. Parasites on the edge: patterns of trematode transmission in the Arctic intertidal at the Pechora Sea (South-Eastern Barents Sea). Polar Biology, 42, 9: 1719-1737  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Prokofiev V.V., Levakin I.A., Nikolaev K.E., Galaktionov K.V. 2018. Light and temperature — interaction of factors determined the intensity of emergence of cercariae of Himasthla elongata (Digenea, Himasthlidae). Parazitologia, 52(6): 433-441 (In Russian)  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Fokina N.N., Sukhovskaya I.V., Ruokolainen T.R., Kochneva A.A., Bakhmet I.N., Nikolaev K.E., Levakin I.A. 2018 Assessment of the lipid composition and some components of the antioxidant system in blue mussels Mytilus edulis experimentally infected with Himasthla elongata metacercariae. Transactions of Karelian Research Centre of Russian Academy of Science. No 6. Experimental biology: 81-94  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Bakhmet I., Nikolaev K., Levakin I. 2017. Effect of infection with Metacercariae of Himasthla elongata (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) on cardiac activity and growth rate in blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in situ. Journal of Sea Research, 123: 51–54.  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Nikolaev K.E., Prokofiev V.V., Levakin I.A., Galaktionov K.V. 2017. How the position of mussels at the intertidal lagoon affects their infection with the larvae of parasitic flatworms (Trematoda: Digenea): A combined laboratory and field experimental study. Journal of Sea Research, 128: 32-40.  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Exploration, sustainable use and protection of natural resources of the White Sea. Proceedings of the XIII conference, Saint Petersburg, Zoological Institute RAS, 2017, 290 p. (In Russian).  Download
  • Bakhmet I. N., Nikolaev K. E., Ekimov D. A., Ipatov A. A. 2017. The characteristics of gastropod Littorina littorea L. 1758 cardiac activity under effect of Himasthla elongata (Mehlis, 1831) (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) infestation. Parazitologia, 51 (5), 404-411. (In Russian).  Download
  • Prokofiev V.V., Levakin I.A., Nikolaev K.E., Galaktionov K.V. 2017. Light and temperature — interaction of factors determining the intensity of emergence of cercariae of Himasthla elongata (Digenea, Himasthlidae). Parazitologia, 51 (6), 457-465. (In Russian).  Download
  • Galaktionov, K. V., Bustnes, J. O., Bårdsen B. –J., Wilson, J. G., Nikolaev, K. E., Sukhotin, A. A., Skirnisson, K., Saville, D. H., Ivanov, M. V., Regel, K.V. 2015. Factors influencing the distribution of trematode larvae in blue mussels Mytilus edulis in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Marine Biology 162: 193-206.  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Galaktionov K.V., Podvyaznaya I.M, Nikolaev K.E., Levakin I.A. 2015. Self-sustaining infrapopulation or colony? Redial clonal groups of Himasthla elongata (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) in Littorina littorea (Gastropoda: Littorinidae) do not support the concept of eusocial colonies in trematodes. Folia Parasitologica 62:067 (open access)  Abstract  Download
  • Levakin I.A., Nikolaev K.E., Galaktionov K.V. 2013. Use of singular spectrum analysis in parasitology: the dynamics of infestation of mollusks Hydrobia ventrosa by parthenites of trematodes Cryptocotyle concavum and Bunocotyle progenetica in the White Sea. Parazitologia, 47, 1: 23-37. (In Russian).  Request for a reprint
  • Levakin I. A., Losev E. A., Nikolaev K. E., Galaktionov K. V. 2013. In vitro encystment of Himasthla elongata cercariae (Digenea, Echinostomatidae) in the hemolymph of blue mussels Mytilus edulis as a tool for assessing cercarial infectivity and molluscan susceptibility. Journal of Helminthology, 87 (2): 180-188.   Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Wilson, J.G., Galaktionov, K.V., Sukhotin, A.A., Skirnisson, K., Nikolaev, K.E., Ivanov, M.I., Bustnes, J.O., Saville, D.H., Regel, K.V. 2013. Factors influencing trematode parasite burdens in mussels (Mytilus spp) from the North Atlantic Ocean across to the North Pacific. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 132: 87-93.  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Levakin I.A., K.E. Nikolaev, K.V. Galaktionov. 2013. Long-term variation in trematode (Trematoda, Digenea) component communities associated with intertidal gastropods is linked to abundance of final hosts. Hydrobiologia, 706: 103-118.  Abstract  Request for a reprint
  • Nikolaev K.E., Galaktionov K.V. Transmission patterns of trematodes family Echinostomatide and Renicolae in costal communities of Kandalaksha Bay, the White Sea. In: Proceedings of the V Al-Russian conference with International participation on theoretical and marine parasitology. (23-27 April 2012, Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad district). Nigmatullin Ch.M. (ed.). Kaliningrad: AtlantNIRO Publishing. 2012: 150-153. (In Russian).
  • Sukhachev A.N., Kudryavtsev I.V., Dyachkov I.S., Nikolaev K.E., Polevschikov A. V., Kharazova A. D. 2007. Characterization of Mytulis edulis innate immunity reactions. Vestnik SPbGU Vol. 4. P. 80-85. (In Russian).  Download
  • Galaktionov K.V., Irwin S.W.B., Prokofiev V.V., Saville D.H., Nikolaev K.E., Levakin I.A. 2006. Trematode transmission in coastal communities - temperature dependence and climate change perspectives. 11th International Congress of Parasitology (ICOPA XI). Glasgow (Scotland, United Kingdom), August 6-11, 2006. Medimond International Proceedings: 85-90.  Request for a reprint
  • Nikolaev K.E., Sukhotin A.A., Galaktionov K.V. 2006. Infection patterns in White Sea blue mussels Mytilus edulis L. of different age and size with metacercariae of Himasthla elongate (Mehlis, 1831) (Echinostomatidae) and Cercaria parvicaudata Stunkard & Shaw, 1931 (Renicolidae). Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 71: 51-58.  Abstract  Download
  • Levakin I. A., Nikolaev K. E. 2003. Usage of probablistic model for an estimation of an infection rate of mussels (Mytilus edulis) by metacercariae Himasthla elongata (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) Parasitologia Vol. 37, ¹5. P. 402-410. (In Russian).  Request for a reprint
  • Nikolaev K.E. 2002. Spatial structure and seasonal dynamics of cercarian hemipopulations of Himasthla elongate, a parasite of the White sea mussels (Mytilus edulis). Vestnik SPbGU, Ser. 3, 4: 30-33. (In Russian).  Download