Hypersaline lakes or brines are unique ecosystems with unique value and biodiversity that provide economic (mining) and noneconomic services (waterbird habitat). As they are shrinking around the world due to brine diversion and climatic oscillations, this article alerts on the fragility of Andean high‐altitude hypersaline lagoons in Salar de Atacama in the hyperarid Atacama Desert, northern Chile. As an integral part of the world's largest lithium exploitation from brine pumped from beneath the Salar, brine diversion and water shortage should compromise lagoons structure, functioning, and their high ecological value as habitat for endangered migratory birds like flamingos. Conserving the unique biodiversity and properties of these lagoons require long‐term monitoring, including keystone taxa like the brine shrimp Artemia . How Chile will combine biodiversity agreements, treaties on wetlands and endangered birds conservation under the soaring lithium demand to support electromobility? Chile's government has granted new lithium extraction quotas to mining companies until 2030, which raises a concern and shows the difficulty to reconcile profit‐driven economic development with nature conservation. As these lagoons may be shrinking and their food web altered, a problem only noticed so far by the declining flamingos, there is an urgent need to consider them in the environmental impact assessment legislation.

The genus Artemia consists of several bisexual and parthenogenetic sibling species. One of them, A. franciscana, originally restricted to the New World, becomes invasive when introduced into ecosystems out of its natural range of distribution. Invasiveness is anthropically favored by the use of cryptobiotic eggs in the aquaculture and pet trade. The mechanisms of out-competition of the autochthonous Artemia by the invader are still poorly understood. Ecological fitness may play a pivotal role, but other underlying biotic and abiotic factors may contribute. Since the presence of toxicants in hypersaline aquatic ecosystems has been documented, our aim here is to study the potential role of an organophosphate pesticide, chlorpyrifos, in a congeneric mechanism of competition between the bisexual A. franciscana (AF), and one of the Old World parthenogenetic siblings, A. parthenogenetica (PD). For this purpose we carried out life table experiments with both species, under different concentrations of the toxicant (0.1, 1 and 5μg/l), and analyzed the cholinesterase inhibition at different developmental stages. The results evidence that both, AF and PD, showed an elevated tolerance to high ranges of chlorpyrifos, but AF survived better and its fecundity was less affected by the exposure to the pesticide than that of PD. The higher fecundity of AF is a selective advantage in colonization processes leading to its establishment as NIS. Besides, under the potential selective pressure of abiotic factors, such as the presence of toxicants, its higher resistance in terms of survival and biological fitness also indicates out-competitive advantages.

Cysticercoids of two cestode species isolated from brine shrimps from the Mediterranean coasts of Spain and France are described. Fimbriarioides tadornae Maksimova, 1976 (adults known as parasites of Tadorna tadorna) was recorded from Artemia parthenogenetica and A. franciscana from Spain (Bras del Port and River Ebro Delta, respectively), and from A. franciscana from Aigues-Mortes, France (new geographical record). Branchiopodataenia gvozdevi (Maksimova, 1988) (adults known as parasites of Larus genei) was recorded from A. parthenogenetica (Bras del Port, Spain), A. salina (San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain) and A. franciscana (River Ebro Delta, Spain); this is the first record of the species in Europe. An illustrated key to cysticercoids of 12 cestode species from Artemia spp. from the Western Mediterranean is proposed.

The American brine shrimp Artemia franciscana is invasive in the Mediterranean region where it has displaced native species (the sexual A. salina, and the clonal A. parthenogenetica) from many salt pond complexes. Artemia populations are parasitized by numerous avian cestodes whose effects have been studied in native species. We present a study from the Ebro Delta salterns (NE Spain), in a salt pond where both A. franciscana and native A. salina populations coexist, providing a unique opportunity to compare the parasite loads of the two sexual species in syntopy. The native species had consistently higher infection parameters, largely because the dominant cestode in A. salina adults and juveniles (Flamingolepis liguloides) was much rarer in A. franciscana. The most abundant cestodes in the alien species were Eurycestus avoceti (in adults) and Flamingolepis flamingo (in juveniles). The abundance of E. avoceti and F. liguloides was higher in the A. franciscana population syntopic with A. salina than in a population sampled at the same time in another pond where the native brine shrimp was absent, possibly because the native shrimp provides a better reservoir for parasite circulation. Infection by cestodes caused red colouration in adult and juvenile A. salina, and also led to castration in a high proportion of adult females. Both these effects were significantly stronger in the native host than in A. franciscana with the same parasite loads. However, for the first time, significant castration effects (for E. avoceti and F. liguloides) and colour change (for six cestode species) were observed in infected A. franciscana. Avian cestodes are likely to help A. franciscana outcompete native species. At the same time, they are likely to reduce the production of A. franciscana cysts in areas where they are harvested commercially.

The present study is the first survey on the role of Artemia franciscana Kellogg as intermediate host of helminth parasites in its native geographical range in North America (previous studies have recorded nine cestode and one nematode species from this host in its invasive habitats in the Western Mediterranean). Samples of Artemia franciscana were collected from four sites in the Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah, across several months (June-September 2009). A. franciscana serves as intermediate host of five helminth species in this lake. Four of them are cestodes: three hymenolepidids, i.e. Confluaria podicipina (Szymanski, 1905) (adults parasitic in grebes), Hymenolepis (sensu lato) californicus Young, 1950 (adults parasitic in gulls), Wardium sp. (definitive host unknown, probably charadriiform birds), and one dilepidid, Fuhrmannolepis averini Spassky et Yurpalova, 1967 (adults parasitic in phalaropes). In addition, an unidentified nematode of the family Acuariidae was recorded. Confluaria podicipina is the most prevalent and abundant parasite at all sampling sites, followed by H. (s. l.) californicus. The species composition of the parasites and the spatial variations in their prevalence and abundance reflect the abundance and distribution of aquatic birds serving as their definitive hosts. The temporal dynamics of the overall helminth infections exhibits the highest prevalence in the last month of study at each site (August or September). This native population of A. franciscana from GSL is characterised with higher prevalence, intensity and abundance of the overall cestode infection compared to the introduced populations of this species in the Palaearctic Region. The values of the infection descriptors in the native population of A. franciscana are slightly lower or in some cases similar to those of the Palaearctic species Artemia parthenogenetica Barigozzi (diploid populations) and Artemia salina (Linnaeus) in their native habitats.