Soil fauna of Princess Ingeborg Peninsula

TY - CONF

T1 - Soil fauna of Princess Ingeborg Peninsula

AU - Krogh, Paul Henning

AU - Gjelstrup, Peter

AU - Hansen, Oskar Liset Pryds

AU - Høye, Toke Thomas

N1 - Conference code: 3

PY - 2020/1/27

Y1 - 2020/1/27

N2 - BackgroundSoil fauna of the high arctic North Greenland above 79o latitude are particularly unknown, so we sampled the soil fauna within an area of 3 km x 5 km, 5 km south of the Villum Research Station, Station Nord, from August 3-6, 2016, in ten plots of 1,000 m2 (Fig. 1). Ten soil cores of diameter 7 cm and depth 5 cm were collected in each plot and the plant coverage were determined in 10 circles pr. plot. Soil cores were extracted in a MacFadyen high gradient extractor at Aarhus University, Dep. of Bioscience. The surface of most plots were characterized by less than 20% vegetation cover, while only two plots, characterized by either Papaver or Salix, had 50% and 40% vegetation cover, respectively. Collembola and enchytraeidsCollembola was the second largest microarthropod taxon. Enchytraeids, though not extracted by specific methods and therefore underestimated, had the biggest biomass of 37 mg m-2.Oribatid communityOribatid mites dominated the microarthropod fauna with 3,000 individuals m-2 (≈15 mg m-2 ) of the total microarthropods and enchytraeids of 4,100 m-2. The oribatid assembly, with species all known from the arctic, included: Iugoribates gracilis, Liochthonius muscorum, Tectocepheus tenuis and Camisia lapponica. I. gracilis made up 75% of the oribatids. I. gracilis and L. muscorum were found in sites with Arctic poppy, Papaver radicatum, grasses, lichens and mosses. C. lapponica was abundant in the Salix plot.Barcoding of the oribatid I. gracilisWe did COI barcoding of 27 adults and nymphs of I. gracilis in collaboration with NorBOL (Norwegian Barcode of Life) and obtained confirmation of their species identity through BOLD (Barcode of Life Database). Thus, the same species, as verified by the COI barcode, was found in the artic Canada at Ellesmere Island, Victoria Island and Bylot Island and they all belong to the BOLD BIN: BOLD:AAN6609. A synonym species was found in Manitoba and Victoria Island differing by 9% from the latter and assigned to BIN BOLD:AAH6608, and therefore would be a separate species named I. gracilis by mistake.Conclusions- There is a need to sample and barcode the circumpolar oribatids to reveal their species identity and ascertain previous identifications.- The soil fauna in the harsh environment of Princess Ingeborg Peninsula is scarce by its 4,000 indv. m-2 compared to e.g. Zackenberg where 175,000 indv. m-2 was reported (Sørensen et al. 2006).- Oribatids were affiliated with specific plant habitats.

AB - BackgroundSoil fauna of the high arctic North Greenland above 79o latitude are particularly unknown, so we sampled the soil fauna within an area of 3 km x 5 km, 5 km south of the Villum Research Station, Station Nord, from August 3-6, 2016, in ten plots of 1,000 m2 (Fig. 1). Ten soil cores of diameter 7 cm and depth 5 cm were collected in each plot and the plant coverage were determined in 10 circles pr. plot. Soil cores were extracted in a MacFadyen high gradient extractor at Aarhus University, Dep. of Bioscience. The surface of most plots were characterized by less than 20% vegetation cover, while only two plots, characterized by either Papaver or Salix, had 50% and 40% vegetation cover, respectively. Collembola and enchytraeidsCollembola was the second largest microarthropod taxon. Enchytraeids, though not extracted by specific methods and therefore underestimated, had the biggest biomass of 37 mg m-2.Oribatid communityOribatid mites dominated the microarthropod fauna with 3,000 individuals m-2 (≈15 mg m-2 ) of the total microarthropods and enchytraeids of 4,100 m-2. The oribatid assembly, with species all known from the arctic, included: Iugoribates gracilis, Liochthonius muscorum, Tectocepheus tenuis and Camisia lapponica. I. gracilis made up 75% of the oribatids. I. gracilis and L. muscorum were found in sites with Arctic poppy, Papaver radicatum, grasses, lichens and mosses. C. lapponica was abundant in the Salix plot.Barcoding of the oribatid I. gracilisWe did COI barcoding of 27 adults and nymphs of I. gracilis in collaboration with NorBOL (Norwegian Barcode of Life) and obtained confirmation of their species identity through BOLD (Barcode of Life Database). Thus, the same species, as verified by the COI barcode, was found in the artic Canada at Ellesmere Island, Victoria Island and Bylot Island and they all belong to the BOLD BIN: BOLD:AAN6609. A synonym species was found in Manitoba and Victoria Island differing by 9% from the latter and assigned to BIN BOLD:AAH6608, and therefore would be a separate species named I. gracilis by mistake.Conclusions- There is a need to sample and barcode the circumpolar oribatids to reveal their species identity and ascertain previous identifications.- The soil fauna in the harsh environment of Princess Ingeborg Peninsula is scarce by its 4,000 indv. m-2 compared to e.g. Zackenberg where 175,000 indv. m-2 was reported (Sørensen et al. 2006).- Oribatids were affiliated with specific plant habitats.

M3 - Poster

T2 - 3rd Workshop on Field Studies at the Villum Research Station (VRS)

Y2 - 27 January 2020 through 28 January 2020

ER -