The extreme polar environment creates challenges for the resident invertebrate communities and the stress tolerance of some of these animals has been examined over many years. However, although it is well appreciated that standard air temperature records often fail to describe accurately conditions experienced at microhabitat level, few studies have explicitly set out to link field conditions experienced by natural multispecies communities with the more detailed laboratory ecophysiological studies of a small number of 'representative' species. This is particularly the case during winter, when snow cover may insulate terrestrial habitats from 3 extreme air temperature fluctuations. Further, climate projections suggest large changes in precipitation will occur in the polar regions, with the greatest changes expected during the winter period and, hence, implications for the insulation of overwintering microhabitats. To assess survival of natural High Arctic soil invertebrate communities contained in soil and vegetation cores to natural winter temperature variations, the overwintering temperatures they experienced were manipulated by deploying cores in locations with varying snow accumulation: No Snow, Shallow Snow (30cm) and Deep Snow (120cm). Air temperatures during the winter period fluctuated frequently between +3 and -24°C, and the No Snow soil temperatures reflected this variation closely, with the extreme minimum being slightly lower. Under 30cm of snow, soil temperatures varied less and did not decrease below -12°C. Those under deep snow were even more stable and did not decline below -2°C. Despite these striking differences in winter thermal regimes, there were no clear differences in survival of the invertebrate fauna between treatments, including oribatid, prostigmatid and mesostigmatid mites, Araneae, Collembola, Nematocera larvae or Coleoptera. This indicates widespread tolerance, previously undocumented for the Araneae, Nematocera or Coleoptera, of both direct exposure to at least -24°C and the rapid and large temperature fluctuations. These results suggest that the studied polar soil invertebrate community may be robust to at least one important predicted consequence of projected climate change.
Abstract-Beaver (Castor spp.) normally scent mark by depositing castoreum and/or anal gland secretion on scent mounds close to the water's edge. The aim of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that the Eurasian beaver (C. fiber) scent marks as a means of territory defense. Scent marking behavior was studied during an entire year (1 April 1995 -31 March 1996) in 7 adjacent territories along 9.2 km of the Bø River in Telemark County, Norway. The number and location of fresh scent marks were recorded biweekly. The main results showed that:1) the number of scent marks in territories was significantly higher in spring, when dispersal of subadults normally occurs, than during the rest of the year; 2) the number of scent marks was clumped near territorial borders; and 3) the number of scent marks were significantly greater upstream than downstream of the lodge.
ObjectiveAbstractThe genetic markers designed for this study can facilitate future genetic studies on the rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta). To our knowledge no microsatellite markers have ever been developed specifically for this species before. These new microsatellite markers will be useful for population genetics studies and for future conservation projects.ResultsUsing Next Generation Sequencing 6252 potential microsatellite sequences were found. Sixteen nonpalindromic tetranucleotide microsatellites and their respective primers were selected. The markers were tested on both the rock ptarmigan and the willow grouse (L. lagopus). The number of alleles varied between 2 and 18 for the rock ptarmigan, and between 3 and 13 for the willow grouse. Expected heterozygosity was in the range 0.1244–0.8692 and 0.1358–0.8722 for the rock ptarmigan and the willow grouse, respectively.
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