Habitat Specificity of Mites on Sub-Antarctic Marion Island

Barendse, Jaco; Mercer, R. D.; Marshall, David J.; Chown, Steven L.

doi:10.1603/0046-225x-31.4.612

Cited by 29 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Old leaves are retained, forming a moist, humus-like collection of organic matter underneath the plant's compact surface. The plant as a whole plays host to a diverse array of arthropods and epiphytic plants ( Barendse et al 2002;Hugo et al 2004;le Roux & McGeoch 2004).…”

Section: Study Area Host Plant and Experimental Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Species and community responses to short‐term climate manipulation: Microarthropods in the sub‐Antarctic

McGeoch

Roux²,

Hugo³

et al. 2006

Austral Ecology

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Both species and community-level investigations are important for understanding the biotic impacts of climate change, because current evidence suggests that individual species responses are idiosyncratic. However, few studies of climate change impacts have been conducted on entire terrestrial arthropod communities living in the same habitat in the southern Hemisphere, and the effects of precipitation changes on them are particularly poorly understood. Here we investigate the species-and community-level responses of microarthropods inhabiting a keystone plant species, on sub-Antarctic Marion Island, to experimental reduction in precipitation, warming and shading. These climate manipulations were chosen based on observed climate trends and predicted indirect climate change impacts on this system. The dry-warm and shade inducing treatments that were imposed effected significant species-and community-level responses after a single year. Although the strongest community-level trends included a dramatic decline in springtail abundance and total biomass under the dry-warm and shade treatments, species responses were generally individualistic, that is, springtails responded differently to mites, and particular mite and springtail species responded differently to each other. Our results therefore provide additional support for the dynamic rather than static model for community responses to climate change, in the first such experiment in the sub-Antarctic. In conclusion, these results show that an ongoing decline in precipitation and increase in temperature is likely to have dramatic direct and indirect effects on this microarthropod community. Moreover, they indicate that while at a broad scale it may be possible to make generalizations regarding species responses to climate change, these generalizations are unlikely to translate into predictable effects at the community level.

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Section: Study Area Host Plant and Experimental Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Species and community responses to short‐term climate manipulation: Microarthropods in the sub‐Antarctic

McGeoch

Roux²,

Hugo³

et al. 2006

Austral Ecology

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“…Rhodacaroids have been reported to inhabit deep soil layers (Krantz 1978) even in soils with low organic matter contents (Koehler 1991(Koehler , 1997. Similarly, rhodacarids have been found in much larger numbers than ologamasids in temperate forest soils (Van den Berg & Ryke 1967, Evans et al 1968, Price 1973, Crossley Jr. et al 1992, Coleman & Crossley Jr. 1996, Barendse et al 2002. However, Smith et al (1998) reported a slightly higher number of ologamasid than of rhodacarid mites in the Montane Cordillera Ecozone of Canada.…”

Section: Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of edaphic Rhodacaroid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata: Rhodacaroidea) in natural ecosystems in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

Silva¹,

Moraes²,

Krantz³

2004

Neotrop. Entomol.

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“…Notable exceptions are the studies by Usher & Booth (1984, 1986, which appear to have been limited only by the availability of appropriate analytical techniques. Other Antarctic studies have either examined the relationship between abundances and environmental variables directly ( Freckman & Virginia 1997;Courtright et al 2001;Sinclair & Sjursen 2001), or have sought to assess the habitat specificity and fidelity of species without explicit reference to underlying environmental variables (Mercer et al 2000;Barendse et al 2002). However, in a recent investigation of the abundance structure of several arthropod species at Cape Hallett (Northern Victoria Land; , spatially explicit analytical methods were used.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Values are percentage deviance explained Qualitative work on species incidences has mostly focused on determinants of habitat specificity. In the sub-Antarctic, it appears that species occupying the epilithic biotope (fellfield, coastal rockfaces) have greater habitat specificity and have occurred in these habitats for much longer, surviving glaciations in epilithic refugia, than species from the typically post-glacial vegetated biotope (Chown 1990a(Chown , 1994Barendse et al 2002). A global analysis of habitat specificity in ameronothroid mites has revealed a similar pattern in south and north polar species (Marshall & Convey 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variability across life's hierarchies in the terrestrial Antarctic

Chown

Convey

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

193

197

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Antarctica and its surrounding islands lie at one extreme of global variation in diversity. Typically, these regions are characterized as being species poor and having simple food webs. Here, we show that terrestrial systems in the region are nonetheless characterized by substantial spatial and temporal variations at virtually all of the levels of the genealogical and ecological hierarchies which have been thoroughly investigated. Spatial variation at the individual and population levels has been documented in a variety of genetic studies, and in mosses it appears that UV-B radiation might be responsible for within-clump mutagenesis. At the species level, modern molecular methods have revealed considerable endemism of the Antarctic biota, questioning ideas that small organisms are likely to be ubiquitous and the taxa to which they belong species poor. At the biogeographic level, much of the relatively small ice-free area of Antarctica remains unsurveyed making analyses difficult. Nonetheless, it is clear that a major biogeographic discontinuity separates the Antarctic Peninsula and continental Antarctica, here named the 'Gressitt Line'. Across the Southern Ocean islands, patterns are clearer, and energy availability is an important correlate of indigenous and exotic species richness, while human visitor numbers explain much of the variation in the latter too. Temporal variation at the individual level has much to do with phenotypic plasticity, and considerable lifehistory and physiological plasticity seems to be a characteristic of Antarctic terrestrial species. Environmental unpredictability is an important driver of this trait and has significantly influenced life histories across the region and probably throughout much of the temperate Southern Hemisphere. Rapid climate change-related alterations in the range and abundance of several Antarctic and subAntarctic populations have taken place over the past several decades. In many sub-Antarctic locations, these have been exacerbated by direct and indirect effects of invasive alien species. Interactions between climate change and invasion seem set to become one of the most significant conservation problems in the Antarctic. We conclude that despite the substantial body of work on the terrestrial biodiversity of the Antarctic, investigations of interactions between hierarchical levels remain scarce. Moreover, little of the available information is being integrated into terrestrial conservation planning, which lags far behind in this region by comparison with most others.

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Habitat Specificity of Mites on Sub-Antarctic Marion Island

Cited by 29 publications

References 41 publications

Species and community responses to short‐term climate manipulation: Microarthropods in the sub‐Antarctic

Species and community responses to short‐term climate manipulation: Microarthropods in the sub‐Antarctic

Diversity of edaphic Rhodacaroid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata: Rhodacaroidea) in natural ecosystems in the state of São Paulo, Brazil

Spatial and temporal variability across life's hierarchies in the terrestrial Antarctic

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