Seasonal and Altitudinal Variation in the Distribution and Abundance of Tardigrada on Dugger Mountain, Alabama

Distribution and diversity of Tardigrada along altitudinal gradients in the Hornsund, Spitsbergen (Arctic)

“…Other studies provide conflicting results, reporting a positive (e.g., Rodriguez-Roda 1951;Nelson 1975;Dastych 1987Dastych , 1988Kaczmarek, Gołdyn, Wełnicz et al 2011), a negative (e.g., Dastych 1980Beasley 1988;Collins & Bateman 2001) or no relationships (e.g., Kathman & Cross 1991;Nichols et al 2001) between tardigrade species richness and elevation. However, this inconsistency may be illusory and results reported by different authors may in fact be complementary.…”

“…Some previous studies have reported an increase (e.g., Dastych 1980Dastych , 1987Dastych , 1988, a decrease (e.g., Dastych 1985;Beasley 1988;Collins & Bateman 2001) or no changes (e.g., Kathman & Cross 1991;Nichols et al 2001;Johansson et al 2013) in tardigrade abundance with increasing altitude. Although Dastych (1985) reported that in Svalbard tardigrade abundance decreases distinctly with elevation, closer examination of his data indicate that tardigrade abundance shows a unimodal relationship with altitude, reaching the highest values between 100 and 300 m a.s.l.…”

“…To eliminate potential effects of slope exposure to sunlight (Nelson 1975;Nichols et al 2001), both transects were established on south-eastern facing slopes. Assuming a linear relationship between altitude and air temperature of 0.838C per 100 m of elevation (Migała et al 2008), the investigated altitudinal gradient, spanning approximately from sea level to over 500 m a.s.l., represents a temperature gradient of about 4.38C.…”

Interspecific Association and Substrate Specificity in Tardigrades from Florida, Southeastern United States

“…Tardigrades were unknown in Louisiana and Mississippi, and in Alabama and Florida only four species were known (Christenberry, 1979;Christenberry & Higgins, 1979;Christenberry & Mason, 1979). More recent studies have added considerably to our knowledge of the tardigrade fauna of Louisiana (Meyer, 2001) and Alabama (Nichols et al, 2001;Romano et al, 2001). However, Echiniscus virginicus Riggin 1962 remains the only published terrestrial tardigrade from Florida (Christenberry & Mason, 1979;Grigarick et al, 1983).…”

Distribution of limnoterrestrial Tardigrada in Georgia and the Gulf Coast states of the United States of America with ecological remarks

“…Other surveys have been limited to portions of a state. Mehlen (1969) surveyed Brazos County in Texas, Hinton & Meyer (2006) collected in 8 counties in western and southern Mississippi, Meyer (2001) collected in two Louisiana parishes (in Louisiana the parish is a unit of local government corresponding to counties in other states), while two studies (Nichols et al 2001) focused on north-central Alabama. Other papers (Mathews 1938;Beasley 1968Beasley , 1988Bernard 1977;Christenberry 1979;Christenberry & Higgins 1979;Christenberry & Mason 1979;Grigarick et al 1983;Pilato & Binda 2003;Meyer 2006b) mention the tardigrades of the region only in passing or focus on descriptions of new species.…”