The terrestrial invertebrate fauna of Edgeøya, Svalbard: Arctic landscape community composition reflects biogeography patterns

Abstract

Colonisation and immigration history is often neglected as a factor when investigating community or species distribution patterns. However, for dynamic systems that are still reacting to large-scale environmental change, such as the retreat of the ice since the last glacial maximum, colonisation history may explain a large amount of the variation between geographically distinct communities. The High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard presents an opportunity to test whether it is possible to observe the effects of large-scale biogeographical patterns on species distribution at landscape scales. Svalbard has one of the best described inventories of the invertebrate fauna in the Arctic. Nonetheless, the majority of the species records originate from the more accessible west coast and the invertebrate fauna of the whole eastern region, including Edgeøya, is virtually unknown. Edgeøya is located at the eastern fringe of the archipelago on the boundary between Palaearctic and Nearctic faunas. It was expected that post-colonisation dispersal within Edgeøya would conceal routes to the archipelago. Samples were obtained from six locations along the coast of Edgeøya between 2009 and 2010. 140 invertebrate species were identified belonging to 69 different genera of which 16 are new records for Svalbard. Most new species present an eastern Palaearctic distribution. Habitat variables (percentage cover of moss, lichen, vascular plant, or bare soil) fail to explain 35.5% of the differences among sites. However, cluster analysis reveals a clear east-west distribution pattern across the island suggesting that pan-Arctic dispersal routes can be identified even at relatively short geographical scales.

The Chironomidae (Diptera) of Svalbard and Jan Mayen

“…We were also able to retrieve a 70bp mini barcode from the syntype that exclusively matches 100% with other barcoded specimens of S. longicosta from Svalbard. The species is identical to the one that [128] recorded under the interim name Smittia sp. 1ES.…”

Diversity and Distribution of Mites (Acari: Ixodida, Mesostigmata, Trombidiformes, Sarcoptiformes) in the Svalbard Archipelago

“…Studies conducted during the past 20 years have also added 16 species of Mesostigmata [8,18,20,27,28,30,85,92,93,95,98,166] and 36 species of Sarcoptiformes to the Svalbard fauna [8][9][10]67,71,72,74,146,167]. This indicates that despite the relatively long history of mite studies for a region in the Arctic, our knowledge remains surprisingly poor.…”

“…Just south of Svalbard, two sea currents meet, a northern branch of the warm North Atlantic Drift and the southerly flowing cold Arctic Current, with consequences for the local climates on the east and west coasts of the archipelago [7] and potentially for species immigration histories, thus affecting species communities. A good example is the distinctive acarofauna of Edgeøya in the east of the archipelago compared to that observed on the west coast [8] and which includes an oribatid species new to science and not so far recorded elsewhere [9].…”

Dominant Arctic Predator Is Free of Major Parasitoid at Northern Edge of Its Range

“…Likewise, slight differences in plant community composition and other abiotic conditions contribute to which arthropod species are present at a given site (Hansen et al, 2016a,b). Local geological and glacial histories also strongly affect the distribution of species, the interactions between them, and their co-evolutionary dynamics (Anderson and Ferree, 2010;Stewart et al, 2010;Yeakel et al, 2013;Ávila-Jiménez et al, 2019). Zackenberg is more recently deglaciated compared to other areas of the Arctic where wolf spider egg sac parasitism rates are high, such as NW North America (Tarasov et al, 2012;Lecavalier et al, 2014).…”