A Forest Pool as a Habitat Island for Mites in a Limestone Forest in Southern Norway

Diversity

Sławomir Kaczmarek¹  Stanisław Seniczak¹  Radomir Graczyk²  Per Djursvoll³  Steffen Roth³  Bjarte H. Jordal³  Anna Seniczak³  Jarosław Kowalski⁴  Thomas Bolger⁵ 

[1] Department Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Kazimierz Wielki University, J.K. Ossolińskich Av. 12, 85-435 Bydgoszcz, Poland;Department of Biology and Animal Environment, Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology, Hetmańska 33, 85-039 Bydgoszcz, Poland;Department of Natural History, University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen, P.O. Box 7800, 5020 Bergen, Norway;Gorzewo 7, 09-200 Sierpc, Poland;School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, D04 V1W8 Dublin, Ireland;

关键词: Oribatida;    Mesostigmata;    new species records;    Norway;    Fennoscandia;   

DOI  :  10.3390/d13110578

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Forest water bodies, e.g., pools, constitute ‘environmental islands’ within forests, with specific flora and fauna thus contributing considerably to the landscape biodiversity. The mite communities of Oribatida and Mesostigmata in two distinctive microhabitats, water-soaked Sphagnum mosses at the edge of a pool and other mosses growing on the medium-wet forest floor nearby, were compared in a limestone forest in Southern Norway. In total, 16,189 specimens of Oribatida representing 98 species, and 499 specimens of Mesostigmata, from 23 species, were found. The abundance and species number of Oribatida were significantly lower at the pool, while the abundance and species richness of Mesostigmata did not differ. Both the communities of Oribatida and of Mesostigmata differed among the microhabitats studied and analysis showed significant differences between the community structures in the two microhabitats. The most abundant oribatid species in Sphagnum mosses was Parachipteria fanzagoi (Jacot, 1929), which made up over 30% of all Oribatida, followed by Atropacarus striculus (C.L. Koch, 1835) and Tyrphonothrus maior (Berlese, 1910) (14% and 12% of Oribatida, respectively). Among Mesostigmata Paragamasus parrunciger (Bhattacharyya, 1963) dominated (44% of Mesostigmata), followed by P. lapponicus (Trägårdh, 1910) (14% of Mesostigmata). Most of these species, except P. lapponicus, were either absent or very uncommon in the other microhabitat studied. The specific acarofauna of the forest pool shows the importance of such microhabitats in increasing forest diversity. In addition, a quarter of the mite species found had not been reported from Norwegian broadleaf forests before, including five new species records for Norway and four new to Fennoscandia, all found in the medium-wet microhabitat. Most of these species are rarely collected and have their northernmost occurrence in the studied forest.

【 授权许可】

Unknown