Tardigrade distribution in soils of high Arctic habitats.

ABSTRACT: Tardigrades are omnipresent microfauna with scarce record on their ecology in soils. Here, we investigated soil inhabiting tardigrade communities in five contrasting polar habitats, evaluating their abundance, diversity, species richness, and species composition. Moreover, we measured selected soil physico-chemical properties to find the drivers of tardigrade distribution among these habitats. In spite of reported tardigrade viability in extreme conditions, glacier forelands represented a habitat almost devoid of tardigrades. Even dry and wet tundra with soil developing for over more than 10 000 years held low abundances compared to usual numbers of tardigrades in temperate habitats. Polar habitats also differ in species composition, with Diaforobiotus islandicus being typical speci

SUBMITTER: Tumova M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11222015 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature