Environmental factors influencing fine-scale distribution of Antarctica's only endemic insect.

ABSTRACT: Species distributions are dependent on interactions with abiotic and biotic factors in the environment. Abiotic factors like temperature, moisture, and soil nutrients, along with biotic interactions within and between species, can all have strong influences on spatial distributions of plants and animals. Terrestrial Antarctic habitats are relatively simple and thus good systems to study ecological factors that drive species distributions and abundance. However, these environments are also sensitive to perturbation, and thus understanding the ecological drivers of species distribution is critical for predicting responses to environmental change. The Antarctic midge, Belgica antarctica, is the only endemic insect on the continent and has a patchy distribution along the Antarctic Peninsula. W

SUBMITTER: Potts LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7683470 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature