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Diversity and distribution of Victoria Land biota |
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| Authors: | Byron J Adams Richard D Bardgett Diana H Wall Stuart Bamforth Craig Cary Laurie Connell Jack W Fell Ian D Hogg Anthony O’Donnell Rodney D Seppelt |
| Institution: | a Microbiology and Molecular Biology Department, Evolutionary Ecology Laboratories, Brigham Young University, 775 WIDB, Provo, UT 84602, USA b Institute of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Soil and Ecosystem Ecology Laboratory, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA14YQ, UK c Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA d Landcare Research, Private Bag 3127, Hamilton, New Zealand e Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA f Università degli studi di Siena, Dipartimento di Science Ambientali, Via Mattioli, 4, 53100 Siena, Italy g University of Delaware, College of Marine Studies, Lewes, DE 19958, USA h Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università “La Sapienza”, Piazzale A. Moro, 5, 00185 Rome, Italy i School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, 5735 Hitchner Hall, Orono, ME 04468, USA j British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK k RSMAS, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Key Biscayne, FL 33149, USA l Dipartimento di Biologia Evolutiva, Università di Siena, via A. Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy m Center for Biodiversity and Ecology Research, Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand n Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability, Devonshire Building, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK o Department of Agricultural Sciences, Imperial College at Wye, Ashford, Kent TN25 5AH, UK p Australian Antarctic Division, Channel Highway, Kingston, Tasmania 7050, Australia q Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand |
| Abstract: | Understanding the relationship between soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is critical to predicting and monitoring the effects of ecosystem changes on important soil processes. However, most of Earth's soils are too biologically diverse to identify each species present and determine their functional role in food webs. The soil ecosystems of Victoria Land (VL) Antarctica are functionally and biotically simple, and serve as in situ models for determining the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem processes. For a few VL taxa (microarthropods, nematodes, algae, mosses and lichens), species diversity has been intensively assessed in highly localized habitats, but little is known of how community assemblages vary across broader spatial scales, or across latitudinal and environmental gradients. The composition of tardigrade, rotifer, protist, fungal and prokaryote communities is emerging. The latter groups are the least studied, but potentially the most diverse. Endemism is highest for microarthropods and nematodes, less so for tardigrades and rotifers, and apparently low for mosses, lichens, protists, fungi and prokaryotes. Much of what is known about VL diversity and distribution occurs in an evolutionary and ecological vacuum; links between taxa and functional role in ecosystems are poorly known and future studies must utilize phylogenetic information to infer patterns of community assembly, speciation, extinction, population processes and biogeography. However, a comprehensive compilation of all the species that participate in soil ecosystem processes, and their distribution across regional and landscape scales is immediately achievable in VL with the resources, tools, and expertise currently available. We suggest that the soil ecosystems of VL should play a major role in exploring the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and in monitoring the effects of environmental change on soil processes in real time and space. |
| Keywords: | Belowground Biodiversity Biogeography Distribution ecology Ecosystem services Ecosystem functioning Global change Species diversity Systematics Taxonomy |
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