The terrestrial and freshwater invertebrate biodiversity of the archipelagoes of the Barents Sea; Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya

The influence of a seabird colony on abundance and species composition of water bears (Tardigrada) in Hornsund (Spitsbergen, Arctic)

“…Coulson et al 2014), while the counterpart number of other archipelagos is estimated to be twice that number and more; for instance, in nonArctic archipelagos, on the Galapagos (located in tropical zone) and the Azores (located in temperate zone), the number of invertebrate species exceeds 2000 (Herrera and Roque-Á lbelo 2014; Base de Dados da Biodiversidade Dos Açores 2015). However, the low number of invertebrates identified may also be related to the fact that the Arctic has been poorly investigated (Coulson et al 2014). Therefore, faunistic studies on invertebrate diversity are of great interest (Hodkinson 2013).…”

“…Terrestrial water bears are also a constant element of polar ecosystems, where they inhabit tundra and polar deserts (e.g. McInnes 1994;Convey and McInnes 2005;Zawierucha 2013;Zawierucha et al 2013;Coulson et al 2014). The number of tardigrade species from Svalbard consists of ca.…”

New records of tardigrades from Colombia (Guatavita, Cundinamarca Department)

“…120, and Romania ca. 140 (see Degma, 2006;Kaczmarek et al 2010aKaczmarek et al , 2010bKaczmarek et al, 2012;Vargha, 2012;Zawierucha et al, 2013;Ciobanu et al, 2014;Coulson et al, 2014;Lisi et al, 2014). Knowledge on the tardigrade fauna of Colombia also looks very poor in comparison with knowledge of tardigrade fauna of Central and South America (100 species known from Central America, 220 from South America, and 251 from the entire Neotropical region) (Meyer, 2013;Kaczmarek et al, 2014b).…”

Distribution and population characteristics of the soil mites Diapterobates notatus and Svalbardia paludicola (Acari: Oribatida: Ceratozetidae) in High Arctic Svalbard (Norway)

“…The common occurrence of D. notatus in Svalbard may be due to: (1) cosmopolitan nature of this species which inhabits all vegetation classes but with a preference for open Dryas/Carex rupestris communities, (2) high biological potential (females were more abundant than males and carried 6-7 large eggs) resulting in a high proportion of juveniles, and (3) juvenile morphology which possesses long setae that may enhance passive 1 3 (Behan-Pelletier and Schatz 2010). However, within the Svalbard inventory there is some taxonomic uncertainty regarding the identification of some species (Coulson et al 2014). Nonetheless, population parameters, such as distribution, density, stage and sex structure of the Svalbard oribatid communities are unknown, except for the four species investigated by Seniczak et al (2014aSeniczak et al ( , 2015aSeniczak et al ( , b, 2016.…”

“…The vegetation cover creates the microhabitats for the mite community, integrating various important environmental factors that control the population parameters of these species or can explain absence. A limited number of studies have investigated the distribution of oribatid mites in the Svalbard archipelago (Bayartogtokh et al 2011;Coulson et al 2003Coulson et al , 2014Seniczak et al 2014aSeniczak et al , 2015a, but these concerned single regions or omitted the demographically important juvenile stages. Our aim is to compare the density, stage and sex structure, number of gravid females, and the body size of D. notatus and S. paludicola from diverse vegetation classes and locations in Svalbard.…”