Survival of rapidly fluctuating natural low winter temperatures by High Arctic soil invertebrates

Peter Convey; Holly Abbandonato; Frode Bergan; Larissa Teresa Beumer; Elisabeth Machteld Biersma; Vegard Sandøy Bråthen; Ludovica D'Imperio; Christina Kjellerup Jensen; Solveig Nilsen; Karolina Paquin; Ute Stenkewitz; Mildrid Elvik Svoen; Judith Winkler; Eike Müller; Stephen James Coulson

doi:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.07.009

Survival of rapidly fluctuating natural low winter temperatures by High Arctic soil invertebrates

Peter Convey^*, Holly Abbandonato, Frode Bergan, Larissa Teresa Beumer, Elisabeth Machteld Biersma, Vegard Sandøy Bråthen, Ludovica D'Imperio, Christina Kjellerup Jensen, Solveig Nilsen, Karolina Paquin, Ute Stenkewitz, Mildrid Elvik Svoen, Judith Winkler, Eike Müller, Stephen James Coulson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Forest, Nature and Biomass

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The extreme polar environment creates challenges for its resident invertebrate communities and the stress tolerance of some of these animals has been examined over many years. However, although it is well appreciated that standard air temperature records often fail to describe accurately conditions experienced at microhabitat level, few studies have explicitly set out to link field conditions experienced by natural multispecies communities with the more detailed laboratory ecophysiological studies of a small number of 'representative' species. This is particularly the case during winter, when snow cover may insulate terrestrial habitats from extreme air temperature fluctuations. Further, climate projections suggest large changes in precipitation will occur in the polar regions, with the greatest changes expected during the winter period and, hence, implications for the insulation of overwintering microhabitats. To assess survival of natural High Arctic soil invertebrate communities contained in soil and vegetation cores to natural winter temperature variations, the overwintering temperatures they experienced were manipulated by deploying cores in locations with varying snow accumulation: No Snow, Shallow Snow (30. cm) and Deep Snow (120. cm). Air temperatures during the winter period fluctuated frequently between +3 and -24. °C, and the No Snow soil temperatures reflected this variation closely, with the extreme minimum being slightly lower. Under 30. cm of snow, soil temperatures varied less and did not decrease below -12. °C. Those under deep snow were even more stable and did not decline below -2. °C. Despite these striking differences in winter thermal regimes, there were no clear differences in survival of the invertebrate fauna between treatments, including oribatid, prostigmatid and mesostigmatid mites, Araneae, Collembola, Nematocera larvae or Coleoptera. This indicates widespread tolerance, previously undocumented for the Araneae, Nematocera or Coleoptera, of both direct exposure to at least -24. °C and the rapid and large temperature fluctuations. These results suggest that the studied polar soil invertebrate community may be robust to at least one important predicted consequence of projected climate change.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Thermal Biology
Volume	54
Pages (from-to)	111-117
Number of pages	7
ISSN	0306-4565
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.07.009
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2015

Keywords

Climate change
Freeze-thaw
Microarthropod
Polar
Snow

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.07.009

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Convey, P., Abbandonato, H., Bergan, F., Beumer, L. T., Biersma, E. M., Bråthen, V. S., D'Imperio, L., Jensen, C. K., Nilsen, S., Paquin, K., Stenkewitz, U., Svoen, M. E., Winkler, J., Müller, E., & Coulson, S. J. (2015). Survival of rapidly fluctuating natural low winter temperatures by High Arctic soil invertebrates. Journal of Thermal Biology, 54, 111-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.07.009

Convey, P, Abbandonato, H, Bergan, F, Beumer, LT, Biersma, EM, Bråthen, VS, D'Imperio, L, Jensen, CK, Nilsen, S, Paquin, K, Stenkewitz, U, Svoen, ME, Winkler, J, Müller, E & Coulson, SJ 2015, 'Survival of rapidly fluctuating natural low winter temperatures by High Arctic soil invertebrates', Journal of Thermal Biology, vol. 54, pp. 111-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.07.009

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abstract = "The extreme polar environment creates challenges for its resident invertebrate communities and the stress tolerance of some of these animals has been examined over many years. However, although it is well appreciated that standard air temperature records often fail to describe accurately conditions experienced at microhabitat level, few studies have explicitly set out to link field conditions experienced by natural multispecies communities with the more detailed laboratory ecophysiological studies of a small number of 'representative' species. This is particularly the case during winter, when snow cover may insulate terrestrial habitats from extreme air temperature fluctuations. Further, climate projections suggest large changes in precipitation will occur in the polar regions, with the greatest changes expected during the winter period and, hence, implications for the insulation of overwintering microhabitats. To assess survival of natural High Arctic soil invertebrate communities contained in soil and vegetation cores to natural winter temperature variations, the overwintering temperatures they experienced were manipulated by deploying cores in locations with varying snow accumulation: No Snow, Shallow Snow (30. cm) and Deep Snow (120. cm). Air temperatures during the winter period fluctuated frequently between +3 and -24. °C, and the No Snow soil temperatures reflected this variation closely, with the extreme minimum being slightly lower. Under 30. cm of snow, soil temperatures varied less and did not decrease below -12. °C. Those under deep snow were even more stable and did not decline below -2. °C. Despite these striking differences in winter thermal regimes, there were no clear differences in survival of the invertebrate fauna between treatments, including oribatid, prostigmatid and mesostigmatid mites, Araneae, Collembola, Nematocera larvae or Coleoptera. This indicates widespread tolerance, previously undocumented for the Araneae, Nematocera or Coleoptera, of both direct exposure to at least -24. °C and the rapid and large temperature fluctuations. These results suggest that the studied polar soil invertebrate community may be robust to at least one important predicted consequence of projected climate change.",

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AU - Convey, Peter

AU - Abbandonato, Holly

AU - Bergan, Frode

AU - Beumer, Larissa Teresa

AU - Biersma, Elisabeth Machteld

AU - Bråthen, Vegard Sandøy

AU - D'Imperio, Ludovica

AU - Jensen, Christina Kjellerup

AU - Nilsen, Solveig

AU - Paquin, Karolina

AU - Stenkewitz, Ute

AU - Svoen, Mildrid Elvik

AU - Winkler, Judith

AU - Müller, Eike

AU - Coulson, Stephen James

N1 - CENPERM[2015]

PY - 2015/12/1

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N2 - The extreme polar environment creates challenges for its resident invertebrate communities and the stress tolerance of some of these animals has been examined over many years. However, although it is well appreciated that standard air temperature records often fail to describe accurately conditions experienced at microhabitat level, few studies have explicitly set out to link field conditions experienced by natural multispecies communities with the more detailed laboratory ecophysiological studies of a small number of 'representative' species. This is particularly the case during winter, when snow cover may insulate terrestrial habitats from extreme air temperature fluctuations. Further, climate projections suggest large changes in precipitation will occur in the polar regions, with the greatest changes expected during the winter period and, hence, implications for the insulation of overwintering microhabitats. To assess survival of natural High Arctic soil invertebrate communities contained in soil and vegetation cores to natural winter temperature variations, the overwintering temperatures they experienced were manipulated by deploying cores in locations with varying snow accumulation: No Snow, Shallow Snow (30. cm) and Deep Snow (120. cm). Air temperatures during the winter period fluctuated frequently between +3 and -24. °C, and the No Snow soil temperatures reflected this variation closely, with the extreme minimum being slightly lower. Under 30. cm of snow, soil temperatures varied less and did not decrease below -12. °C. Those under deep snow were even more stable and did not decline below -2. °C. Despite these striking differences in winter thermal regimes, there were no clear differences in survival of the invertebrate fauna between treatments, including oribatid, prostigmatid and mesostigmatid mites, Araneae, Collembola, Nematocera larvae or Coleoptera. This indicates widespread tolerance, previously undocumented for the Araneae, Nematocera or Coleoptera, of both direct exposure to at least -24. °C and the rapid and large temperature fluctuations. These results suggest that the studied polar soil invertebrate community may be robust to at least one important predicted consequence of projected climate change.

AB - The extreme polar environment creates challenges for its resident invertebrate communities and the stress tolerance of some of these animals has been examined over many years. However, although it is well appreciated that standard air temperature records often fail to describe accurately conditions experienced at microhabitat level, few studies have explicitly set out to link field conditions experienced by natural multispecies communities with the more detailed laboratory ecophysiological studies of a small number of 'representative' species. This is particularly the case during winter, when snow cover may insulate terrestrial habitats from extreme air temperature fluctuations. Further, climate projections suggest large changes in precipitation will occur in the polar regions, with the greatest changes expected during the winter period and, hence, implications for the insulation of overwintering microhabitats. To assess survival of natural High Arctic soil invertebrate communities contained in soil and vegetation cores to natural winter temperature variations, the overwintering temperatures they experienced were manipulated by deploying cores in locations with varying snow accumulation: No Snow, Shallow Snow (30. cm) and Deep Snow (120. cm). Air temperatures during the winter period fluctuated frequently between +3 and -24. °C, and the No Snow soil temperatures reflected this variation closely, with the extreme minimum being slightly lower. Under 30. cm of snow, soil temperatures varied less and did not decrease below -12. °C. Those under deep snow were even more stable and did not decline below -2. °C. Despite these striking differences in winter thermal regimes, there were no clear differences in survival of the invertebrate fauna between treatments, including oribatid, prostigmatid and mesostigmatid mites, Araneae, Collembola, Nematocera larvae or Coleoptera. This indicates widespread tolerance, previously undocumented for the Araneae, Nematocera or Coleoptera, of both direct exposure to at least -24. °C and the rapid and large temperature fluctuations. These results suggest that the studied polar soil invertebrate community may be robust to at least one important predicted consequence of projected climate change.

KW - Climate change

KW - Freeze-thaw

KW - Microarthropod

KW - Polar

KW - Snow

U2 - 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.07.009

DO - 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.07.009

M3 - Journal article

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VL - 54

SP - 111

EP - 117

JO - Journal of Thermal Biology

JF - Journal of Thermal Biology

ER -

Survival of rapidly fluctuating natural low winter temperatures by High Arctic soil invertebrates

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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