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Issue: Vol. 4392 No. 2: 9 Mar. 2018
Type: Article
Published: 2018-03-08
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4392.2.5
Page range: 311–328
Abstract views: 137
PDF downloaded: 7

Tardigrada and Rotifera from moss microhabitats on a disappearing Ugandan glacier, with the description of a new species of water bear 

Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznań, Poland Laboratory of Fish Genetics, Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Rumburska 89, 277 21 Libechov, Czech Republic
Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 9, 30-387 Kraków, Poland
Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
The Arctic Environment Research Center, National Institute of Polar Research, 10-3 Midoricho, Tachikawa, Tokyo, 190-8518, Japan
Laboratory of Fish Genetics, Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Rumburska 89, 277 21 Libechov, Czech Republic Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Chittussiho 10, 710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic
CNR-ISE, National Research Council, Institute of Ecosystem Study, Largo Tonolli 50, 28922 Verbania Pallanza, Italy
Tardigrada Adropion afroglacialis sp. nov. biodiversity loss endangered habitats extreme ecosystems extremophiles Hypsibius tropical glaciers Uganda

Abstract

Glaciers and ice sheets are a peculiar biome with characteristic abiotic and biotic components. Mountain glaciers are predicted to decrease their volume and even to melt away within a few decades. Despite the threat of a disappearing biome, the diversity and the role of microscopic animals as consumers at higher trophic levels in the glacial biome still remain largely unknown. In this study, we report data on tardigrades and rotifers found in glacial mosses on Mount Stanley, Uganda, and describe a new tardigrade species. Adropion afroglacialis sp. nov. differs from the most similar species by having granulation on the cuticle, absence of cuticular bars under the claws, and a different macroplacoid length sequence. We also provide a morphological diagnosis for another unknown tardigrade species of the genus Hypsibius. The rotifers belonged to the families Philodinidae and Habrotrochidae. In addition, we discuss the diversity of microinvertebrates and potential role of tardigrades and rotifers on mountain glaciers as top consumers. As for any organism living apparently exclusively in glacial habitats on tropical glaciers, their extinction in the near future is inevitable, possibly before we can even discover their existence.

 

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