Collembola in the hyporheos of a karstic river: an overlooked habitat for Collembola containing a new genus for the UK
Keywords:
Collembola, hyporheic, interstitial faunaAbstract
Collembola are well known to occur in soils and litters, as well as inter-tidal habitats, caves and tree canopies, but are not normally thought of as members of the groundwater community. Here we report on studies of the colonisation of gravels in the hyporheic zone under the river Skirfare, a karstic river in Yorkshire. Unexpectedly, flooding during the second experimental run allowed a comparison between low- and high-flow conditions. Five species of Collembola were found in permanently saturated habitats 30 cm below a river bed. One of these species, Hymenaphorura nova, is the first record of its genus in the UK, and appears to be a groundwater specialist. The other named species (Anurida granaria and Mucrosomia (= Cryptopygus) garretti), Deuteraphorura cebennaria (= D. inermis) have wider distributions but are often associated with mines and caves; D. cebennaria is known to occur in the Scoska cave, whose waters feed into the Skirfare shortly upstream of the experimental location. There was some evidence of differences between dates (more first instars and fewer adults after the flood) and between sediments (adults found mainly in coarser materials, first instars in finer sediments), but the statistical significance was weak (0.1 > p > 0.05). The distribution of animals was not clumped (as is typical for Collembola) but followed a Poisson distribution, suggesting it to be primarily random. These results agree with previous authors who suggested that several species of Collembola may live for prolonged periods wholly submerged. The random distribution and their water-repellent cuticles suggest a model of eggs or early instars being washed underground following groundwater, surviving underwater for prolonged periods. We do not have evidence that these Collembola are able to complete their life cycle underwater.
Downloads
References
Britt, N. W. (1951): Observations on the life history of the collembolan Achorutes armatus. – Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 70: 119–132.
Bketschko, G. & E. Christian (1989): Collembola in the Bed Sediments of an Alpine Gravel Stream (Ritrodat-Lunz Study Area, Austria). – Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie und Hydrographie 74 (5): 491–498.
Da Gama, M. (1966): Notes taxonomiques sur quelques especes de Collemboles. – Memórias e Estudos do Museu Zoologico da Universidade de Coimbra, 295: 1–17.
Deharveng, L., C. D'Haese & A. Bedos (2008): Global diversity of springtails (Collembola: Hexapoda) in freshwater. – Hydrobiologia 595: 329–338.
Dunscombe, M. (2011): Towards an understanding of hydrogeologic controls on lowland hyporheic assemblages in the UK. – Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Roehampton.
Fjellberg, A. (1998): The Collembola of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Part I: Poduromorpha. – Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica 35. – Brill, Leiden.
Holzwarth, F. (2002): The EU Water Framework Directive – A key to catchment-based governance. – Water Science and Technology 45: 105–112.
Hopkin, S. P. (1997): Biology of the Springtails. – OUP, Oxford. 330pp.
Hopkin, S. P. (2007): Key to Collembola (Springtails) of Britain and Ireland. – AIDGAP: Shrewsbury, UK. 245pp.
Jacquemart, S. & J. N. Jacques (1980): A propos d'un Collembole entomobryen à la fois marin et desertique. – Annales de Societe Royale Belgique Zoology 109: 9–18.
Joose, E. N. G., H. A.Verhoef & C. J. Nagelkerke (1977): Aggregation pheromones in Collembola (apterygota): a biotic cause of aggregation. – Revue d'Ecologie et Biologie du Sol 14: 21–25.
Negri, I. (2004): Spatial distribution of Collembola in presence and absence of a predator. – Pedobiologia 48: 585–588.
Pomorski, R. J. (1990): New data on the genus Hymenaphorura (Collembola, Onychiuridae) from Europe. – Mitteilungen der Schweitzerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft 63: 209–225.
Pomorski, R. J. (1998): Onychiurinae of Poland (Collembola: Onychiuridae). – In: Wroclaw, Poland: Polish taxonomical society. – Genus, Supplement 1–201.
Popham, E. J. (1954). A new and simple method of demonstrating the physical gill in insects. – Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society London A 29: 51–54.
Shaw, P. J. A. & M. B. Usher (1996): Edaphic Collembola of lodgepole pine Pinus contorta plantations in Cumbria, UK. – European Journal of Soil Biology 32: 89–97.
Usher, M. B. (1969): Some properties of the aggregation of soil arthropods: Collembola. – Journal of Animal Ecology 38: 607–622.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
All articles on www.soil-organisms.org may be read, copied, distributed, and (in limited quantity) printed for non-commercial, private, scientific purposes.
