scholarly journals Do new records of macrofungi indicate warming of their habitats in terrestrial Antarctic ecosystems?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-296
Author(s):  
Götz Palfner ◽  
Josefa Binimelis-Salazar ◽  
Sandra Troncoso Alarcón ◽  
Gustavo Torres-Mellado ◽  
Gloria Gallegos ◽  
...  

Relatively few macrofungi have been historically described from terrestrial environments of the Antarctic Peninsula and its associated archipelagos which are characterized by a moss-dominated vegetation, most of them preferentially or obligatorily associated with bryophytes. During the study of the influence of penguin rockeries to moss communities on the South Shetland Islands, the bryophilous basidiomycetes Rimbachia bryophila and Arrhenia cf. lilacinicolor were found for the first time on King George Island, growing on carpets of Sanionia uncinata. Other bryophilous fungi previously recorded in the same region are Arrhenia antarctica, Omphalina pyxidata and the rare Simocybe antarctica. The detection of the supposedly parasitic R. bryophila, together with other new observations of macrofungi on different hosts in the Antarctic bryoflora could indicate increased sexual reproduction. The likely increase of reproduction as an effect of warming on the terrestrial antarctic tundra should be proven by follow up field studies.

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-419
Author(s):  
Karol Zemko ◽  
Krzysztof Pabis ◽  
Jacek Siciński ◽  
Magdalena Błażewicz

AbstractAdmiralty Bay (King George Island) is an Antarctic Specially Managed Area and one the most thoroughly studied small-scale marine basins in the Southern Ocean. Our study provides new data on the isopod fauna in this glacially affected fjord. Twelve species of isopods were recorded in this basin for the first time. Six of them were found for the first time in the region of the South Shetland Islands. The highest number of species new for Admiralty Bay were found in the families Munnopsidae (4 species) and Munnidae (3 species).


2018 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariusz Wierzgoń ◽  
Tomasz Suchan ◽  
Michał Ronikier

<em>Tortella fragilis</em> (Drumm.) Limpr. (Pottiaceae) and <em>Bryum nivale</em> Müll. Hal. (Bryaceae) are recorded for the first time from the South Shetland Islands in the northern maritime Antarctic. They were discovered in the Admiralty Bay area on King George Island, the largest island of this archipelago. The two species are briefly characterized morphologically, their habitats are described, and their distribution in the Antarctic is mapped. Discovery of these species has increased the documented moss flora of King George Island to 67 species, strengthening it in the leading position among individual areas with the richest diversity of moss flora in Antarctica. Likewise, <em>T. fragilis</em> and <em>B. nivale</em> represent remarkable additions to the moss flora of the South Shetland Islands, which currently consists of 92 species and one variety, making this archipelago by far the richest bryofloristically amongst large geographic regions of the Antarctic. Comparison of recent (2018) and old (1985) photographs revealed a significant retreat of glacial cover and suggests that the collection site was likely opened for colonization only within the last several decades. The record of <em>T. fragilis</em> is biogeographically relevant, and constitutes an intermediate site between the species’ occurrences in the Antarctic Peninsula and southern South America. The present record of <em>B. nivale</em> is the fourth discovery of the species worldwide, which may be helpful for the future designation of the distribution of this extremely rare species.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilse Bartsch

AbstractFour halacarid species:Agaue agauoides,Agaue parva,Bradyagaue drygalskii, andHalacarus minorhave been extracted from bottom samples taken in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, South Shetland Islands, another four,Colobocerasides auster,Halacarus arnaudi,Lohmannella fukushimai, andL. gaussi, from Kapp Norvegia, Atka and Halley Bay, Weddell Sea. Most of these species are widespread around Antarctica and adjacent islands. Diagnostic characters are outlined. An annotated list presents 66 halacarid species reported from south of the Antarctic Polar Front.


2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Massalski ◽  
T. Mrozińska ◽  
M. Olech

<i>Lobosphaera reniformis</i> (Wat.) Kom. et Fott (=<i>Chlorella reniformis</i> Wat.) so far known only from Japan, and Papua Island, was for the first time found in Antarctica (King George Island, South Shetland Islands). In laboratory cultures a complete life cycle was obtained, and most of its stages were followed by the electron microscopy. Reproduction is by morphologically different autospores. In some large vegetative cells two Golgi apparatuses lying side by side were observed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 6379-6384
Author(s):  
Marta Potocka ◽  
Ewa Krzemińska ◽  
Robert Gromadka ◽  
Jan Gawor ◽  
Joanna Kocot-Zalewska

Abstract Trichocera maculipennis, an invasive Diptera, was described for the first time in Antarctica in 2006 in a sewage system of one of the scientific stations on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, and started to increase its distribution within the island. To date, only taxonomical description of this species, based on morphological data has been available, as there were no molecular data recorded. In the present study, we present two methods of molecular identification of this species—based on partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and 16S ribosomal RNA (16S) genes. An appropriate and easy-to-use assay for proper and fast identification of invasive species is a key requirement for further management decisions, especially in such a fragile environment as found in terrestrial Antarctica.


2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Giełwanowska ◽  
Anna Bochenek ◽  
Ewa Gojło ◽  
Ryszard Görecki ◽  
Wioleta Kellmann ◽  
...  

Biology of generative reproduction of Colobanthus quitensis (Kunth) Bartl. from King George Island, South Shetland Islands Our macroscopic observations and microscopic studies conducted by means of a light microscope (LM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) concerning the re-production biology of Colobanthus quitensis (Caryophyllaceae) growing in natural conditions in the Antarctic and in a greenhouse in Olsztyn (northern Poland) showed that this plant develops two types of bisexual flowers: opening, chasmogamous flowers and closed, cleistogamous ones. Cleistogamy was caused by a low temperature, high air humidity and strong wind. A small number of microspores differentiated in the microsporangia of C. quitensis, which is typical of cleistogamous species. Microsporocytes, and later microspores, formed very thick callose walls. More than twenty spheroidal, polypantoporate pollen grains differentiated in the microsporangium. They germinated on the surface of receptive cells on the dry stigma of the gynoecium or inside the microsporangium. A monosporic embryo sac of the Polygonum type differentiated in the crassinucellar ovule. During this differentiation the nucellus tissue formed and stored reserve materials. In the development of generative cells, a male germ unit (MGU) with differentiated sperm cells was observed. The smaller cell contained mainly mitochondria, and the bigger one plastids. In the process of fertilization in C. quitensis only one nucleus of the sperm cell, without cytoplasm fragments, entered the egg cell, and the proembryo developed according to the Caryophyllad type. Almost all C. quitensis ovules developed and formed perispermic seeds with a completely differentiated embryo both under natural conditions in the Antarctic and in a green-house in Olsztyn.


2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Bornemann ◽  
M. Kreyscher ◽  
S. Ramdohr ◽  
T. Martin ◽  
A. Carlini ◽  
...  

Weaned pups and post-moult female elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) were fitted with satellite transmitters at King George Island (South Shetland Islands) between December 1996 and February 1997. Of the nine adult females tracked for more than two months, three stayed in a localized area between the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands. The other six females travelled south-west along the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula up to the Bellingshausen Sea. Two of them then moved north-east and hauled out on South Georgia in October. One female was last located north of the South Shetland Islands in March 1998. In total, eight females were again sighted on King George Island and six of the transmitters removed. The tracks of the weaners contrasted with those of the adults. In January, five juveniles left King George Island for the Pacific sector spending about four weeks in the open sea west of the De Gerlache Seamounts. Three of them returned to the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula in June, of which one was last located on the Patagonian Shelf in November 1997. The juveniles avoided sea ice while the adults did not. The latter displayed behavioural differences in using the pack ice habitat during winter. Some females adjusted their movement patterns to the pulsating sea ice fringe in distant foraging areas while others ranged in closed pack ice of up to 100%. The feeding grounds of adult female elephant seals are more closely associated with the pack ice zone than previously assumed. The significance of the midwater fish Pleuragramma antarcticum as a potential food resource is discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document