| 1. |
- Elliott, Lucas D., et al.
(författare)
-
Sedimentary Ancient DNA Reveals Local Vegetation Changes Driven by Glacial Activity and Climate
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Quaternary. - : MDPI AG. - 2571-550X. ; 6:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Disentangling the effects of glaciers and climate on vegetation is complicated by the confounding role that climate plays in both systems. We reconstructed changes in vegetation occurring over the Holocene at Jøkelvatnet, a lake located directly downstream from the Langfjordjøkel glacier in northern Norway. We used a sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) metabarcoding dataset of 38 samples from a lake sediment core spanning 10,400 years using primers targeting the P6 loop of the trnL (UAA) intron. A total of 193 plant taxa were identified revealing a pattern of continually increasing richness over the time period. Vegetation surveys conducted around Jøkelvatnet show a high concordance with the taxa identified through sedaDNA metabarcoding. We identified four distinct vegetation assemblage zones with transitions at ca. 9.7, 8.4 and 4.3 ka with the first and last mirroring climatic shifts recorded by the Langfjordjøkel glacier. Soil disturbance trait values of the vegetation increased with glacial activity, suggesting that the glacier had a direct impact on plants growing in the catchment. Temperature optimum and moisture trait values correlated with both glacial activity and reconstructed climatic variables showing direct and indirect effects of climate change on the vegetation. In contrast to other catchments without an active glacier, the vegetation at Jøkelvatnet has displayed an increased sensitivity to climate change throughout the Middle and Late Holocene. Beyond the direct impact of climate change on arctic and alpine vegetation, our results suggest the ongoing disappearance of glaciers will have an additional effect on plant communities.
|
|
| 2. |
- Guidetti, Roberto, et al.
(författare)
-
Diversity of the tardigrade communities in the Norwegian forests
- 2022
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Tardigrades are common in most habitats, however few studies have focused on large faunistic survey, specifically on tardigrade diversity in forests. Up to now, only 61 species have been recorded in different types of forest in Norway with an additional 25 found in limnic environments in forests. Although little is known about the ecological preferences of many species, previous studies have found that tardigrade diversity and community composition are significantly affected by ecological variables. In this study we associate georeferenced tardigrade species records with forest type, substrate type and substrate composition in order to see if tardigrade diversity and species communities can be associated with ecological characteristics of Norwegian forests. Methods: In total 390 moss, lichen and litter samples were collected from 12 forests in central and southern Norway in the summers of 2017 and 2018 and later stored in paper envelopes. For the identification modern literature and keys forspecific genera and groups of species were used. For statistical analyses, moss and lichen substrate of each sample was classified according to the main species, life form, growth forms and habitat of substrate and associated with each tardigrade identification and sample metadata. Results: A total of 17 407 specimens were identified, encompassing in total 132 species (including some new species). Species richness increases with precipitation, but does not change with temperature or precipitation seasonality. The distribution of species richness between life forms and forest types showed considerable variation within and among the variables. Disregarding variables with low sample numbers, among life forms only acrocarpous moss samples appeared to deviate with respect to species richness, containing less species than substrates with other life forms. Conclusions: Tardigrades in Norwegian forest are extremely abundant, frequent and diverse. Moreover, it appears that that certain species and/or entirecommunities prefer specific microhabitats.
|
|
| 3. |
- Guidetti, Roberto, et al.
(författare)
-
Tardigrade diversity and community composition across Norwegian boreal forests
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. - : Oxford University Press. - 0024-4082 .- 1096-3642.
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tardigrades are common in many terrestrial environments and habitats. Although little is known on their ecological preferences, previous studies found diversity and community composition significantly affected by various variables. This study associated tardigrade species’ records with climatic variables, forest type, and substrate categories exploring tardigrade diversity and species communities to find associations with ecological characteristics of Norwegian forests. A total of 17 473 specimens were identified, encompassing 131 species (including putatively new species) from 305 samples of different substrates (leaf litter, bryophytes, and lichens). Bryophytes and lichens of samples were classified according to the main species, and growth form, and associated with tardigrade species and sample metadata. Tardigrade species’ richness was related to climatic variables and forest type, increased with precipitation, decreased with summer temperature, and not varied with precipitation seasonality. Although there was an unbalanced representation of substrate categories in the different forest types, some tendencies were detectable. Mixed oak and birch forests reached the highest species’ richness. Tardigrade community composition varied between substrate categories and, to a lesser degree, between forest types, but not with climatic variables. Our study highlights the importance of large-scale variables on tardigrade diversity, and substrate categories for tardigrade community composition.
|
|
| 4. |
- Hupało, Kamil, et al.
(författare)
-
An urban Blitz with a twist : rapid biodiversity assessment using aquatic environmental DNA
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Environmental DNA. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2637-4943 .- 2637-4943. ; 3:1, s. 200-213
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As global biodiversity declines, there is an increasing need to create an educated and engaged society. Having people of all ages participate in measuring biodiversity where they live helps to create awareness. Recently, the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) for biodiversity surveys has gained momentum. Here, we explore whether sampling eDNA and sequencing it can be used as a means of rapidly surveying urban biodiversity for educational purposes. We sampled 2 × 1 L of water from each of 15 locations in the city of Trondheim, Norway, including a variety of freshwater, marine, and brackish habitats. DNA was extracted, amplified in triplicate targeting the barcoding fragment of COI gene, and sequenced. The obtained data were analyzed on the novel mBRAVE platform, an online open‐access software and computing resource. The water samples were collected in 2 days by two people, and the laboratory analysis was completed in 5 days by one person. Overall, we detected the presence of 506 BINs identified as belonging to 435 taxa, representing at least 265 putative species. On average, only 5.4% of the taxa were shared among six replicates per site. Based on the observed diversity, three distinct clusters were detected and related to the geographic distribution of sites. There were some taxa shared between the habitats, with a substantial presence of terrestrial biota. Here we propose a new form of BioBlitz, where with noninvasive sampling effort combined with swift processing and straightforward online analyses, hundreds of species can be detected. Thus, using eDNA analysis of water is useful for rapid biodiversity surveys and valuable for educational purposes. We show that rapid eDNA surveys, combined with openly available services and software, can be used as an educational tool to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity.
|
|
