Sammendrag
Arctic landscapes are characterised by an immense number of fresh and brackish water habitats –
lakes, ponds and puddles. Due to a rather harsh environment, there is a limited number of species
inhabiting these ecosystems. Recent climate-driven regime shifts impact and change Arctic biological
communities. New species may appear, and existing communities may become supressed or even
disappear, depending on how ongoing changes match their ecological needs. This study provides data
on presently existing and probably recently arrived fresh and brackish water microcrustacean species
in the Norwegian High Arctic - Svalbard archipelago. The study focused on two taxonomic groups,
Cladocera and Copepoda and altogether we found seven taxa new for Svalbard: Alona werestschagini,
Polyphemus pediculus, Diaptomus sp., Diacyclops abyssicola, Nitokra spinipes, Epactophanes richardi
and Geeopsis incisipes. Compared with an existing overview for the area, our study increased the
number of species by more than 20 %, and some of the new species have never been found that far north.
Finally, we present a complete and critically updated revised species list of fresh and brackish water
cladocerans and copepods for Svalbard.
Vis fullstendig beskrivelse