On Ice: Biology of Antarctic springtails at Cape Hallett

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On Ice Biology of Antarctic springtails at Cape
Hallett
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Whats a springtail?

• Phylum Arthropoda
• Class Insecta
• Order Collembola
• Phylum Arthropoda
• Class Hexapoda
• Sub-Class Collembola
• Phylum Arthropoda
• Class Crustacea
• Order Collembola

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Whats a springtail?

• Six legs (Hexapods)
• Primitive eye spots (ocelli)
• A springing organ (Furca)

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Several flavours of springtails

• Poduromorphs
• Sminthurimorphs
• Entomobryomorphs

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Famous springtails

• Snow Fleas
• Folsomia candida
• Orchesella cincta
• Cryptopygus antarcticus

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K140
Matt Scott University of Otago, New Zealand (now
an ecological consultant in Christchurch, New
Zealand)
Jaco Klok U. Stellenbosch (now a postdoc at
Arizona State)
John Terblanche U. Stellenbosch, South
Africa (now a professor in South Africa)
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Goals of the expedition

• Whats there?
• A survey of the invertebrate fauna and its
  habitats
• How does it survive?
• Survival physiology of Antarctic springtails
• Temperature Water balance
• Do environmental tolerances limit distribution of
  Antarctic springtails?

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The springtails
Isotoma klovstadi now Desoria klovstadi
(Isotomidae)
Cryptopygus cisantarcticus (Isotomidae)
Friesea grisea (Neanuridae)
All 0.5-2.5 mm long, all in top c. 1cm of soil
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Cape Hallett, Antarctica
300m (vertical)
100m
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The weather

• Summer
• Day and Night
• High 6 C (30 on rock surfaces!)
• Low -20 C (normally between -5 and -10)
• Windy!
• Winter
• Dark
• Recorded low below -50 C

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Goals of the expedition

• Whats there?
• A survey of the invertebrate fauna and its
  habitats
• How does it survive?
• Survival physiology of Antarctic springtails
• Temperature Water balance
• Do environmental tolerances limit distribution of
  Antarctic springtails?

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Upper and lower activity limits
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Thermal Desiccation tolerance
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Low temperatures
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High Temperature Tolerances
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Desiccation Tolerance
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• Faster cooling rates
• More freeze-thaw
• Less timegt0
• More potentially lethal high temp events

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What else did we find?

• 8 species of mites (including a predator!)
• Nematodes have a 1-year life cycle
• Cape Hallett has the most diverse fauna on the
  Antarctic continent!