Beetles versus Rolling Stones carabids on cryoperturbed fellfields
M. Gobbi1, C. Compostella2, D. Tampucci 2 & M. Caccianiga 2 1 MUSE-Science
Museum, Trento, Italy 2 University of Milan, Milano, Italy
Background Challenge in alpine biogeography determine how cold-adapted species will respond to climate changes To avoid extinction, cold-adapted species may respond to climate change by: 1. migrating to new areas (mountain peaks or chasing retreating glaciers) 2. adapting through phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution to the new environmental conditions 3. search refugium areas (e.g. caves during the Pleistoncene)
Background Gravitational lanforms
Rocky landforms
Ice-related landforms
Cryperturbed fellfield scree slope
debris cone
Background: cryoperturbed fellfields Ice-debris landforms moving or creeping due to ice deformation. Debris-covered glaciers (DCGs) and rock glaciers (RGs), characterize the glacial and periglacial mountain environments. These climate-related landforms are poorly known from the ecological point of view even if suitable habitats for life.
Debris-covered glacier
1800 m asl
Rock Glacier Rocky debris
Ice
Main rationale May cryperturbed fellfields promote the long-term survival of cold-adapted carabids when the surrounding habitats become climatically unfavorable?
Goal of our research Describe the carabid populations living on DCGs and RGs of the Italian Alps and to compare them with currently ice-free neigbouring blocky landforms.
Study system and sampling design: Debris-covered glaciers (DCGs)
1800 m asl
1800 m asl
Miage Glacier (Mount Blanc Massif; W-Alps)
Belvedere Glacier (Monte Rosa Massif; W-Alps)
2600 m asl
Amola Glacier (Presanella Massif; E-Alps)
Study system and sampling design: Rock Glaciers (RGs) Amola (E-Alps) – 2400 m asl
Vedrettino (C-Alps) – 2570 m asl
Lago Lungo (C-Alps) – 2470 m asl
Col d’Olen (W-Alps) – 2710 m asl
Sampling design and environmental covariates Carabids • 15 pitfall traps for each landform (RG or DCG, scress slope, stable slope) • Recovering interval: 20 days • Recovers number: 3-5 Soil • • • •
Grain size distribution Organic matter content Calcium carbonate content pH
Vegetation • Plot surface: 25 m² • Cover resolution: 5 % • Taxa: mosses and vascular plants
from: Gobbi et al. (2011) The Holocene
Results: Miage DCG
Forest/grassland assemblages Boundary zone (treeline) Species of rocky and subglacial habitats
Altitude (m)
Vegetation cover (%)
Debris thickness (cm)
Species richness
Sites
Rugathodes bellicosus
Aculepeira ceropegia
Pisaura mirabilis
Nebria angusticollis
Drassodex heeri
Pardosa saturatior
Ozyptila rauda
Xysticus lanio
Walckenaeria antica
Drassodes lapidosus
Alopecosa sulzeri
Nebria picea
Calathus melanocephalus
Amara erratica
Cychrus attenuatus
Xysticus cristatus
Xerolycosa nemoralis
Amaurobius fenestralis
Calathus micropterus
Leistus nitidus
Pterostichus multipunctatus
Platycarabus depressus
Zelotes devotus
Pardosa gr. lugubris
Gnaphosa badia
from: Gobbi et al. (2011) The Holocene
E 8 >80 90 1830 F 12 >80 100 1640 D 5 40 15 1850 C 5 35 10 1870 A 5 26 0 2150 B 3 24 0 2230
assemblages turnover EA observed 522 EA mean 299.34 dev 105.66 P 0.035
2000m
2100m 1900m
Vegetation cover (%) Altitude (m)
90 100 15 10 0 0 1830 1640 1850 1870 2150 2230
2200m
1800m
from: Gobbi et al. (2011) The Holocene
Species richness Debris thickness (cm)
Sites
Rugathodes bellicosus
Aculepeira ceropegia
Pisaura mirabilis
Nebria angusticollis
Drassodex heeri
Pardosa saturatior
Ozyptila rauda
Xysticus lanio
Walckenaeria antica
Drassodes lapidosus
Alopecosa sulzeri
Nebria picea
Calathus melanocephalus
Amara erratica
Cychrus attenuatus
Xysticus cristatus
Xerolycosa nemoralis
Amaurobius fenestralis
Calathus micropterus
Leistus nitidus
Pterostichus multipunctatus
Platycarabus depressus
Zelotes devotus
Pardosa gr. lugubris
Gnaphosa badia
E 8 >80 F 12 >80 D 5 40 C 5 35 A 5 26 B 3 24
Results: Belvedere DCG
Glacial surge (2001-2002): short-lived events where a glacier advance moving at velocities up to 100 times faster than normal.
Results: Amola DCG Annual mean temperature in the supraglacial debris was 0.5 °C (datalogger located at 10 cm depth).
DCG hosts female-biased population of Nebria germari, a typical walking coloniser, and olfactory and nocturnal predator with surface running larvae (mainly observed under the stones located on the glacier).
Detectability of Nebria germari showed a negative relationship with gravel proportion in the soil, thus some individuals can remain undetected in deep soils.
Results: RG Amola – 2400 m asl
from: Gobbi et al. (2014) The Holocene
Carabus adamellicola Pterostichus multipunctatus Carabus depressus Bembidion bipunctatum Cymindis vaporariorum
Results: RG Lago Lungo – 2470 m asl O. castanea 3,16
O. castanea
2,58
C. attenuatus C. vaporariorum C. problematicus O. castanea
1,16
Results: RG Vedrettino – 2570 m asl O. castanea 3,33
O. castanea 3,66
O. castanea
0,33
C. sylvestris C. vaporariorum
Results: RG Col d’Olen – 2710 m asl O. castanea
O. castanea
O. castanea 0,15
0,1
C. concolor C. cordicollis A. quenseli
0,1
C. concolor A. quenseli
B. glaciale
Take home concepts: Debris covered glaciers 1. DCGs host permanent, populations of Oreonebria angusticollis (W-Alps), and Nebria germari (E-Alps), due to the presence of stony debris with interstitial ice. 2. The species collected on DCGs with tongue descending down the treeline are able to survive below their average altitudinal distribution thanks to the cold and wet microclimate conditions between the stones.
Take home concepts: Rock glaciers 1. RGs host permanent populations of coldadapted species [Oreonebria castanea (W,CAlps), O. angustata and Nebria germari (E-Alps)] due to the precence of deep ice-core rocky debris. 2. The local climatic condition, and the elevation of each RGs drives the presence of the species also on the ice-free neigbouring blocky landforms.
p=0,017
Conclusions 1. Our results allow to hypothesize that in the present interglacial period DCGs and RGs could act as refugium habitats for cold-adapted carabids as a consequence of their microclimate features and thermal inertia.
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Thanks for you attention!
Acknowledgements: Valeria Lencioni, Roberto Seppi, Manuela Pelfini, Claudio Smiraglia, Guglielmina Diolaiuti, Roberto Azzoni, Giacomo Boffa, Clara Citterio, Ilaria A. Muzzolon, Chiara Maffioletti, Teresa Boscolo, Luca Pedrotti, Simone Tenan, Stelvio National Park.
