Karst Dolines Support Highly Diversified Soil Collembola Communities—Possible Refugia in a Warming Climate?
Karst dolines, as geomorphologically diverse natural landforms, usually exhibit more or less steep microclimatic gradients that provide a mosaic of diverse microhabitat conditions, resulting in a high diversity of soil biota with numerous rare endemic and/or relict species occupying these habitats....
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MDPI AG
2022-11-01
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/12/1037 |
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| author | Michal Marcin Natália Raschmanová Dana Miklisová Jozef Šupinský Ján Kaňuk Ľubomír Kováč |
| author_facet | Michal Marcin Natália Raschmanová Dana Miklisová Jozef Šupinský Ján Kaňuk Ľubomír Kováč |
| author_sort | Michal Marcin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Karst dolines, as geomorphologically diverse natural landforms, usually exhibit more or less steep microclimatic gradients that provide a mosaic of diverse microhabitat conditions, resulting in a high diversity of soil biota with numerous rare endemic and/or relict species occupying these habitats. In this study, we investigated the spatial patterns of Collembola abundance, species richness, community structure and distribution of functional groups at topographically and microclimatically different sites across three open (unforested) karst dolines in a north-south direction in the Slovak Karst, Slovakia. We also assessed the refugial capacity of dolines for collembolan communities. The Friedman ANOVA test confirmed the significant differences in soil mean temperatures between the sites of all the dolines selected. The diverse soil microclimatic conditions within the dolines supported higher Collembola diversity (species numbers, diversity indices) compared with sites on the karst plateau and showed a potential to facilitate the persistence of some species that are absent or very rare in the surrounding landscape. In dolines with circular morphology and comparable size, the topography and soil microclimate had a stronger effect on community composition and structure than soil organic carbon. Shallow solution dolines provided microhabitats for various functional groups of soil Collembola in relation to the microclimatic character of the individual sites. It was observed that such landforms can also function as microclimatic refugia for cold-adapted species through the accumulation of colder air and the buffering of the local microclimate against the ambient mesoclimate, thus underlying the necessity of adequate attention in terms of the conservation of the karst natural phenomena. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T17:07:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-847a219d08734f979d4467c4d00f0f5b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-2818 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T17:07:29Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Diversity |
| spelling | doaj.art-847a219d08734f979d4467c4d00f0f5b2023-11-24T14:22:28ZengMDPI AGDiversity1424-28182022-11-011412103710.3390/d14121037Karst Dolines Support Highly Diversified Soil Collembola Communities—Possible Refugia in a Warming Climate?Michal Marcin0Natália Raschmanová1Dana Miklisová2Jozef Šupinský3Ján Kaňuk4Ľubomír Kováč5Institute of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, SK-040 01 Košice, SlovakiaInstitute of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, SK-040 01 Košice, SlovakiaInstitute of Parasitology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, SK-040 01 Košice, SlovakiaInstitute of Geography, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, SK-040 01 Košice, SlovakiaInstitute of Geography, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, SK-040 01 Košice, SlovakiaInstitute of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, SK-040 01 Košice, SlovakiaKarst dolines, as geomorphologically diverse natural landforms, usually exhibit more or less steep microclimatic gradients that provide a mosaic of diverse microhabitat conditions, resulting in a high diversity of soil biota with numerous rare endemic and/or relict species occupying these habitats. In this study, we investigated the spatial patterns of Collembola abundance, species richness, community structure and distribution of functional groups at topographically and microclimatically different sites across three open (unforested) karst dolines in a north-south direction in the Slovak Karst, Slovakia. We also assessed the refugial capacity of dolines for collembolan communities. The Friedman ANOVA test confirmed the significant differences in soil mean temperatures between the sites of all the dolines selected. The diverse soil microclimatic conditions within the dolines supported higher Collembola diversity (species numbers, diversity indices) compared with sites on the karst plateau and showed a potential to facilitate the persistence of some species that are absent or very rare in the surrounding landscape. In dolines with circular morphology and comparable size, the topography and soil microclimate had a stronger effect on community composition and structure than soil organic carbon. Shallow solution dolines provided microhabitats for various functional groups of soil Collembola in relation to the microclimatic character of the individual sites. It was observed that such landforms can also function as microclimatic refugia for cold-adapted species through the accumulation of colder air and the buffering of the local microclimate against the ambient mesoclimate, thus underlying the necessity of adequate attention in terms of the conservation of the karst natural phenomena.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/12/1037topographymicroclimatic gradientfunctional groupsα-diversitydistributional pattern |
| spellingShingle | Michal Marcin Natália Raschmanová Dana Miklisová Jozef Šupinský Ján Kaňuk Ľubomír Kováč Karst Dolines Support Highly Diversified Soil Collembola Communities—Possible Refugia in a Warming Climate? Diversity topography microclimatic gradient functional groups α-diversity distributional pattern |
| title | Karst Dolines Support Highly Diversified Soil Collembola Communities—Possible Refugia in a Warming Climate? |
| title_full | Karst Dolines Support Highly Diversified Soil Collembola Communities—Possible Refugia in a Warming Climate? |
| title_fullStr | Karst Dolines Support Highly Diversified Soil Collembola Communities—Possible Refugia in a Warming Climate? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Karst Dolines Support Highly Diversified Soil Collembola Communities—Possible Refugia in a Warming Climate? |
| title_short | Karst Dolines Support Highly Diversified Soil Collembola Communities—Possible Refugia in a Warming Climate? |
| title_sort | karst dolines support highly diversified soil collembola communities possible refugia in a warming climate |
| topic | topography microclimatic gradient functional groups α-diversity distributional pattern |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/12/1037 |
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