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Testate amoebae and environmental features of polygon tundra in the Indigirka lowland (East Siberia)

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Abstract

Polygon tundra characterizes large areas of arctic lowlands. The micro-relief pattern within polygons offers differentiated habitats for testate amoeba (testacean) communities. The objective of this study was to relate testacean species distribution within a polygon to the environmental setting. Therefore, testaceans from four cryosol pits dug at different locations within a low-centered polygon were studied in the context of pedological and pedochemical data, while ground temperature and ground moisture were measured over one summer season. The study site is located on the Berelekh River floodplain (Indigirka lowland, East Siberia). The environmental data sets reflect variations along the rim-to-center transect of the polygon and in different horizons of each pit. The testacean species distribution is mainly controlled by the soil moisture regime and pH. Most of the identified testaceans are cosmopolitans; eight species are described from an arctic environment for the first time. Differences in environmental conditions are controlled by the micro-relief of polygon tundra and must be considered in arctic lowland testacean research because they bias species composition and any further (paleo-)ecological interpretation.

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Acknowledgments

The study was conducted under the auspices of the joint Russian–German project “Polygons in tundra wetlands: State and dynamics under climate variability in polar regions” (Russian Foundation for Basic Research, RFBR Grant No. 11-04-91332-NNIO-a, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG Grant No. HE 3622-16-1). Financial support came also from the RFBR Project No. 11-04-01171-a “Geography and ecology of soil-inhabiting testate amoebae”. Our field studies in Kytalyk were realized in coordination with Dutch groups from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (led by Ko van Huissteden) and the University of Wageningen (led by Monique Heijmans). Finally, we would like to thank the Committee of Nature Conservation in Chokurdakh (Evgeny Yanyigin, Tatyana Gavrilova) for logistical support. The manuscript preparation and revision greatly benefited by valuable comments and English language correction from Candace O’Connor (University of Alaska, Fairbanks).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science, Moscow State University, Vorobievy Gory, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Bobrov, L. Kokhanova & U. Herzschuh

  2. Department of Periglacial Research, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Telegrafenberg A43, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    S. Wetterich, A. Schneider & L. Schirrmeister

  3. Institute of Soil Science, University of Hamburg, Allende-Platz 2, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    F. Beermann

  4. Department for Geography and Biology, Northeastern Federal University of Yakutsk, ul. Belinskogo 58, 677000, Yakutsk, Russia

    L. A. Pestryakova

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  1. A. A. Bobrov
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Correspondence to S. Wetterich.

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300_2013_1311_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Fig. S1 Studied soil pits of the KYT-1 polygon site: pit 1 – top of the polygon rim; pit 2 – inner slope of the polygon rim; pit 3 – polygon center; pit 4—polygon center (TIFF 16,342 kb)

Table S2 Pedochemical data from polygon KYT-1. The abbreviation n.a. stands for not analyzed (DOCX 17 kb)

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Bobrov, A.A., Wetterich, S., Beermann, F. et al. Testate amoebae and environmental features of polygon tundra in the Indigirka lowland (East Siberia). Polar Biol 36, 857–870 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-013-1311-y

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