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Occurrence of mites (Acari) and springtails (Collembola) in bird nests on King George Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica)

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Abstract

The relationships between birds and invertebrates are very diverse and often extend beyond the host-parasite interaction. Birds can be vectors of some arthropod species and their nests are a specific microhabitat inhabited by mites and springtails. However, the phenomenon is not well described in Antarctica. The aim of this article is to compare the arthropod communities inhabiting the nests of three species of birds and relate observed differences to the biology and ecology of the nest building bird species (i.e., living in colonies or in pairs) as well as the nature of the nest (i.e., nest lining or lack there off). Outcomes include determining the scale of the threat to birds from parasites, as well as to information concerning the ecology (microhabitat preferences) of the arthropod species. The study was conducted in the vicinity of the Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station by comparing the arthropod concentrations in nests of three bird species: Southern Giant Petrel (Macronectes giganteus), Adelie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) and South Polar Skua (Stercorarius maccormicki). Four mite (Acari) species and five springtail (Collembola) species were found in the collected material. None of these species are parasites. The most numerous were Hydrogamasellus racovitzai (Acari, Mesostigmata), Alaskozetes antarcticus (Acari, Oribatida) and Cryptopygus antarcticus antarcticus (Collembola). The results indicate (e.g. the Shannon index, evenness, non-metric multidimensional scaling method, one-way multivariate permutation analysis of variances, Kruskal–Wallis test) significant variability in community composition and individual abundance in the nests dependent on the bird species. Furthermore, that this variability depends on the biology and ecology of the bird species.

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Acknowledgements

The study is in memory of the deceased prof. Ziemowit Olszanowski who helped to conduct it. We would like to thank anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and efforts towards improving our manuscript and Marta Damaszke for the help in collecting materials. The authors thank also prof. Steve J. Coulson from the University Centre in Svalbard for the linguistic proofreading of the text.

Funding

This work was supported by the Poznan University of Life Sciences (Grant 506.217.02.00).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 71c, 60-625, Poznan, Poland

    Dariusz J. Gwiazdowicz

  2. Natural History Collections and Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614, Poznań, Poland

    Wojciech Niedbała

  3. Department of Invertebrate Biology, Evolution and Conservation, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Wrocław, Przybyszewskiego 65, 51-148, Wrocław, Poland

    Dariusz Skarżyński

  4. Department of Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 28, 60–637, Poznań, Poland

    Bogna Zawieja

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  1. Dariusz J. Gwiazdowicz
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  2. Wojciech Niedbała
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  3. Dariusz Skarżyński
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  4. Bogna Zawieja
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Contributions

DJG—conceived the original idea and carried out the experiment, DJG—determined mesostigmatic mites, WN—determined oribatid mites, DS—determined springtails, BZ—performed statistical analyses, DJG—wrote the manuscript with the support from WN, DS, BZ.

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Correspondence to Dariusz J. Gwiazdowicz.

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Gwiazdowicz, D.J., Niedbała, W., Skarżyński, D. et al. Occurrence of mites (Acari) and springtails (Collembola) in bird nests on King George Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica). Polar Biol 45, 1035–1044 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-022-03052-1

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