Baur Bruno

Subterranean invertebrate diversity in rocky glaciers and glaciar forelands affected by climate change

Project Number: CH-6711

Project Type:	Research_Project
Project Duration:	06/01/2019 - 12/11/2021 project completed
Funding Source:	other ,
Leading Institution:	Universität Basel
Project Leader:	Prof. Bruno Baur Abteilungsvorsteher Phone: +41 (0) 61 267 08 29

related to this project.

for which the project has a relevance.

Research Areas:

Biodiversity

Disciplines:

general biology

Abstract:
Climate change is affecting glaciers and melting permafrost soils worldwide. Rocky glaciers, consisting of rocky debris and ice, are a characteristic type of glacier that was described for the first time in the Swiss National Park. However, nothing is known about the arthropod fauna inhabiting rocky glaciers below the surface. It is very likely that rocky glaciers could be inhabited by a specialized fauna, since similar environments, such as freezing scree slopes, have been demonstrated to harbour a relict arthropod community with many habitat specialists (R??i?ka et al. 2012). On the other hand, rocky glaciar and permafrost melting leave new soil available for fauna (glaciar foreland). The recolonization of this newly available habitat has been studied for surface soil arthropods (Hågvar 2010, 2012, Bråten et al 2012, Vater 2012) but it has never been studied for subterranean fauna below 10 cm. Therefore, our aim is to examine, for the first time, the arthropod diversity inhabiting the inside interstices of rocky glaciers, and to study colonization processes of subterranean fauna on the subsurface of the rocky glaciers and their foreland.


Last update: 2/11/22
Source of data: ProClim- Research InfoSystem (1993-2023)
Update the data of project: CH-6711

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