RT Journal Article
T1 Summer activity patterns for a moss and lichen in the maritime Antarctic with respect to altitude
A1 Schroeter, Burkhard
A1 Green, Thomas George Allan
A1 Pintado Valverde, Ana
A1 Türk, Roman
A1 García Sancho, Leopoldo
AB There is considerable scientific interest as to how terrestrial biodiversity in Antarctica might respond, or be expected to respond, to climate change. The two species of vascular plant confined to the Antarctic Peninsula have shown clear gains in density and range extension. However, little information exists for the dominant components of the flora, lichens and bryophytes. One approach has been to look at change in biodiversity using altitude as a proxy for temperature change and previous results for Livingston Island suggested that temperature was the controlling factor. We have extended this study at the same site by using chlorophyll fluorometers to monitor activity and microclimate of the lichen, Usnea aurantiaco-atra, and the moss, Hymenoloma crispulum. We confirmed the same lapse rate in temperature but show that changes in water relations with altitude is probably the main driver. There were differences in water source with U. aurantiaco-atra benefitting from water droplet harvesting and the species performed substantially better at the summit. In contrast, activity duration, chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthetic modelling all show desiccation to have a large negative impact on the species at the lowest site. We conclude that water relations are the main drivers of biodiversity change along the altitudinal gradient with nutrients, not measured here, as another possible contributor.
PB Springer Nature
SN 0722-4060
YR 2021
FD 2021-10-05
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/4711
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/4711
LA eng
NO CRUE-CSIC (Acuerdos Transformativos 2021)
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
NO Deutsche Forschungs-Gemeinschaft (DFG)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 8 abr 2025