Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T17:25:45.059Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The terrestrial biota of Charcot Island, eastern Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica: an example of extreme isolation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2004

P. Convey
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
R.I.L. Smith
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
H.J. Peat
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
P.J.A. Pugh
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK

Abstract

This paper documents the previously undescribed terrestrial fauna (mites, nematodes, tardigrades) and flora (liverworts, mosses and lichens) of Marion Nunataks, Charcot Island (69°45'S 075°15'W). Species diversity in all groups is low relative to other Maritime Antarctic sites, probably a twin function of very limited ice-free terrain and extreme isolation. The fauna and flora are wholly immigrant and, with the exceptions of two lichens (Psilolechia lucida and Umbilicaria aff. thamnodes), clearly derived from the Maritime Antarctic. The fauna is unique for the Maritime Antarctic in that it appears to contain neither predatory arthropods nor Collembola (springtails), which are otherwise ubiquitous and important members of the terrestrial fauna of the zone. The flora includes exceptional development of three mosses that are encountered only rarely at latitudes south of c. 65°S, Brachythecium austrosalebrosum, Dicranoweisia crispula and Polytrichum piliferum. The southern limit for several mosses and lichens has been extended. This small and isolated site is extremely vulnerable to accidental human-mediated introduction of both native Antarctic and alien biota.

Type
Papers—Life Sciences and Oceanography
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)