SOME ASPECTS OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF MICROFAUNA IN THE ARCTIC

• Main Author: Marie Hammer
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Ellesmere Island; Greenland; Peary; Peary Land; Rasmussen; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.550.2363; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic8-2-115.pdf

IC NOWLEDGE of the composition and distribution of the microfauna of Greenland and arctic North America has slowly accumulated during the past twenty years. By 1944 when the study of the microfauna collected by the expeditions of Knud Rasmussen, Lauge Koch, and others was completed (Hammer, 1914), the microfauna of Canada was still unknown, there was no apparent relationship between the microfauna of the United States and Europe, and it was not possible to deduce the origin of the Greenland fauna. Since then investigations have been carried out in northern Canada, including Ellesmere Island, in Alaska, and in Peary Land, and Sgndre StrZmfjord in Greenland. These have shown that he two groups of animals discussed in this paper, the oribatids and the collemboles, are well suited for zoogeographical studies; their distribution may settle the problem of the origin of the true fauna of Greenland, as these non-mobile animals which belong to the soil have little chance of straying from their particular biotope. Previous research workers found that some of the animal groups in Greenland originated in North America, whilst others came from Europe.