Small Islands, Small Ponds, Small Communities—Water Beetles and Water Boatmen in the Faroe Islands
SIMPLE SUMMARY: The Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic consist of several small islands, and numerous small freshwater ponds can be found on most of them. These ponds are inhabited by species-poor aquatic communities. Faroese ponds are thus simple systems which lend themselves well to studying dive...
Published in: | Insects |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
MDPI
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603987/ https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13100923 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9603987 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9603987 2023-05-15T16:09:43+02:00 Small Islands, Small Ponds, Small Communities—Water Beetles and Water Boatmen in the Faroe Islands Hansen, Leivur Janus Kreiling, Agnes-Katharina 2022-10-12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603987/ https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13100923 en eng MDPI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603987/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13100923 © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). CC-BY Insects Article Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13100923 2022-10-30T01:12:03Z SIMPLE SUMMARY: The Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic consist of several small islands, and numerous small freshwater ponds can be found on most of them. These ponds are inhabited by species-poor aquatic communities. Faroese ponds are thus simple systems which lend themselves well to studying diversity of water insects and their interactions with the environment, which ultimately contributes to our understanding of patterns of biodiversity. In this study, we systematically collected water beetles and water boatmen from 57 ponds on the islands Streymoy and Eysturoy to obtain information on species distributions, diversity, and community composition, as well as their relationship with habitat characteristics. We found six small species of Dytiscidae and Haliplidae (Coleoptera) and two species of Corixidae (Heteroptera). There was a higher species diversity in shallower ponds, and community composition differed according to pond size. Geographical location and isolation between ponds did not influence diversity and community composition. We thus conclude that the distribution of water beetles and water boatmen in the Faroes is explained by habitat characteristics, specifically size and depth of the pond. ABSTRACT: Water beetles of the families Dytiscidae and Haliplidae (Coleoptera) as well as water boatmen (Heteroptera: Corixidae) are well-studied groups in Northern Europe. In the Faroe Islands, their diversity is much lower than in the British Isles and Fennoscandia. Here, we first describe the communities of water beetles and water boatmen in Faroese ponds and, secondly, assess whether community compositions are driven by habitat characteristics or dispersal abilities of species. To this end, we sampled 57 ponds, ranging between <50 m(2) and >50,000 m(2). Environmental variables such as pond size, temperature, pH, and depth were measured, and distance to nearest neighboring pond was calculated as a measure of isolation. The sampling yielded 1522 individuals of eight species, with species richness of the ... Text Eysturoy Faroe Islands Faroes Fennoscandia North Atlantic Streymoy PubMed Central (PMC) Eysturoy ENVELOPE(-6.878,-6.878,62.216,62.216) Faroe Islands Streymoy ENVELOPE(-7.000,-7.000,62.133,62.133) Insects 13 10 923 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Article |
spellingShingle |
Article Hansen, Leivur Janus Kreiling, Agnes-Katharina Small Islands, Small Ponds, Small Communities—Water Beetles and Water Boatmen in the Faroe Islands |
topic_facet |
Article |
description |
SIMPLE SUMMARY: The Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic consist of several small islands, and numerous small freshwater ponds can be found on most of them. These ponds are inhabited by species-poor aquatic communities. Faroese ponds are thus simple systems which lend themselves well to studying diversity of water insects and their interactions with the environment, which ultimately contributes to our understanding of patterns of biodiversity. In this study, we systematically collected water beetles and water boatmen from 57 ponds on the islands Streymoy and Eysturoy to obtain information on species distributions, diversity, and community composition, as well as their relationship with habitat characteristics. We found six small species of Dytiscidae and Haliplidae (Coleoptera) and two species of Corixidae (Heteroptera). There was a higher species diversity in shallower ponds, and community composition differed according to pond size. Geographical location and isolation between ponds did not influence diversity and community composition. We thus conclude that the distribution of water beetles and water boatmen in the Faroes is explained by habitat characteristics, specifically size and depth of the pond. ABSTRACT: Water beetles of the families Dytiscidae and Haliplidae (Coleoptera) as well as water boatmen (Heteroptera: Corixidae) are well-studied groups in Northern Europe. In the Faroe Islands, their diversity is much lower than in the British Isles and Fennoscandia. Here, we first describe the communities of water beetles and water boatmen in Faroese ponds and, secondly, assess whether community compositions are driven by habitat characteristics or dispersal abilities of species. To this end, we sampled 57 ponds, ranging between <50 m(2) and >50,000 m(2). Environmental variables such as pond size, temperature, pH, and depth were measured, and distance to nearest neighboring pond was calculated as a measure of isolation. The sampling yielded 1522 individuals of eight species, with species richness of the ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Hansen, Leivur Janus Kreiling, Agnes-Katharina |
author_facet |
Hansen, Leivur Janus Kreiling, Agnes-Katharina |
author_sort |
Hansen, Leivur Janus |
title |
Small Islands, Small Ponds, Small Communities—Water Beetles and Water Boatmen in the Faroe Islands |
title_short |
Small Islands, Small Ponds, Small Communities—Water Beetles and Water Boatmen in the Faroe Islands |
title_full |
Small Islands, Small Ponds, Small Communities—Water Beetles and Water Boatmen in the Faroe Islands |
title_fullStr |
Small Islands, Small Ponds, Small Communities—Water Beetles and Water Boatmen in the Faroe Islands |
title_full_unstemmed |
Small Islands, Small Ponds, Small Communities—Water Beetles and Water Boatmen in the Faroe Islands |
title_sort |
small islands, small ponds, small communities—water beetles and water boatmen in the faroe islands |
publisher |
MDPI |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603987/ https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13100923 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-6.878,-6.878,62.216,62.216) ENVELOPE(-7.000,-7.000,62.133,62.133) |
geographic |
Eysturoy Faroe Islands Streymoy |
geographic_facet |
Eysturoy Faroe Islands Streymoy |
genre |
Eysturoy Faroe Islands Faroes Fennoscandia North Atlantic Streymoy |
genre_facet |
Eysturoy Faroe Islands Faroes Fennoscandia North Atlantic Streymoy |
op_source |
Insects |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603987/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13100923 |
op_rights |
© 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13100923 |
container_title |
Insects |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
923 |
_version_ |
1766405560160223232 |