Taxonomy and diversity of Afroalpine Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) on Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains, East Africa
Aim: Anthropogenic climate change is expected to result in the complete loss of glaciers from the high mountains of tropical Africa, with profound impacts on the hydrology and ecology of unique tropical cold-water lakes located downstream from them. This study examines the biodiversity of Chironomid...
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ftunivgent:oai:archive.ugent.be:413459 2023-06-11T04:12:43+02:00 Taxonomy and diversity of Afroalpine Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) on Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains, East Africa Eggermont, Hilde Verschuren, Dirk 2007 application/pdf https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/413459 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-413459 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01590.x https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/413459/file/4134600 eng eng https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/413459 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-413459 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01590.x https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/413459/file/4134600 No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY ISSN: 0305-0270 Biology and Life Sciences biogeography Aquatic biodiversity Chironomidae lake temperature lake zoobenthos mountain lakes Mount Kenya Rwenzori taxonomy SUB-FOSSIL CHIRONOMIDAE CLIMATE-CHANGE SUBFOSSIL CHIRONOMIDAE LAKE TANGANYIKA ICE CORE GEN-N TANYPODINAE MIDGES RECONSTRUCTION ORTHOCLADIINAE journalArticle info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2007 ftunivgent https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01590.x 2023-05-10T22:33:07Z Aim: Anthropogenic climate change is expected to result in the complete loss of glaciers from the high mountains of tropical Africa, with profound impacts on the hydrology and ecology of unique tropical cold-water lakes located downstream from them. This study examines the biodiversity of Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) communities in these scarce Afroalpine lake systems, in order to determine their uniqueness in relation to lowland African lakes and alpine lakes in temperate regions, and to evaluate the potential of Afroalpine Chironomidae as biological indicators to monitor future changes in the ecological integrity of their habitat. Location: Mount Kenya (Kenya) and Rwenzori Mountains (Uganda). Methods: The species composition of Afroalpine chironomid communities was assessed using recent larval death assemblages extracted from the surface sediments of 11 high-mountain lakes between 2900 and 4575 m. Results were compared with similar faunal data from 68 East African lakes at low and middle elevation (750-2760 m), and with literature records of Chironomidae species distribution in sub-Saharan Africa, the Palaearctic region and elsewhere. All recovered taxa were fully described and illustrated. Results: The 11-lake analysis yielded 1744 subfossil chironomid larvae belonging to 16 distinct taxa of full-grown larvae, and three taxa of less differentiated juveniles. Eleven of these 16 are not known to occur in African lakes at lower elevation, and eight taxa (or 50% of total species richness) appear restricted to the specific habitat of cold lakes above 3900 m, where night-time freezing is frequent year-round. The faunal transition zone coincides broadly with the Ericaceous zone of terrestrial vegetation (c. 3000-4000 m). Snowline depression during the Quaternary ice ages must have facilitated dispersion of cold-stenothermous species among the high mountains of equatorial East Africa, but less so from or to the Palaearctic region via the Ethiopian highlands. Main conclusions: Chironomid communities in glacier-fed ... Article in Journal/Newspaper ice core Ghent University Academic Bibliography Journal of Biogeography 34 1 69 89 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Ghent University Academic Bibliography |
op_collection_id |
ftunivgent |
language |
English |
topic |
Biology and Life Sciences biogeography Aquatic biodiversity Chironomidae lake temperature lake zoobenthos mountain lakes Mount Kenya Rwenzori taxonomy SUB-FOSSIL CHIRONOMIDAE CLIMATE-CHANGE SUBFOSSIL CHIRONOMIDAE LAKE TANGANYIKA ICE CORE GEN-N TANYPODINAE MIDGES RECONSTRUCTION ORTHOCLADIINAE |
spellingShingle |
Biology and Life Sciences biogeography Aquatic biodiversity Chironomidae lake temperature lake zoobenthos mountain lakes Mount Kenya Rwenzori taxonomy SUB-FOSSIL CHIRONOMIDAE CLIMATE-CHANGE SUBFOSSIL CHIRONOMIDAE LAKE TANGANYIKA ICE CORE GEN-N TANYPODINAE MIDGES RECONSTRUCTION ORTHOCLADIINAE Eggermont, Hilde Verschuren, Dirk Taxonomy and diversity of Afroalpine Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) on Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains, East Africa |
topic_facet |
Biology and Life Sciences biogeography Aquatic biodiversity Chironomidae lake temperature lake zoobenthos mountain lakes Mount Kenya Rwenzori taxonomy SUB-FOSSIL CHIRONOMIDAE CLIMATE-CHANGE SUBFOSSIL CHIRONOMIDAE LAKE TANGANYIKA ICE CORE GEN-N TANYPODINAE MIDGES RECONSTRUCTION ORTHOCLADIINAE |
description |
Aim: Anthropogenic climate change is expected to result in the complete loss of glaciers from the high mountains of tropical Africa, with profound impacts on the hydrology and ecology of unique tropical cold-water lakes located downstream from them. This study examines the biodiversity of Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) communities in these scarce Afroalpine lake systems, in order to determine their uniqueness in relation to lowland African lakes and alpine lakes in temperate regions, and to evaluate the potential of Afroalpine Chironomidae as biological indicators to monitor future changes in the ecological integrity of their habitat. Location: Mount Kenya (Kenya) and Rwenzori Mountains (Uganda). Methods: The species composition of Afroalpine chironomid communities was assessed using recent larval death assemblages extracted from the surface sediments of 11 high-mountain lakes between 2900 and 4575 m. Results were compared with similar faunal data from 68 East African lakes at low and middle elevation (750-2760 m), and with literature records of Chironomidae species distribution in sub-Saharan Africa, the Palaearctic region and elsewhere. All recovered taxa were fully described and illustrated. Results: The 11-lake analysis yielded 1744 subfossil chironomid larvae belonging to 16 distinct taxa of full-grown larvae, and three taxa of less differentiated juveniles. Eleven of these 16 are not known to occur in African lakes at lower elevation, and eight taxa (or 50% of total species richness) appear restricted to the specific habitat of cold lakes above 3900 m, where night-time freezing is frequent year-round. The faunal transition zone coincides broadly with the Ericaceous zone of terrestrial vegetation (c. 3000-4000 m). Snowline depression during the Quaternary ice ages must have facilitated dispersion of cold-stenothermous species among the high mountains of equatorial East Africa, but less so from or to the Palaearctic region via the Ethiopian highlands. Main conclusions: Chironomid communities in glacier-fed ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Eggermont, Hilde Verschuren, Dirk |
author_facet |
Eggermont, Hilde Verschuren, Dirk |
author_sort |
Eggermont, Hilde |
title |
Taxonomy and diversity of Afroalpine Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) on Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains, East Africa |
title_short |
Taxonomy and diversity of Afroalpine Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) on Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains, East Africa |
title_full |
Taxonomy and diversity of Afroalpine Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) on Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains, East Africa |
title_fullStr |
Taxonomy and diversity of Afroalpine Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) on Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains, East Africa |
title_full_unstemmed |
Taxonomy and diversity of Afroalpine Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) on Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains, East Africa |
title_sort |
taxonomy and diversity of afroalpine chironomidae (insecta: diptera) on mount kenya and the rwenzori mountains, east africa |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/413459 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-413459 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01590.x https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/413459/file/4134600 |
genre |
ice core |
genre_facet |
ice core |
op_source |
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY ISSN: 0305-0270 |
op_relation |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/413459 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-413459 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01590.x https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/413459/file/4134600 |
op_rights |
No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01590.x |
container_title |
Journal of Biogeography |
container_volume |
34 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
69 |
op_container_end_page |
89 |
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1768388770687614976 |