Russian scientists have discovered about 30 new species of invertebrates and insects during an expedition to the sites of melted glaciers in the Central Caucasus - Tsey, Bezengi, Kashkataash. This is reported by the portal "Wild Nature of Russia".
"A whole world of cold-loving, unknown living creatures has opened up to us, their small size making them invisible to mountain tourists and climbers. With the disappearance of glaciers, the habitats of these species will disappear - the ice surfaces themselves, damp cold wastelands, and riverine gravels. However, in the Central Caucasus they still have a significant 'height reserve'," - the portal quotes the project leader, head of the laboratory of synecology of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences Olga Makarova.
The discovered creatures include the springtail of the genus Desoria and a new species of mosquito-bellflies, which live only on the ice and near its edge.
The goal of the expedition was to study the change in the invertebrate population caused by warming, melting of ice and the retreat of glaciers upwards, the portal notes. Satellite and aerial photographs, as well as old maps, photographs and descriptions made by researchers and travelers since the middle of the 19th century, helped scientists to assess the rate of retreat of the Caucasian glaciers.
The expedition participants wanted to find out whether more thermophilic species are able to displace the permanent inhabitants of glaciers, or whether they complement each other, settling nearby. In total, 438 species of invertebrates inhabit the studied sites.
As a result, the specialists came to the conclusion that a number of large populations of organisms and food chains settle the surfaces freed from ice almost simultaneously and very quickly.
"At the very edge of the ice, communities of beetles and collembolas are formed, consisting entirely of high-mountain endemics and subendemics of the Caucasus. And if some subendemics are widespread in the Caucasus, Iran and Turkey,then we consider the ground beetle Deltomerus komarovi to be a very narrow endemic for now, known only from the Tsey Gorge and the surrounding ridges," Makarova said.
Blogs
