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Not so free range? Oviposition microhabitat and egg clustering affects Eretmoptera murphyi (Diptera: Chironomidae) reproductive success

Understanding the physiology of non-native species in Antarctica is key to elucidating their ability to colonise an area, and how they may respond to changes in climate. Eretmoptera murphyi is a chironomid midge introduced to Signy Island (Maritime Antarctic) from South Georgia (Sub-Antarctic) where...

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Autores principales: Bartlett, Jesamine, Convey, Pete, Hayward, Scott A. L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6383618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30872891
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2420-4
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author Bartlett, Jesamine
Convey, Pete
Hayward, Scott A. L.
author_facet Bartlett, Jesamine
Convey, Pete
Hayward, Scott A. L.
author_sort Bartlett, Jesamine
collection PubMed
description Understanding the physiology of non-native species in Antarctica is key to elucidating their ability to colonise an area, and how they may respond to changes in climate. Eretmoptera murphyi is a chironomid midge introduced to Signy Island (Maritime Antarctic) from South Georgia (Sub-Antarctic) where it is endemic. Here, we explore the tolerance of this species’ egg masses to heat and desiccation stress encountered within two different oviposition microhabitats (ground surface vegetation and underlying soil layer). Our data show that, whilst oviposition takes place in both substrates, egg sacs laid individually in soil are at the greatest risk of failing to hatch, whilst those aggregated in the surface vegetation have the lowest risk. The two microhabitats are characterised by significantly different environmental conditions, with greater temperature fluctuations in the surface vegetation, but lower humidity (%RH) and available water content in the soil. Egg sacs were not desiccation resistant and lost water rapidly, with prolonged exposure to 75% RH affecting survival for eggs in singly oviposited egg sacs. In contrast, aggregated egg sacs (n = 10) experienced much lower desiccation rates and survival of eggs remained above 50% in all treatments. Eggs had high heat tolerance in the context of the current microhabitat conditions on Signy. We suggest that the atypical (for this family) use of egg sac aggregation in E. murphyi has developed as a response to environmental stress. Current temperature patterns and extremes on Signy Island are unlikely to affect egg survival, but changes in the frequency and duration of extreme events could be a greater challenge. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00300-018-2420-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-63836182019-03-12 Not so free range? Oviposition microhabitat and egg clustering affects Eretmoptera murphyi (Diptera: Chironomidae) reproductive success Bartlett, Jesamine Convey, Pete Hayward, Scott A. L. Polar Biol Original Paper Understanding the physiology of non-native species in Antarctica is key to elucidating their ability to colonise an area, and how they may respond to changes in climate. Eretmoptera murphyi is a chironomid midge introduced to Signy Island (Maritime Antarctic) from South Georgia (Sub-Antarctic) where it is endemic. Here, we explore the tolerance of this species’ egg masses to heat and desiccation stress encountered within two different oviposition microhabitats (ground surface vegetation and underlying soil layer). Our data show that, whilst oviposition takes place in both substrates, egg sacs laid individually in soil are at the greatest risk of failing to hatch, whilst those aggregated in the surface vegetation have the lowest risk. The two microhabitats are characterised by significantly different environmental conditions, with greater temperature fluctuations in the surface vegetation, but lower humidity (%RH) and available water content in the soil. Egg sacs were not desiccation resistant and lost water rapidly, with prolonged exposure to 75% RH affecting survival for eggs in singly oviposited egg sacs. In contrast, aggregated egg sacs (n = 10) experienced much lower desiccation rates and survival of eggs remained above 50% in all treatments. Eggs had high heat tolerance in the context of the current microhabitat conditions on Signy. We suggest that the atypical (for this family) use of egg sac aggregation in E. murphyi has developed as a response to environmental stress. Current temperature patterns and extremes on Signy Island are unlikely to affect egg survival, but changes in the frequency and duration of extreme events could be a greater challenge. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00300-018-2420-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2018-10-16 2019 /pmc/articles/PMC6383618/ /pubmed/30872891 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2420-4 Text en © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Bartlett, Jesamine
Convey, Pete
Hayward, Scott A. L.
Not so free range? Oviposition microhabitat and egg clustering affects Eretmoptera murphyi (Diptera: Chironomidae) reproductive success
title Not so free range? Oviposition microhabitat and egg clustering affects Eretmoptera murphyi (Diptera: Chironomidae) reproductive success
title_full Not so free range? Oviposition microhabitat and egg clustering affects Eretmoptera murphyi (Diptera: Chironomidae) reproductive success
title_fullStr Not so free range? Oviposition microhabitat and egg clustering affects Eretmoptera murphyi (Diptera: Chironomidae) reproductive success
title_full_unstemmed Not so free range? Oviposition microhabitat and egg clustering affects Eretmoptera murphyi (Diptera: Chironomidae) reproductive success
title_short Not so free range? Oviposition microhabitat and egg clustering affects Eretmoptera murphyi (Diptera: Chironomidae) reproductive success
title_sort not so free range? oviposition microhabitat and egg clustering affects eretmoptera murphyi (diptera: chironomidae) reproductive success
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6383618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30872891
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2420-4
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