Terrestrial Biodiversity

Terrestrial biodiversity of southern Victoria Land

Principal Investigator: Ian Hogg/Allan Green
Organisation: Waikato University

What we do: We investigate the terrestrial biodiversity (insects and plants) that exist at sites in southern Victoria Land.

Why we do it: In recent decades terrestrial biology studies have been concentrated around Ross Island and the Dry Valleys. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, a considerable number of sites were surveyed in the Ross Sea region from the Shackleton Glacier at 85^oS to Cape Hallett at 72^oS. Insects and plants were reported from several of these sites which, in many cases, have not been revisited. Taxonomic and collecting techniques, including modern molecular analyses, have now advanced so much that a repeat visit to these sites can often reveal a far greater biodiversity than presently accepted. Specimens from further isolated sites in southern Victoria Land will increase our present knowledge of biodiversity in these regions and be of great value for molecular phylogeographic research. Furthermore, these data can be used to estimate the date(s) at which these sites became isolated by the Ross Ice Shelf advance.

Some things we've found out so far: In 2003, a visit to a very southerly ice free site, Mt Kyffin (83^o45’ S), revealed a total of 26 lichen species, several new to Antarctica, as well as arthropod and other invertebrate taxa (Collembola, Acari, Nematoda). 

Recent Publications
Hogg, I.D. and Hebert, P.D.N. Biological identification of springtails (Hexapoda: Collembola) from the Canadian Arctic, using mitochondrial DNA barcodes. Canadian Journal of Zoology 82: 749-754. 2004.

Stevens, M. I. Hogg, I. D. Long-term isolation and recent expansion from glacial refugia revealed for the endemic springtail Gomphiocephalus hodgsoni from Victoria Land, Antarctica. Molecular ecology 12: 2357-2369, 2003. View Abstract.

Pannewitz, S. et al. Are lichens active under snow in continental Antarctica? Oecologia 135: 30-38, 2003.

Stevens, M. I. Hogg, I. D. Expanded distributional records of Collembola and Acari in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Pedobiologia 46: 485-495, 2002.