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Changes in lichen diversity and community structure with fur seal population increase on Signy Island, South Orkney Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2010

Sergio E. Favero-Longo ,
Nicoletta Cannone ,
M. Roger Worland ,
Peter Convey ,
Rosanna Piervittori  and
Mauro Guglielmin
Sergio E. Favero-Longo*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università degli Studi di Torino, Viale Mattioli 25, 10125 Torino, Italy
Nicoletta Cannone
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche ed Ambientali, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, Via Lucini 3, 22100 Como, Italy
M. Roger Worland
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Peter Convey
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Rosanna Piervittori
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università degli Studi di Torino, Viale Mattioli 25, 10125 Torino, Italy
Mauro Guglielmin
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia Strutturale e Funzionale, Università dell’Insubria, Via Dunant 3, 21100 Varese, Italy
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

Signy Island has experienced a dramatic increase in fur seal numbers over recent decades, which has led to the devastation of lowland terrestrial vegetation, with the eradication of moss turfs and carpets being the most prominent feature. Here we demonstrate that fur seals also affect the other major component of this region’s typical cryptogamic vegetation, the lichens, although with a lower decrease in variability and abundance than for bryophytes. Classification (UPGMA) and ordination (Principal Coordinate Analysis) of vegetation data highlight differences in composition and abundance of lichen communities between areas invaded by fur seals and contiguous areas protected from these animals. Multivariate analysis relating lichen communities to environmental parameters, including animal abundance and soil chemistry (Canonical Correspondence Analysis), suggests that fur seal trampling results in the destruction of muscicolous-terricolous lichens, including several cosmopolitan and bipolar fruticose species. In addition, animal excretion favours an increase in nitrophilous crustose species, a group which typically characterizes areas influenced by seabirds and includes several Antarctic endemics. The potential effect of such animal-driven changes in vegetation on the fragile terrestrial ecosystem (e.g. through modification of the ground surface temperature) confirms the importance of indirect environmental processes in Antarctica.

Keywords

community changehabitat disturbancenitrophilous lichenspinnipedsterricolous-muscicolous lichensvegetation trampling
Type
Biological Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 65 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2011

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