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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2018

Abstract

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Abstract

Background: The knowledge of Norwegian tardigrades is poor and their diversity, distribution and ecology in Norwegian forests is unknown. This project aims to investigate tardigrade diversity associated with different types of substrates in forests in Norway, evaluate the impact of forestry management practices on tardigrade biodiversity for future conservation policies, and expand the DNA barcode library of Norwegian tardigrades. It will also use environmental barcoding of substrates to test the effectiveness of this method in documenting tardigrade diversity and distribution. Results: We collected three hundred bryophyte-, lichen- and leaf litter samples from various protected deciduous and coniferous forests in Norway in 2017. The vegetation in each sample was identified, mostly to species-level. Tardigrades were extracted from most bryophyte- and lichen samples, and some litter samples. Preliminary analyses show that there are differences in abundance and community composition between both forest- and substrate types. Litter samples show lower abundances than bryophyte and lichen samples, but a higher diversity than expected. Conclusions: Remaining samples still need to be processed, but our preliminary conclusion is that different substrates and forest types host different tardigrade communities. DNA-barcoding will be performed on single specimens of as many of the sampled species as possible and added to the Barcode of Life Data Systems database (BOLD). We expect that DNA metabarcoding of environmental samples from selected localities will record the same diversity as traditional extraction of specimens, but also add information on the presence of species that were undetected.