Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Plaza Murillo 2, ES 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Plaza Murillo 2, ES 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Eur J Protistol. 2021 Oct;81:125828. doi: 10.1016/j.ejop.2021.125828. Epub 2021 Jul 24.
Southern Spain is currently under threat of desertification as a consequence of global climate change, which pressures on fragile ecosystems such as caves. The organisms living in these extremely stable environments are particularly sensitive and prone to extinction, therefore they can be used as bioindicators for climate change. Cyanobacterial mats form peculiar and vulnerable micro-ecosystems at the entrance of caves and house a diversity of protists. Amongst them, Arcellinida testate amoebae have been traditionally used as bioindicators for environmental quality, notably because their narrow ecological tolerance and their key ecological position as top predators of the microbial foodwebs. We report here two new species of Arcellinida found in the cyanobacterial mats of cave Hundidero, in Sierra de Grazalema, Malaga province, whose traits suggest a narrow tolerance for changes in humidity. We provide a formal description for Difflugia alhadiqa sp. nov. and Heleopera baetica sp. nov. based on morphometrics and 18S rRNA gene data, and propose using the presence of these species to indicate the good health of the cyanobacterial mats, like miner's canaries for local climate.
西班牙南部正面临着荒漠化的威胁，这是全球气候变化的结果，这种变化给洞穴等脆弱生态系统带来了压力。生活在这些极其稳定环境中的生物特别敏感，容易灭绝，因此它们可以作为气候变化的生物指标。蓝藻垫在洞穴入口处形成了独特而脆弱的微型生态系统，其中有多种原生生物。在这些原生生物中，表壳虫有孔虫一直被传统上用作环境质量的生物指标，特别是因为它们的生态狭窄，而且它们作为微生物食物网的顶级捕食者的关键生态地位。我们在这里报告了在马拉加省格拉纳达山脉的 Hundidero 洞穴蓝藻垫中发现的两种新的表壳虫物种，它们的特征表明对湿度变化的耐受性很窄。我们根据形态计量学和 18S rRNA 基因数据为 Difflugia alhadiqa sp. nov. 和 Heleopera baetica sp. nov. 提供了正式描述，并提出使用这些物种的存在来指示蓝藻垫的健康状况，就像矿工的金丝雀一样，预示着当地的气候。
