Vasquez Adrian A, Kabalan Bana A C, Miller Carol J
Healthy Urban Waters, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA.
Present address: Department of Physiology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA.
Acarologia. 2022 Sep;62(3):653-665. doi: 10.24349/2m5p-c5ku. Epub 2022 Jul 4.
Water mites are aquatic arachnids that have been used in Europe and Central America as bioindicators of ecological health in various freshwater ecosystems (including bogs). Water mites can be found in high densities in the Laurentian Great Lakes and adjacent habitats. Although they are abundant, water mites are generally not used in the assessment of aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes and are usually assigned to the "other" category in macroinvertebrate assessments. This is despite evidence of their utility as aquatic bioindicators. In the present study we consider water mites as bioindicators of the environmental health of Point Rosa marsh, a threatened marsh found on the US side of transboundary Lake St. Clair. The abundance of water mites in Point Rosa Marsh increased from 2017 to 2019 as lake water levels increased. Although increasing water levels in Lake St. Clair can be considered a negative event due to loss of irreplaceable coastal habitat by erosion with potential economic impacts, this present study indicates that water mite populations in Point Rosa Marsh increased during the same period (2017 to 2019). As a result of our study we: update the biodiversity of water mites from Lake St. Clair with new records compared to the last report from the lake over 45 years ago, first report on water mite assemblages at Point Rosa marsh at the Lake St. Clair Metropark on Lake St. Clair and the first demonstration of water mites used as bioindicators in the habitats of the Laurentian Great Lakes.
水螨是水生蛛形纲动物，在欧洲和中美洲被用作各种淡水生态系统（包括沼泽）生态健康的生物指标。在五大湖劳伦系高原和邻近栖息地能发现高密度的水螨。尽管水螨数量众多，但在五大湖水生栖息地评估中一般不使用它们，在大型无脊椎动物评估中通常被归为“其他”类别。尽管有证据表明它们可作为水生生物指标，但情况依然如此。在本研究中，我们将水螨视为罗莎角湿地环境健康的生物指标，罗莎角湿地是位于跨界圣克莱尔湖美国一侧的一个受到威胁的湿地。随着湖水水位上升，罗莎角湿地水螨的数量从2017年到2019年有所增加。虽然圣克莱尔湖水位上升可被视为一个负面事件，因为侵蚀导致不可替代的沿海栖息地丧失并可能产生经济影响，但本研究表明，同一时期（2017年至2019年）罗莎角湿地的水螨种群数量增加了。作为我们研究的结果，我们：与45多年前该湖的最后一份报告相比，用新记录更新了圣克莱尔湖水螨的生物多样性，首次报告了圣克莱尔湖大都会公园圣克莱尔湖罗莎角湿地的水螨群落，以及首次证明水螨可作为五大湖劳伦系高原栖息地的生物指标。
