Meiofaunal Richness in Highly Acidic Hot Springs in Unzen-Amakusa National Park, Japan, Including the First Rediscovery Attempt for Mesotardigrada.
Extreme environments sometimes support surprisingly high meiofaunal diversity. We sampled runoff from the acidic hot springs of Unzen, Japan. This is the type locality of Thermozodium esakii Rahm, 1937, the only tardigrade in the class Mesotardigrada, which remains contentious in the absence of corroboration or supporting specimens. Our sampling revealed at least three species of arthropods, four rotifers, and five nematodes living in the hot (ca. 40°C) and acidic (ca. pH 2.5) water, but no tardigrades.
1 Department of Biology, Keio University School of Medicine, Hiyoshi, Yokohama 223-8521, Japan.
Atsushi C
AC
Suzuki
2 Transdisciplinary Research Integration Center, Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), Toranomon 4-3-12, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001, Japan.|3 National Institute of Genetics, ROIS, Yata 1111, Mishima, Shizuoka 411-8540, Japan.
Hiroshi
H
Kagoshima
4 College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia.
Glen
G
Chilton
5 Natural and Mathematical Sciences Area, St. Mary's University, Calgary, AB, T2X 1Z4, Canada.
Gary T
GT
Grothman
6 Department of Biology, Fresno City College, Fresno, CA, 93726, USA.
Carl
C
Johansson
7 National Institute of Polar Research, 10-3 Midori-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8518, Japan.
Megumu
M
Tsujimoto
D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods / Q000145:classification; D044822:Biodiversity; D045482:Hot Springs; D007564:Japan; D007814:Larva / Q000145:classification; D009348:Nematoda / Q000145:classification; D012403:Rotifera / Q000145:classification; D058467:Tardigrada / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology*
arthropod; extreme environments; low pH; meiofauna; nematode; rotifer; tardigrade