Effect of Pollution with Cement Dust on the Edaphic Gamasid Mite Fauna (Acari: Gamasina) in Different Forest Ecosystems from Romania A
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Effect of pollution with cement dust on the edaphic gamasid mite fauna (Acari: Gamasina) in different forest ecosystems from Romania A. Călugăr To cite this version: A. Călugăr. Effect of pollution with cement dust on the edaphic gamasid mite fauna (Acari: Gamasina) in different forest ecosystems from Romania. Acarologia, Acarologia, 2013, 53 (2), pp.151-161. 10.1051/acarologia/20132092. hal-01565984 HAL Id: hal-01565984 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01565984 Submitted on 20 Jul 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License ACAROLOGIA A quarterly journal of acarology, since 1959 Publishing on all aspects of the Acari All information: http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/acarologia/ [email protected] Acarologia is proudly non-profit, with no page charges and free open access Please help us maintain this system by encouraging your institutes to subscribe to the print version of the journal and by sending us your high quality research on the Acari. Subscriptions: Year 2017 (Volume 57): 380 € http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/acarologia/subscribe.php Previous volumes (2010-2015): 250 € / year (4 issues) Acarologia, CBGP, CS 30016, 34988 MONTFERRIER-sur-LEZ Cedex, France The digitalization of Acarologia papers prior to 2000 was supported by Agropolis Fondation under the reference ID 1500-024 through the « Investissements d’avenir » programme (Labex Agro: ANR-10-LABX-0001-01) Acarologia is under free license and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons-BY-NC-ND which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Schausberger, P. (ed.) Acari in a Changing World: Proceedings of the 7th Symposium of EURAAC, Vienna, 2012 Acarologia 53(2): 151–161 (2013) DOI: 10.1051/acarologia/20132092 EFFECT OF POLLUTION WITH CEMENT DUST ON THE EDAPHIC GAMASID MITE FAUNA (ACARI: GAMASINA) IN DIFFERENT FOREST ECOSYSTEMS FROM ROMANIA Adina CALUG˘ AR˘ (Received 19 July 2012; accepted 15 February 2013; published online 28 June 2013) Department of Experimental and Applied Biology from the Institute of Biological Researches Ia¸si– Branch of National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] ABSTRACT — The present study analyzes the effects of pollution with cement powder on the Gamasina mite communities from soil organic horizon of some forest ecosystems. The study was carried out in two main polluted areas – one situated in Southern Romania (Cement Plant from Câmpulung Muscel – Arge¸sCounty) and the other one in the North-East (the Ta¸sca-BicazCement Plant – Neam¸tCounty). Forest ecosystems located at different distances from the pollution sources were studied and the seasonal dynamics of both the gamasid fauna and community structures were monitored. The study focused on the suborder Gamasina Leach 1815, but the total abundance of the uropodids (Uropodina Kramer, 1882) was also considered. It was found that the percentage of Gamasina mites among all mites was higher in the control forests than in the polluted ecosystems, which was true for both polluted areas. Considering their ecological requirements, their habitat preference, vertical distribution in the soil, and seasonal population changes were investigated. In polluted biotopes, the Gamasina communities suffered from lower densities, fewer species and replacement of some species with others. The analysis of the Gamasina species distribution in the control and polluted ecosystems suggests that some species can be considered tolerant, such as certain representatives of Zerconidae, Parasitidae, Pachylaelapidae, Veigaiidae etc. KEYWORDS — pollution; cement powder; Acari; Gamasina INTRODUCTION as soil quality bioindicators (Athias - Binche 1981, Karg 1989, Parisi et al. 2005, Gulvik 2007, Gergócs and Hufnagel 2009). Industry is currently considered as the most impor- tant source of air, soil and water pollution. In Eu- Nowadays, Romania is affected by pollutants rope, many scientific works have been dedicated from different sources such as cement plants, chem- to the estimation of the effect induced by differ- ical industries, from smelting of iron and steel, coal ent types of industrial pollution on the edaphic mi- mining and thermal power stations, from traffic, the croarthropods, including the mites (Seniczak et al. use of pesticides and fertilizers. The researches car- 1997, 1999, Zaitsev et al. 2001, Seniczak et al. 2002, ried out in some zones affected by industrial pollu- Skubala and Kafel 2004, Khalil et al. 2009; Santa- tion were dedicated to the microartropod fauna in maria et al. 2012), which have even been proposed general and some systematic and trophic groups in http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/acarologia/ 151 ISSN 0044-586-X (print). ISSN 2107-7207 (electronic) C˘alug˘arA. specific, at the species level being investigated only – a grove of Corylus avellana, Crataegus mono- for oribatids (C˘alug˘ar et al. 1983, Vasiliu and Mi- gyna, Populus sp. etc. at approximately 300 h˘ailescu1989, Vasiliu et al. 1995, Vasiliu and Ivan m from the factory (CM-P2 – highly polluted). 1995, Ivan and Vasiliu 2009, Ivan and Vasiliu 2010). The investigations were carried out in the vernal This paper aims to highlight the effect exerted and autumnal period of two successive years – by the pollution with cement powder on edaphic 1998 and 1999. Thus, for plots CM-C and CM-P1 Gamasina mites, which is the most important group there were three sampling data (06/1998, 09/1998 of predatory mites and most species found at the and 06/1999) but only two for plot P2 (06/1998, end of the food chain. At the edaphic level, the ce- 09/1998). ment industry plays a major role in the pollution. The cement powder changes the habitat character- The investigations at Ta¸scaBicaz were carried istics by water retaining and substrate alkalinisa- out in two successive months (06/2010 respectively tion and thus alters the living conditions for the 07/2010) in three coniferous forests, two of them be- soil mesofauna. Investigations were conducted in ing under the influence of a cement plant, and the two areas affected by this type of pollution, Câm- third one, the control, located beyond this zone: pulung Muscel (southern Romania) and Ta¸scaBi- – spruce, fir and beech forest, about 100 years caz (North-East Romania). The researches from old (Secu – control plot) (TB-C) (46o51’N Taça Bicaz were performed under a 99 % reduction 26o02’E); of dust emissions by modernizing the dedusting equipment used in the production processes, trans- – spruce forest, about 70-80 years old ( Floarea – port and storage, as well as by introducing some medium polluted) (TB-P1) (46o53’N 26o01’E); alternative fuels (such as tyres) in the production. – spruce and pine forest, about 35-40 years old The results were compared to previous researches (Neagra – highly polluted) (TB-P2) (46o54’N developed at Câmpulung Muscel, focusing on orib- 26o02’E). atid mites (Ivan and Vasiliu 2010) and to similar re- searches concerning both Oribatida and Gamasida The two polluted plots were located on the oppo- mites conducted in a pine forest in Poland (Seniczak site sides bordering the depression in which the in- et al. 1999). dustrial objective was nestled. Neagra was situated about 800 m away from the factory on a slope in di- MATERIALS AND METHODS rection of the prevailing wind. The samples of 100 cm2 area and a depth of 5 The study is based on faunistic material collected cm each were taken in every stand from the organic from soil of two types of forests: deciduous forests horizon of the soil at two different levels – the su- at Câmpulung Muscel and coniferous forests at perficial, litter and fermentation sub-horizon (olf), Ta¸scaBicaz. For both types of forests several ecosys- and the deep, humiferous one (oh). In the case of tems situated at different distances from the pollu- the grove they were taken from only one level, the tion source were considered in this study. holorganic layer, and only at Secu they were taken At Câmpulung Muscel the investigations in- from three layers, litter (ol), fermentation (of), and cluded the following plots: the humiferous layer (oh). The fauna was extracted from the soil samples – beech forest, about 100 years old, in the vicin- by the selective method of Tullgren – Berlese mod- ity of the locality Dragoslavele at 7 km away ified by Balogh (Balogh, 1958). The adult mites from the cement factory (control plot) (CM-C); from Gamasina Leach, 1815 were determined to the – beech forest, about 100 years old, near species level, or to genera in case of juveniles or N˘am˘ae¸stilocality at 1 km away from the ce- when specific characters of the adults were hard to ment factory (CM-P1 – medium polluted); define. 152 Schausberger, P. (ed.) Acari in a Changing World: Proceedings of the 7th Symposium of EURAAC, Vienna, 2012 Acarologia 53(2): 151–161 (2013) The analysis of the Gamasina communities’ were evident, namely a slight acidity in the control structure was based on the analytical ecological in- plot (pH 6.3 in ol and of, and 6.4 in oh) and alka- dices such as the average abundance of each species linity in the plot influenced by the cement powder (a),¯ and their relative density (D. r.) expressed in the (pH 8.2 in ol, 8.3 in of and 8.6 in oh) (Vasiliu and classes I (subrecedent under 1 %), II (recedent 1.1 – Ivan 1995).