Biodiversity and ecology of plants and arthropods on the last preserved glacier of the Apennines mountain chain (Italy)

Abstract

In the current global warming phase, relict glacial areas are one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. They are “cold-spots” of biodiversity and of great interest both from the ecological and conservation point of view. We investigated the biological communities (plants and arthropods) hosted by one of the southernmost European glaciers: Calderone Glacier, the last preserved glacier of the Apennines mountain chain (Italy). We analyzed supraglacial debris and the nearby moraine and we found a rather diverse and peculiar biodiversity, which includes also new species. Some arthropods, such as the springtail Desoria calderonis, are particularly sensitive to the presence of ice at microtopographic level. Among plants, only Arabis alpina caucasica is able to grow on the supraglacial debris, perhaps because of factors related to the seed germination and seedling survival on this habitat type. Calderone glacier, with its particular biogeographic location, is probably currently acting as one of the last refugia for rare and endemic cryophilic species within the Mediterranean Region during the ongoing warm period.