RUI: A Survey of the Moss Dwelling Tardigrades of China

瑞伊：中国苔藓缓步动物的调查米勒、克拉克比斯利和马歇尔克罗斯比缓步动物或水熊是小型苔藓栖息动物，具有隐生能力，能够承受极端的高温、低温、压力和其他恶劣的环境条件。通常长度不到1毫米，缓慢移动的缓步动物看起来像一只可爱的迷你熊或毛毛虫。它们在各大洲的苔藓、地衣、土壤或海洋沉积物中被发现。它们的隐生生命阶段被定义为可逆的新陈代谢暂停，可能持续几十年。 当缓步动物在隐生状态下脱水时，实验表明它们经历了-272 ℃到+150 ℃的温度，6000个大气压的压力，完全真空，高辐射，共沸，但它们仍然恢复了活跃的生命阶段。 这些结果与生理学和进化论的推测相矛盾，包括动物可能具有的穿越太空的能力。然而，对缓步动物的生态需求和生活史却知之甚少，人们怀疑它们是被风带到世界各地的，但它们的全球分布模式却很不完整。 例如，在950多种描述的缓步动物中，只有47种在中国有报道。相比之下，已知有500多个物种出现在欧洲的逆风处。尽管水熊数量很多，但它们对地球生命网络的贡献仍然是个谜。该项目将在宾夕法尼亚州费城的切斯特纳特山学院和德克萨斯州阿比林的麦克默里大学建立本科研究团队。 这些团队将对中国的缓步动物进行调查，在四年的时间里，20多名学生研究人员将收集、识别并发表在该项目中。 首先，研究小组将从密苏里植物园收集的10,000个苔藓样本中提取缓步动物，这些样本是由国家科学基金会资助的“中国苔藓植物群”项目收集的。 第二，这些团队将与中国科学院的一名成员合作，对中国进行考察，并收集2000个额外的样本。最后，这些团队将在费城的自然科学院工作，建立并记录一个凭证收集。这些团队将为我们对中国动物群的了解增加多达300种缓步动物，从而为理解全球多样性做出贡献。 我们的学生可能会发现和描述许多新的和特有的物种。 我们将扩大对动物的生态需求的理解，并测试与当地，区域和全球分布和空间模式相关的几个假设。 这些数据将被添加到新的缓步动物参考中心网站上，用于缓步动物的教育和研究。最终的产品将是一个基于数据的、数字化的、可打印的中国缓步动物目录，包括描述、图像、识别码、地理参考和参考书目。 这样的参考资源将帮助分类学家，生态学家，地理学家，教师和学生在世界各地谁将能够使用缓步动物在评估研究，教育，实验和发现。

RUI: A SURVEY OF THE MOSS DWELLING TARDIGRADES OF CHINAWilliam R. Miller, Clark Beasley, and Marshall CrosbyTardigrades or water bears are small moss dwelling animals that exhibitcryptobiosis, the remarkable ability to withstand extreme heat, cold,pressure and other severe environmental conditions. Generally less than 1 mmin length, the slow moving tardigrade resembles a cute miniature bear orcaterpillar. They are found on every continent in the moisture trapped bymoss, lichen, soil, or marine sediments. Their cryptobiotic life stage hasbeen defined as the reversible suspension of metabolism and may last fordecades. While desiccated in cryptobiosis, tardigrades have beenexperimentally subjected to temperatures between -272 C and +150 C, to 6000atmospheres of pressure, to complete vacuum, to high radiation, to commongases, and still they returned to an active life stage. These resultskindle both physiological and evolutionary speculation, including thepossible ability of the animal to be transported through space. Yet, theecological requirements and life cycles of tardigrades remain little known.They are suspected of being carried around the world by the winds, but theirglobal distributional patterns are very incomplete. For example, only 47out of 950+ described species of tardigrades have been reported as occurringin China. By comparison over 500 species are known to occur upwind inEurope. Although water bears are often abundant, their contribution to thelife web of the planet is still a mystery. This project will developundergraduate research teams at Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, PA, andMcMurry University, Abilene, TX. The teams will conduct a survey of thetardigrades of China, and over four years, more than 20 student researcherswill collect, identify and publish in the project. First, the teams willextract tardigrades from the 10,000 moss samples collected by the MissouriBotanical Garden in their NSF-funded "Moss Flora of China" project. Second,the teams will conduct an expedition to China in collaboration with a memberof the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and collect 2000 additional samples.Finally, the teams will work at the Academy of Natural Sciences inPhiladelphia to build and document a voucher collection.The teams will contribute to the understanding of global diversity by addingpossibly as many as 300 species of tardigrades to our knowledge of theChinese fauna. Our students will probably discover and describe many newand endemic species. We will expand the understanding of the ecologicalrequirements of the animals and test several hypotheses relative to local,regional, and global distributional and spatial patterns. The data will beadded to the new Tardigrade Reference Center web site for tardigradeeducation and research. The ultimate product will be a data based, digital,and printable catalogue to the Tardigrades of China, complete withdescriptions, images, identification keys, geo-referencing, andbibliography. Such a reference resource will aid taxonomists, ecologists,biogeographers, teachers, and students all over the world who will be ableto use tardigrades in assessment studies, education, experiments, anddiscovery.