RUI: A Survey of the Moss Dwelling Tardigrades of China

瑞：中国生活在苔藓中的缓步动物的调查威廉·r·米勒、克拉克·比斯利和马歇尔·克罗斯缓步动物或水熊是生活在苔藓中的小型动物，它们表现出隐生性，具有承受极热、极冷、极压和其他恶劣环境条件的非凡能力。一般不到1分钟的长度，缓慢移动的缓步动物就像一个可爱的迷你熊或毛毛虫。它们存在于每个大陆的苔藓、地衣、土壤或海洋沉积物中。它们的隐生生命阶段被定义为可逆的代谢暂停，可能持续数十年。在隐生过程中，水熊虫虽然处于干燥状态，但在实验中，它们经受了-272℃至+150℃的温度、6000个大气压的压力、完全真空、高辐射和交流，但它们仍然回到了活跃的生命阶段。这些结果引发了生理学和进化上的猜测，包括这种动物在太空中运输的可能能力。然而，缓步动物的生态需求和生命周期仍然鲜为人知。人们怀疑它们被风带到世界各地，但它们的全球分布模式非常不完整。例如，在被描述的950多种缓步动物中，只有47种在中国。相比之下，超过500种已知物种出现在欧洲的逆风区。虽然水熊的数量通常很丰富，但它们对地球生命网的贡献仍然是个谜。该项目将在宾夕法尼亚州费城栗山学院（Chestnut Hill College）和德克萨斯州阿比林（Abilene）的麦克默里大学（mcmurry University）组建本科生研究团队。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、鉴定并在项目中发表。首先，研究小组将从密苏里植物园收集的10,000份苔藓样本中提取缓步动物，这些样本是由美国国家科学基金会资助的“中国苔藓植物区系”项目收集的。其次，这些小组将与中国科学院的一名成员合作，对中国进行一次考察，并收集2000个额外的样本。最后，这些团队将在费城自然科学院工作，建立并记录代金券收集。这些团队将通过在我们对中国动物群的了解中增加多达300种缓步动物，为了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。我们将扩大对动物生态需求的理解，并测试与当地、区域和全球分布和空间格局有关的几个假设。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、可印刷的中国缓步动物目录，包括描述、图像、识别密钥、地理参考和参考书目。这样的参考资源将有助于世界各地的分类学家、生态学家、生物地理学家、教师和学生在评估研究、教育、实验和发现中使用缓步动物。

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.