PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Climate warming has been more pronounced in the Arctic th an elsewhere, resulting in a recent rapid glacial retreat. Over 85% of the Ålmajallojekna glacier has disappeared over the last 115 years and it is one of the fastest retreating glaciers in Sweden. In 2011 and 2012, at 18 sites in the vicinity of the remaining glacier network, we sampled arthropods and related the species richness, abundance and proportion of herbivores to altitude (ranging from 824 to 1,524 m.a.s.l.) and the age of the site (ranging from 0 to >115 years). Temperature was measured at six sites and the average annual air temperature ranged from -3.7°C to 1.1°C. In total, we recorded 3,705 arthropods from 117 species in nine different taxonomic groups. The most abundant and species-rich group was Coleoptera (1,381 individuals, 41 species) followed by Araneae (1,050 individuals, 15 species) and Macrolepidoptera (732 individuals, 17 species). Only at lower altitudes did the abundance and species richness of arthropods increase with increasing age of the site. The results were consistent among the studied taxonomic groups and when controlling for sam- pling intensity using two different approaches. The proportion of herbivores decreased with increasing age of the site and with increasing altitude. Clearly, altitude appears more important than the age of the site and, at higher altitudes, abundance, species richness and herbivory are low.