The role of the Balkan peninsula in the genesis of the soil fauna of the Carpathian Basin

Informations

Funding country

Hungary

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

4/1/2008

End date

3/31/2012

Budget

49,900 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

The Carpathian Basin regarding its geological history, natural geography and climate is one of the most interesting regions of Europe, and consequently the origin of its fauna is highly controversial. To explore the zoological values of the Carpathian Basin a national R&D project was launched (2005-7). These investigations demonstrated that this obscurity of its fauna-genesis depends on the general knowledge of the taxonomic group in question. It is clear that the vagile insects especially the beetles and butterflies furthermore the vertebrates such as birds and mammals are quite well-known. This is far not so regarding the soil fauna; its components are mostly unknown and furthermore its origin and genesis are highly disputed. Our so far results on earthworms, soil mites, springtails gave a lot of new knowledge, and these researches might throw new light upon the origin and genesis of the soil fauna of the Carpathian basin as well. It is well known that after the Ice Age the Carpathian Basin were populated mostly by species coming from the Balkan refuges. According to our assumption this could have happened by two distinct routes. On the first route the Trans-Danubian region were populated from South-West direction with Illyric elements, on the second route the North-Eastern part of Hungary were populated via river basins (such as Iron Gate) and the Transylvanian Island Mountains by Ponto-Mediterranean and Moesic species. However there are several animal groups which not arrived by these postglacial migrations but perhaps lived here even before the Ice Age and survived this harsh period in situ. This dual phenomenon characterizes first of all the soil fauna and it is the main subject of our researches in present project.