Technicians and engineers also played a major role in the treatment of field data and samples. It is not surprising that some of them contributed largely to the preparation of this book. In particular, the engineer Romain Georges and the technicians Christelle Buchard and Bernard Chaubet should be acknowledged. Thanks to them and to all the volunteers who, over the years, have been overwintering in Kerguelen and the Île de la Possession. Our knowledge on the biology of the larger invertebrates of Kerguelen and the Île de la Possession has considerably increased over the last decades, as shown in this book.
The focus was particularly on their geographical distribution, their ecology and population dynamics. We note that it is also then that it was perceived that the endemic fauna of the islands was not in a preserved sanctuary but had to cope with an increasing number of introduced species. Meteorological recordings made it possible to characterize the first changes in ambient temperature and rainfall, indicating climate changes. They also showed that even a small increase in ambient temperature and drop in rainfall could facilitate the influx of invasive species.
With such knowledge being securely documented by field work and long-term series, this book illustrates how powerful it is to now enter a mechanistic and functional approach. Ecophysiology is the key to determining the environmental conditions which enable or limit the ability of invertebrate newcomers to survive and establish themselves on the islands and for the endemic species to deal with such invaders. Complementing the understanding of physiological mechanisms of adaptation, genomics open new perspectives to decipher and understand the origin and biogeography of sub-Antarctic invertebrate fauna.
Thus, altogether, this book is not only about the listing of the larger invertebrates of Kerguelen and the Île de la Possession. It is a truly remarkable story on a field and laboratory research which is still ongoing, providing detailed information on the origin, evolution and ecosystem functioning of the invertebrate fauna of sub-Antarctic islands.
Yvon LE MAHO
Emeretus Director of Research, CNRS, Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien
(University of Strasbourg/CNRS) and Centre Scientifique de Monaco
Member, French Academy of Sciences and Chair of the board, French Polar Institute
Strasbourg, France
September 2020
1 1 Research mission of the The French Southern and Antarctic Lands.
2 2 French Institute of Science and Technology.
3 3 The French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor.
Acknowledgements
This book is based on extensive fieldwork that was only possible thanks to the logistics and funding provided by the administration of the French Southern and Antarctic Territories (TAAF) and the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV).
We are grateful to the leaders of the successive research programs, dedicated to the study of biodiversity and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, where this work took place: Paul Tréhen, Yves Frenot, Marc Lebouvier and David Renault.
From the very first missions that followed the establishment of the bases to the present day, many explorations have been carried out in almost all sectors of the Îles Kerguelen and Île de la Possession. Many people have made it possible to reach an almost exhaustive knowledge of the macroinvertebrate fauna. This involves more than 150 people: all the young wintering field assistants and the scientists in summer campaigns, as well as the civilian and military staff dedicated to logistics and who often accompanied the scientists into the field. May we thank them all here collectively!
We would like to thank Marc Lebouvier who made a major contribution to data acquisition and management, and Christelle Buchard and Romain Georges, who have done a lot of work on species identification, collection management and the identification training we put in place each year for young wintering scientists. We are also very pleased to have been able to illustrate most of the invertebrate species present on the Îles Kerguelen and the Île de la Possession thanks to our fellow photographer, Bernard Chaubet. Damien Fourcy drew all the maps of the Kerguelen and Crozet islands specifically for this book.
We would also like to thank the specialists who brought their expertise on the chapters devoted to the different taxonomic groups: Yves Frenot (earthworms), Maryvonne Charrier (mollusks), Julien Pétillon and Cyril Courtial (spiders), Steven Chown (weevils), Vladimir Gusarov (rove beetles), Adam Broadley (sciarids), Torbjorn Ekrem and Aina Maerk Aspaas (chironomids), Evelyne Turpeau and Christelle Buchard (aphids) and Richard Harrington (lepidopterans).
We are grateful to the “Zone Atelier Antarctique et Terres Australes” (https://zaantarctique.org/) and to Françoise le Moal for editing the meteorological data from the Kerguelen and Crozet weather stations provided by Météo France. We would also like to thank Clément Quetel and Floran Hoarau of the French Southern Lands National Nature Reserve for the information on the reserve and the maps of the access areas, as well as Yann Laurent and Franck Duval for their drawings of insect morphology.
David Hatcher and Richard Harrington provided invaluable help in proofreading and correcting our French-English.
The entire ISTE team were also a great help in the conception of the book.
Thanks to our supervisory institutes, the University of Rennes 1, the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) for hosting our research activities and signing our mission orders!
Finally, we express our warmest gratitude to Steven Chown and Yvon Le Maho, who agreed to write the forewords of this book and with whom we are happy to share our passion for the sub-Antarctic islands.
Introduction
The Îles Kerguelen and the Îles Crozet belong to the “Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises” (TAAF). They are located in the South Indian Ocean Province. They were discovered in 1772 respectively by Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec and Marc-Joseph Marion Dufresne whose first mate, Julien Crozet, had landed on Île de la Possession (Delépine 1995).
After their discovery, these islands remained untouched by any human presence until the whalers and the sealers visited them during the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century. In 1924, they were officially attached to France, who only installed permanent bases there in 1950 on the Îles Kerguelen (Port-aux-Français) and in 1963 on Île de la Possession (Base Alfred Faure).
The history of fauna and flora is affected by the history of human visits. Fauna and flora were originally composed of a small number of native sub-Antarctic species. The first introductions of alien species occurred as early as the 19th Century (rabbits and dandelion in 1874). The number of introduced species increased significantly from the mid-20th Century, and now makes up approximately half of the species present. Some of the introduced species have become invasive. Given the small number of native species and the quantitative importance of introductions, terrestrial ecosystems have been severely disrupted by these invasions, especially as global warming has also caused significant changes in vegetation cover.
Assessing the impact of introduced species on native ecosystems and deciphering the interactions between native and alien species are some of the issues currently being investigated by scientific teams.
Until now, there has been no work presenting all the invertebrate fauna of these islands. Here, we are only considering macroinvertebrates (earthworms, mollusks, spiders and insects) from the Îles Kerguelen and Île de la Possession for which we have an almost complete knowledge. Other groups such as springtails, mites