Five-Year Monitoring of a Desert Burrow-Dwelling Spider Following an Environmental Disaster Indicates Long-Term Impacts
Efrat Gavish-Regev,
Igor Armiach Steinpress,
Ibrahim N. A. Salman,
Nitzan Segev,
Assaf Uzan,
Yebin Byun,
Tanya Levy,
Shlomi Aharon,
Yoram Zvik,
Raisa Shtuhin,
Yotam Shapira,
Marija Majer,
Zeana Ganem,
Sergei Zonstein,
Ivan L. F. Magalhaes,
Yael Lubin
Affiliations
Efrat Gavish-Regev
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Igor Armiach Steinpress
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Ibrahim N. A. Salman
French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Midreshet Ben-Gurion 8499000, Israel
Nitzan Segev
Dead-Sea & Arava Science Center, Yotvata 8882000, Israel
Assaf Uzan
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Yebin Byun
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Tanya Levy
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Shlomi Aharon
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Yoram Zvik
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Raisa Shtuhin
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Yotam Shapira
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Marija Majer
Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion 8499000, Israel
Zeana Ganem
The National Natural History Collections, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Sergei Zonstein
Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, 12 Klausner St., Tel Aviv 6139001, Israel
Ivan L. F. Magalhaes
División Aracnología, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”—CONICET. Av. Ángel Gallardo 470, Buenos Aires C1405DJR, Argentina
Yael Lubin
Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion 8499000, Israel
Deserts are characterized by unpredictable precipitation and extreme temperatures. Their fauna and flora are sensitive to anthropogenic environmental changes, and often recover slowly from environmental disasters. The effects of oil spills on the biota of desert regions, however, have scarcely been studied. We predicted that terrestrial invertebrates suffer long-term negative effects from an oil spill, due to their close association with the substrate. Thus, we investigated the effects of two oil spills that occurred in 1975 and 2014 in the hyper-arid ‘Arava desert (Israel), on a spider that constructs silk-lined nests in burrows in compact, sandy soil in this extreme desert habitat. The spider, Sahastata aravaensis sp. nov. (Filistatidae), is described herein. We assessed spider burrow abundance in plots located in oil-contaminated and nearby uncontaminated clean soil (control) areas over five consecutive years and measured habitat characteristics in these plots. In the laboratory, we determined the preference of individuals for clean vs. oil-contaminated soil as a resting substrate. Finally, as this species was previously undescribed, we added a new species description. The abundance of Sahastata was significantly lower in oil-contaminated plots, and this was the case in the 40-year-old oil spill (1975) as well as in the recent one (2014). In laboratory tests, spiders showed a significant preference for the clean soil substrate over the oil-contaminated substrate. In the field, soil crust hardness and vegetation density did not differ significantly between oil-contaminated and control plots, but these measures were highly variable. The burrows were significantly clustered, suggesting that the young disperse only short distances. In the laboratory adult spiders did not dig burrows, perhaps indicating that adults remain permanently in their natal burrows and that in the field they may use vacant burrows. We conclude that Sahastata populations were affected negatively by the oil spills and these effects were long-lasting. We propose that by monitoring their spatial distribution, burrow-dwelling spiders such as Sahastata can be used as effective bioindicators of soil pollution in desert habitats.
