Biodiv Sci ›› 2025, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (2): 24406.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2024406  cstr: 32101.14.biods.2024406

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Advances in tardigrade diversity, distribution characteristics and ecological functions

Chen Dingsong1,2(), Liu Zikai1,2(), He Ziyang1,3(), Chen Weidong1,2,*()()   

  1. 1 Key Laboratory for Humid Subtropical Eco-geographical Processes of the Ministry of Education, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, China
    2 School of Geographical Sciences, School of Carbon Neutrality Future Technology, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, China
    3 Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
  • Received:2024-09-08 Accepted:2024-11-06 Online:2025-02-20 Published:2025-02-26
  • Contact: *E-mail: wd_chen@fjnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(42377288);Fujian Provincial Education Research Projects for Young and Middle-Aged Teachers(JAT241013)

Abstract:

Background: Tardigrades, commonly known as water bears, are microscopic invertebrates inhabiting diverse environments across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems. As essential components of microfauna communities, they are renowned for their extraordinary extremotolerant adaptability and occupy multiple trophic levels within micro-food webs, indicating their significant ecological roles. Despite significant advancements made in understanding tardigrade biodiversity, identification methodologies, physiological and ecological traits recently, a comprehensive summaries remains lacking.

Bibliometric analyses & Perspective: Through bibliometric analyses of global tardigrade research over the past three decades, this review systematically summarizes the research progress in the new species discovery, identification methods, distribution characteristics, and ecological functions of tardigrades. The primary findings encompass: (1) Up to 2024, 1,488 documented tardigrade species inhabit a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, including moss, soil, marine environments, polar regions, and even anthropogenic habitats, with new species being continuously discovered. (2) Current identification methods remain predominantly morphology-based, while standardized molecular tools for phylogenetic resolution are critically underdeveloped, severely constrain taxonomic advancements. (3) We describe characteristics in aquatic ecosystems and unique adaptive mechanisms to global change stressors including climate warming and atmospheric nitrogen deposition. (4) Preliminary summaries reveal their ecological roles in micro-food webs through interactions with meiofauna and microbial communities.

Future prospects: We propose three critical research priorities: (1) Emphasizing the need to improve molecular biology research methods; (2) Exploring the distribution characteristics across different ecosystems on large spatial and long-term temporal scales; (3) Elucidating their position in micro-food webs and ecological functions.

Key words: tardigrade, distribution characteristics, ecological function, food web, bibliometric analyses