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Turkish Journal of Zoology

Author ORCID Identifier

JUAN CARVAJALINO-FERNÁNDEZ: 0000-0002-2404-0037

VALENTINA DIAZ-GALVIS: 0009-0004-4229-7794

ALAN TORRES-JARAMILLO: 0009-0002-1094-9693

DOI

10.55730/1300-0179.3180

Abstract

Tardigrades, a phylum of microscopic organisms well known for their resistance to extreme conditions thanks to adaptations such as cryptobiosis, in which they are able to suspend their metabolism until more favorable conditions arise. These organisms are found in a wide range of environments, and high Andean mountains are not the exception, even though weather conditions are highly variable during the day, let alone a month. An experiment was thus conducted at 2600m in Bogotá, Colombia to evaluate the resistance of Macrobiotus sp. found on trees, three sets of fifteen tardigrades were exposed to 20 °C, 30 °C and 40 °C, at a heating rate of 0.5 °C/min, which were then examined to determine the number of alive, dead or in “tun” organisms. The 22% of individuals were dead at 20 °C; 35.56% were dead at 30 °C and 46.67% were dead at 40 °C. No tardigrades were found in “tun” state at any temperature. Therefore, the data shows an increase in mortality as the temperature rises, even so, considering the climatic conditions registered, studied tardigrades are able to withstand higher temperatures than what they are exposed to usually. As for the lack of “tun” state it implies that high temperatures, at least at this rate, do not trigger this state while conditions like desiccation could do, more research is needed on this account.

Keywords

Andean mountains, high temperature, surviving, Tardigrades, thermotolerance

First Page

244

Last Page

247

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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