Establishing a Water Mite Diversity Baseline for Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Water mites are the most abundant and diverse arachnids in freshwater.  As parasites and predators, they play an important role in regulating insect populations.  A comprehensive baseline inventory of water mite species can provide information for monitoring the aquatic environmental quality of the Park.  Our primary goals for 2009 are to:  (1) conduct intensive samplings of 12 selected sites that are representative of the aquatic habitat of the Park, (2) continue our collections in springs and deep interstitial habitats since they have been shown to yield novel species, (3) obtain our first specimens from selected genera to be used for DNA analysis, (4) complete a publication that includes new species in the genus Kongsbergia from the Park, and (4) continue to work on species identifications from 2005-2008 samples.  Assistance of Park volunteers and staff, educators, and other interested people will be solicited for collection at the 12 sites selected for intensive sampling.