Anthropogenic impacts in groundwater ecosystems remain poorly known. Climate change is omnipresent, while groundwater salinization poses serious long-term environmental problems in arid and semi-arid regions, and is exacerbated by global warming. Both are present threats to the conservation of groundwater ecosystems, which harbour highly specialized species, with peculiar traits and limited geographic distributions. We tested the temperature and salinity tolerance of groundwater-adapted invertebrates to understand the effect of global warming and salinization in groundwater ecosystems. We used species representative of groundwater-adapted crustaceans: two copepods (harpacticoid and cyclopoid) and one syncarid, endemic to Australia. Our results show that 50% of the populations died at salt concentrations between 2.84 to 7.35 g NaCl/L after 96 h, and at 6.9 °C above the ambient aquifer temperature for copepods and more than 10 °C for syncarids. Both copepods were more sensitive to temperature and NaCl than the syncarid. We calculated a salinity risk quotient of 9.7 and predicted the risk of loss of 10% of syncarid and 20% of copepod population abundances under a worst-case scenario of global warming predictions for 2070. These results highlight that both salinity and temperature increases pose a risk to the ecological integrity of groundwater ecosystems.
ABSTRACT Anthropogenic impacts in groundwater ecosystems remain poorly known. Climate change is omnipresent, while groundwater salinization poses serious long-term environmental problems in arid and semi-arid regions, and is exacerbated by global warming. Both are present threats to the conservation of groundwater ecosystems, which harbour highly specialized species, with peculiar traits and limited geographic distributions. We tested the temperature and salinity tolerance of groundwater-adapted invertebrates to understand the effect of global warming and salinization in groundwater ecosystems. We used species representative of groundwater-adapted crustaceans: two copepods (harpacticoid and cyclopoid) and one syncarid, endemic to Australia. Our results show that 50% of the populations died at salt concentrations between 2.84 to 7.35 g NaCl/L after 96 h, and at 6.9 °C above the ambient aquifer temperature for copepods and more than 10 °C for syncarids. Both copepods were more sensitive to temperature and NaCl than the syncarid. We calculated a salinity risk quotient of 9.7 and predicted the risk of loss of 10% of syncarid and 20% of copepod population abundances under a worst-case scenario of global warming predictions for 2070. These results highlight that both salinity and temperature increases pose a risk to the ecological integrity of groundwater ecosystems. Reference: Castaño-Sánchez A., Hose G.C. & Reboleira A.S.P.S. (2020). Salinity and temperature increase impact groundwater crustaceans. Scientific Reports, 10: 12328. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69050-7
![]() Included in the SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE OF THE UIS 2021 CONGRESS: Simposium 7: Subterranean life Call for communications
The depths of the earth below our feet contain a wealth of organisms, from microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi) to animals and plants. Speleologists were among the earliest witnesses of this richness: it is from their first discoveries that the study of organisms in subterranean habitats emerged. Subterranean habitats are not only caves in different geological substrates, but encompass also a variety of terrestrial and aquatic subterranean habitats, including networks of fissures in the rocks and groundwater in sediments. The combined study of the diversity of subterranean organisms, their distribution, their biology, their evolution and their ecology offers new perspectives not only for understanding how subterranean ecosystems function, but also for addressing fundamental questions in other scientific fields, as diverse as human health or environmental changes. This symposium will welcome proposals for papers on a variety of topics on subterranean life including methods for sampling subterranean organisms; inventory, description, biology, morphology, physiology, genetics and behavior of subterranean organisms; cave ecology; distribution patterns of organisms and evolution of their biodiversity from genes to communities; management, protection and conservation of subterranean biodiversity and habitats. More info and submissions: https://uis2021.speleos.fr/symposium-7 |
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