Hello everyone!
In my last post, I talked about the importance of groundwater to groundwater-dependent ecosystems like wetlands, lakes, rivers, etc. In today’s post, I will be talking about groundwater ecology itself. You might be wondering are there really living things in the groundwater where there is no light and limited resources? Well, yes there are!
You may not be aware but groundwater often contains a wide variety of organisms and those that live only in groundwater and not above the ground surface are called Stygobites. Most animals found in groundwater are Crustaceans with a hard outer shell for protection (Maurice, 2009). A selection of some stygobiotic taxa from France can be seen below (Gibert & Culver, 2009).
Groundwater ecology is important as they provide a unique contribution to global diversity. It is suggested that in Europe, stygobites constitute approximately 40% of all crustaceans, suggesting that they play an important role in overall diversity. Stygobites have unusual adaptations to their subsurface environment thus there could be high levels of endemism, in addition, low levels of sampling suggest that the currently known species are likely to only constitute a small proportion of the true diversity (Danielopol et al., 2000).
So what is the importance of these creatures? Due to high endemism, they can provide insight into evolution, ecology, and biodiversity. Groundwater ecosystems can remain unchanged for long periods and species can be used to investigate past changes in geomorphology and climate. The distribution of stygobites can provide information on aquifer characterization as well (Maurice, 2009). It is thought that feeding, movement and excretion by groundwater fauna can enhance water purification, bioremediation and water infiltration (Boutlon et al., 2008) providing a significant ecosystem services. Groundwater fauna can also be useful indicators of the environmental health of aquifers. This groundwater ecosystem and biodiversity have an inherent value which can benefit people thus there is a need for conservation of these creatures.
There are however many threats to groundwater ecosystems namely habitat removal by opencast quarrying, groundwater extraction which removes organisms and causes physical and chemical changes to the habitat, and aquifer contamination (Maurice, 2009). Contamination can cause the altering of groundwater chemistry changing the environment these stygobites are able to survive in. Furthermore, endemism in groundwater is very common consequently their risks to be threatened are higher that turn to greater chances of extinction.
Much are still unknown about this ecosystem making assessments of groundwater biodiverity increasingly important. Research needs to be conducted in order to provide better criteria for ensuring groundwater ecosystem quality and protection.
That brings me to the end of this post.
See you guys soon!
References
Boulton, A. J., Fenwick, G. D., Hancock, P. J., & Harvey, M. S. (2008). Biodiversity, functional roles and ecosystem services of groundwater invertebrates. Invertebrate Systematics, 22(2), 103. doi:10.1071/is07024
Danielopol, D. L., Pospisil, P., & Rouch, R. (2000). Biodiversity in groundwater: A large-scale view. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 15(6), 223-224. doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(00)01868-1
Gibert, J., & Culver, D. C. (2009). Assessing and conserving groundwater biodiversity: An introduction. Freshwater Biology, 54(4), 639-648. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2427.2009.02202.x
Maurice. L. 2009. Groundwater Ecology Literature Review. British Geological Survey Open Report, OR/09/061. 37pp.
