scoring - Aqualife

12th ICOC Seoul, July 2014
Symposium
Groundwater Quality and
Copepods
Global trends and environmental
challenges in groundwater
dependent ecosystems:
the copepod response
Diana M.P. Galassi
University of L’Aquila - ITALY
dianamariapaola.galassi@univaq.it
12th ICOC Seoul, 2014
The “upside-down vision” of freshwater:
the ground water
All water which is below the surface of the
ground in the saturation zone and in direct
contact with the ground of the soil.
[definition source: Directive 2000/60/EC
(Water Framework Directive)]
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Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs)
are ecosystems which have their species
composition and their natural ecological
processes determined by groundwater
(ARMCANZ & ANZECC, 1996)
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Degree of dependency (after Hatton, 1998)
Ecosystems Entirely Dependent on
Groundwater (e.g. SGDEs)
If groundwater lowers or modifies only
slightly, then the ecosystem would
essentially cease to be.
Ecosystems Highly Dependent on
Groundwater
Moderate changes to groundwater
discharge or water tables would lead to
substantial decreases in the extent or health
of the ecosystem. There is some significant
chance that the ecosystem would collapse.
Ecosystems with Proportional Dependence
on Groundwater
For a number of systems, it is likely that a
unit change in the amount of groundwater
will result in a proportional change in the
health or extent of that ecosystem.
Ecosystems which may only use
Groundwater Opportunistically
Groundwater may only play a significant
role in the water balance of some
ecosystems in times of extreme drought or
briefly at the end of a dry season.
Ecosystems with No Apparent Dependency
on Groundwater
There are a number of wetland ecosystems
which do not depend on groundwater in any
significant
way.
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2014
State of the art in the scientific knowldge
Natural drivers (left) and stressors (right) in different
organism groups illustrating knowledge gaps
After Stendera et al., 2012
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Upwelling zone in a glacial river
http://www.nps.gov/dena/naturescience/upload/EcologyUpwellings2008_revised2012.pdf
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Upwelling at the Tirino Springs (Italy)
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Unsaturated karst – Frasassi cave (Italy)
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Saturated karst:
the unique sulphidic karst of the Frasassi
cave (Italy)
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Pollutants in groundwater
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Projected change in mean annual and seasonal river flow between the
climate change scenario (2071-2100) and the control period (1961-1990)
http://www.eea.europa.eu/legal/copyright
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Groundwater quality status in Europe
http://www.ngu.no/en-gb/
http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-andmaps/figures/chemical-status-of-groundwater-bodies
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Trends in groundwater abstraction
Km3/year
(after Margat & van der Gun, 2012)
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Groundwater exploitation in Asia:
main drivers
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Nitrates in groundwater in the Netherlands
(Netherlands Environmental Agency, 2007)
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Nitrogen contamination
of groundwater in the U.S.A.
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Marine intrusion
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Soil and fractured aquifer pollution
by chlorinated solvent spill
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Soil and aquifer pollution
by oil tanks spills and leakages
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It’s not enough: the «controversial» fracking
Cavitation hydrovibration is
a process using a device
that fractures rock using a
pressurized water pulse
action on rock stratum to
increase the degree of
fracturing. The device is
considered “green
technology” and relies
solely on water without the
need for the toxic
“chemical cocktail”
employed in standard
hydrofracturing.
The real risk of water
contamination comes from
these flowback
fluids leaking into streams
or seeping down into
groundwater after
reaching the surface.
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What can the groundwater fauna
and the copepods tell us?
Heavy contraints
1.Dramatic decline in taxonomy
2.Linnaean shortfall (Lomolino et al., 2006)
3.Inaccuracy in taxonomic identification
4.Generalization on ecological categorization based on highrank taxa
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Unpolluted GDEs: the case study of a rheo-limnocrenic spring in Italy
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Copepod response to natural drivers
in unpolluted conditions
Fiasca et al., J. Limnol., 2014
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Copepods as Active Exchange Describers
Stygobite and non-stygobite copepods mirror the hydrogeological pattern
After Di Lorenzo et al., 2013
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Stream and rivers once perennial are
becoming intermittent
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The hyporheic zone
loses its biodiversity,
copepods included
X
After Stream Corridor Restoration: Principles, Processes and Practices (1998) USDA National Conservation Center
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Altered river discharge: the dams
Altered flow discharge
determines a strong
increase in riverbed
sediments erosion and
high instability of the
hyporheic zone
reference site
The hyporheic community
resulted impoverished and
abundance of stygobiotic
species dramatically
lowered
(Caschetto et al., 2013)
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Trends in species richness and abundances of copepods
at the mid-section of the River Sagittario (Italy)
Projection of sites on the first two ordination axes after MDS; stress = 0.12
1. Imperviousness - i.e.
compacted riverbed
2. Pollution by NH4+and
PO4312th ICOC Seoul, 2014
Hyporheic fauna response to global change in climate:
the case study of the Rhone River
After Dehedin et al., 2013
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Stygobiotic copepod response
to groundwater withdrawal
After Di Lorenzo & Galassi, 2013
Mann-Withney U-tests, p=0.043; p=0.049
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Ecological changes under disturbance:
the effects of groundwater availability of the aquifers
After Kløve et al., 2013
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The effect of organic pollution on stygobiotic
fauna: the replacement by stygoxenes
After Malard et al., 2001
Natural disasters: the earthquakes
Crustal
stress
O2 increase
Aquifer strain
Aquifer
discharge
increase
Fracturing
Earthquake
Ground
shaking
POM
increase
BIOTRIGGER
Very fine sand
increase
Fracture
cleaning
Montgomery & Manga, Science, 2003
Galassi et al., Sci. Rep., 2014
Hydrological changes in groundwater trigger
alteration of groundwater copepod assemblages
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The cascade effect:
from the earthquake to the biotrigger
Galassi et al., 2014
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Integrative index of groundwater
ecosystem status
Toward the assessment of integrative indexes scoring the ecological
status of the GDEs:
groundwater copepods as «model species»?
GW quality
scoring
GW quantity
scoring
Testing species sensitivity
(ecotoxicology, genotoxicity, proteomics)
scoring
MODEL SPECIES FOR GDEs?
Testing Community/assemblage
composition under different drivers
and pressures
scoring
Many thanks to all my friends, colleagues, collaborators who made possible this review.
Many thanks to the Local Commitee and to Wonchoel Lee and Rony Huys for the
attention paid to GW and copepods living there
Many thanks to:
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