Conservation Studies on Groundwaters’ Pollution: Challenges and Perspectives for Stygofauna Communities

Raoul Manenti, Beatrice Piazza, Yahui Zhao, Emilio Padoa Schioppa and Enrico Lunghi
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Raoul Manenti: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria, 26, 20133 Milano, Italy
Beatrice Piazza: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria, 26, 20133 Milano, Italy
Yahui Zhao: Key Laboratory of the Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Emilio Padoa Schioppa: RULE—Research Unit of Landscape Ecology, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
Enrico Lunghi: Key Laboratory of the Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: Assessing the effects of pollution in groundwaters is recently considered among the most relevant aims for subterranean biology; with this perspective, we aim to provide examples of the most relevant effects that pollution may cause on stygofauna community and underline patterns deserving further investigations. We retrieved different cases in which pollution caused alteration of groundwater trophic webs, favored invasions by epigean mesopredators, damaged stygobiont keystone species, and promoted interspecific competition between stygobionts and epigean animals. The results and the remarks derived from our perspective review underline that pollution may play multifaceted effects on groundwaters communities, and the paucity of information that exists on community-level changes and threats underlines the necessity for further studies.

Keywords: invertebrates; macrobenthos; sewage; mining; detritus; minerals; stygobite Niphargus; flatworm; aqueduct; salamander; freshwater benthos (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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