Relationship between groundwater invertebrate communities and environmental variables
Keywords:
stygofauna, Crustacea, vadose zone, land use, phreatic aquiferAbstract
The study of aquifers from an ecosystemic perspective that focus on their invertebrate communities is relatively recent. Particularly, the invertebrates living in low permeability loessic aquifers have not been studied. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of environmental variables on the invertebrate communities in the loessic phreatic aquifer of La Colacha basin (Córdoba). Seven perforations were selected according to the thickness of the vadose zone and the surrounding land use. Also a superficial water body was selected as a reference. The perforations were sampled twice during a hydrological year. The samples corresponded to fresh water, with the exception of one perforation (brackish water). Nitrate was detected in all samples. As expected, the superficial water body showed higher invertebrate abundance than the wells. Invertebrate density ranged between 1.6 and 23.7 individuals/L, which is in the range of densities of other aquifers of the world. The dominant taxon was Crustacea, in particular Copepoda, followed by Acari, Collembola, Insecta, Oligochaeta, Pauropoda and Nematoda. Invertebrate abundance diminished with vadose zone depth, associated with a decrease of the flow of oxygen and organic matter to the groundwater. Land use surrounding the wells significantly affected the aquifer invertebrates through the contribution of organic matter.
References
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SCARSBROOK, M & G FENWICK. 2003. Preliminary assessment of crustacean distribution patterns in New Zealand groundwater aquifers. N. Z. J. Mar. Fresh. 37:405-413.
SCHMIDT, S; HJ HAHN; T HATTON & W HUMPHREYS. 2007. Do faunal assemblages reflect the exchange intensity in groundwater zones? Hydrobiologia 583:1-19.
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WARD, J; J STANFORD & N VOELZ. 1994. Spatial distribution patterns of Crustacea in the floodplain aquifer of an alluvial river. Hydrobiología 287:11-17.
ALONSO, A & JA CAMARGO. 2005. Estado actual y perspectivas en el empleo de la comunidad de macroinvertebrados bentónicos como indicadora del estado ecológico de los ecosistemas fluviales españoles. Ecosistemas 14:87-99.
APPELO, CAJ & D POSTMA. 1996. Geochemistry, groundwater and pollution. ISBN 90-5410-105-9. Balkema, AA. Rotterdam. Pp. 536.
ARMSTRONG, K; G HUMPHREYS & M MAIER. 2003. Ludlow Stygofauna Survey. Cable Sands (WA) Pty Ltd. Stygofauna Sampling Report. BIOTA Environmental Sciences. Pp. 29.
BAKER, M; HM VALETT & C DAHM. 2000. Organic carbon supply and metabolism in a shallow groundwater ecosystem. Ecology 81:3133-3148.
BLARASIN, M; A CABRERA; M VILLEGAS; C FRIGERIO & S BETTERA. 1999. Groundwater contamination from septic tank system in two neighborhoods in Río Cuarto city, Córdoba. Argentina. International Contributions to Hydrogeology 21:31-38.
BLARASIN, M. 2003. Geohidrología ambiental del Sur de Córdoba, con énfasis en la ciudad de Río Cuarto y su entorno rural. Tesis doctoral. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Córdoba. Argentina.
BLARASIN, M; A CABRERA; M CANTÚ; J FELIZZIA & J BELLIN. 2005. Caracterización geológica e hidrogeológica de la cuenca del arroyo La Colacha y análisis de cambios del nivel freático. Córdoba. Pp. 263-274 en: Blarasin, M; S Degiovanni; A Cabrera & M Villegas (eds.). Aguas superficiales y subterráneas en el Sur de Córdoba: una perspectiva geoambiental. Ed. UNRC.
BLARASIN, M; A CABRERA; E MATTEODA; G DAMILANO & J GIULIANO ALBO. 2008. Indicadores para evaluar cambios ambientales en acuíferos. Consideraciones sobre el fondo natural de la calidad de agua. Pp. 69-80 en: Cantú, M; A Becker & J Bedano (eds.). Evaluación de la sustentabilidad ambiental en sistemas agropecuario. ISBN 978-987-1003-58-7 Ed. UNRC.
BOULTON, AJ; HM VALETT & SG FISHER. 1992. Spatial distribution and taxonomic composition of the hyporheos of several Sonoran Desert streams. Arch. Hydrobiol. 125:37-61.
BOULTON, A; D GRAHAM & P HANCOCK. 2008. Biodiversity, functional roles and ecosystem services of groundwater invertebrates. Invert. Systematics 22:103-116.
BRIGHT, J; V BIDWELL; C ROBB & J WARD. 1998. Environmental Performance Indicators for Groundwater. Ministry for the Environment. Report No 4306/1. Pp. 34.
BRUNO, MC; W LOFTUS & S PERRY. 2001. Preliminary data on microcrustacean communities from groundwaters in the southern Everglades. Pp. 89- 97 en: Kuniansky, EL (ed.). U.S. Geological Survey Karst Interest Group Proceedings Water-Resources Investigations Report 01-4011.
CANTER, LW. 1997. Nitrates in Groundwater. Lewis Publishers. Pp. 263.
CASTELLARINI, F; MJ DOLE-OLIVIER; F MALARD & J GIBERT. 2007. Using habitat heterogeneity to assess stygobiotic species richness in the French Jura region with a conservation perspectiva. Fund. Appl. Limnol. 168:1-10.
DATRY, T. 2003. Urbanization and groundwater quality-subterranean ecosystem responses to artificial stormwater. Tesis doctoral, Universidad Claude Bernard-Lyon, Francia. Pp. 180.
DATRY, T; F MALARD & J GIBERT. 2005. Response of invertebrate assemblages to increased groundwater recharge rates in a phreatic aquifer. J.N. Am. Benthol. Soc. 24:461-477.
DI LORENZO, T; F STOCH; B FIASCA; E GATTONE; P DE LAURENTIIS; ET AL. 2004. Environmental quality of deep groundwater in the Lessinian Massif (Italy): signposts for sustainability. Pp. 115-125 en: Gibert, J (ed.). Proceedings of the Symposium on World Subterranean Biodiversity. France.
DUMAS, P; C BOU & J GIBERT. 2001. Groundwater macrocrustaceans as natural indicators of the Ariége alluvial aquifer. Int. Rev. Hydrobiol. 86:619-633.
DUMAS, P. 2002. Stability of interstitial crustacean communities in an isolated alluvial aquifer. Hydrobiologia 468:63-76.
ESCUDER, R; J FRAILE; S JORDANA; F RIBERA; X SÁNCHEZ- VILA; ET AL. 2009. Hidrogeología. Conceptos básicos de hidrología subterránea. FCIHS. Barcelona. España.
FENWICK, G; H THORPE & P WHITE. 2004. Groundwater systems. Cap. 29. Pp. 1-18 en: Harding, J; P Mosley; C Pearson & B Sorrell (eds.). Freshwaters of New Zealand. New Zealand Hydrological Society. Wellington, New Zealand.
FERNÁNDEZ, HR. 2004. Does wrong precedence assignment lead to underestimates in groundwater biodiversity? Ecol. Aust. 14:77-81.
FERREIRA, D; F MALARD; MJ DOLE-OLIVIER & J GIBERT. 2007. Obligate groundwater fauna of France: diversity patterns and conservation implications. Biodivers. Conserv. 16:567-596.
GIBERT, J & L DEHARVENG. 2002. Subterranean ecosystems: A truncated functional biodiversity. BioScience 52:473-481.
GIBERT, J. 2004. Introduction. Pp. 13-14 en: Gibert, J (ed.). Proceedings of the Symposium on World Subterranean Biodiversity. France.
GOLDSCHEIDER, N; D HUNKELER & P ROSSI. 2006. Review: Microbial biocenoses in pristine aquifer and an assessment of investigative methods. Hydrogeol. J. 14:926-941.
GROSSO, LE & HR FERNÁNDEZ. 1985. Una nueva Bogidiella (Amphipoda, Bogidiellidae) hiporreica de la Provincia de Tucumán (Argentina). Neotropica 31:201-209.
HAKENKAMP, CC; MA PALMER & BR JAMES. 1994. Metazoans from a sandy aquifer: dynamics across a physically and chemically heterogeneous groundwater system. Hydrobiologia 287:195-206.
HAHN, HJ. 2006. The GW-Fauna-Index: A first approach to a quantitative ecological assessment of groundwater habitats. Limnologica 36:119-137.
HANCOCK, P; A BOULTON & W HUMPHREYS. 2005. Aquifers and hyporheic zones: Towards an ecological understanding of groundwater. Hydrogeol. J. 13:98-111.
HUMPHREYS, WF. 2006. Groundwater fauna. Australian state of the Environment Committee, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Canberra. www.environment.gov.au/soe/2006/publications/emerging/fauna/index.html (último acceso: 03-01-2011).
HUMPHREYS, WF. 2008. Hydrogeology and groundwater ecology: Does each inform the other? Hydrogeol. J. 17:5-21.
MAHIBBUR, RM & Z GOVINDARAJULU. 1997. A modification of the test of Shapiro and Wilks for normality. J. Appl. Stat. 24:219-235.
MALARD, F; S PLÉNET & J GIBERT. 1996. The use of invertebrates in ground water monitoring: a rising research field. Ground Water Monit. Remed. 16:103-113.
MALARD, F: MJ DOLE-OLIVIER; J MATHIEU & F STOCH. 2002. Sampling Manual for the Assessment of Regional Groundwater Biodiversity. European Project: Protocols for the Assessment and Conservation of Aquatic Life In the Subsurface (PASCALIS). Pp. 74.
NOTENBOOM, J; R SERRANO; I MORELL & F HERNÁNDEZ. 1995. The phreatic aquifer of the “Plana de Castellón” (Spain): relationships between animal assemblages and groundwater pollution. Hydrobiologia 297:241-249.
PABICH, WJ; I VALIELA & HF HEMOND. 2001. Relationship between DOC concentration and vadose zone thickness and depth below water table in groundwater of Cape Cod, U.S.A. Biogeochemistry 55:247-268.
PARAN, F; F MALARD; J MATHIEU; M LAFONT; DMP GALASSI; ET AL. 2004. Distribution of groundwater invertebrates along an environmental gradient in a shallow water-table aquifer. Pp. 99-106 en: Gibert, J (ed.). Proceedings of the Symposium on World Subterranean Biodiversity. France.
PERALTA, M. 2006. Redescripción de Hexabathynella szidati (Crustacea: Bathynellacea) de aguas subterráneas de Argentina. Segunda cita geográfica. Acta zool. lilloana 50:15-23.
SCARSBROOK, M; G FENWICK & J RADFORD. 2000. Living groundwater: studying the fauna beneath our feet. Water & Atmosphere 8:15-16.
SCARSBROOK, M & G FENWICK. 2003. Preliminary assessment of crustacean distribution patterns in New Zealand groundwater aquifers. N. Z. J. Mar. Fresh. 37:405-413.
SCHMIDT, S; HJ HAHN; T HATTON & W HUMPHREYS. 2007. Do faunal assemblages reflect the exchange intensity in groundwater zones? Hydrobiologia 583:1-19.
SOKAL, RR & FJ ROHLF. 1995. Biometry: the principles and practice of statistic in biological research. 3rd ed. W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, EE.UU. Pp. 887.
TER BRAAK, CJF. 1986. Canonical correspondence analysis: a new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology 67:1167-1179.
TER BRAAK, CJF & P SMILAUER. 2004. CANOCO for Windows. Trial Version. Biometrics - Plant Research International, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CÓRDOBA. 2008. Estadística y Biometría, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias. InfoStat. Versión P2.
WARD, J; J STANFORD & N VOELZ. 1994. Spatial distribution patterns of Crustacea in the floodplain aquifer of an alluvial river. Hydrobiología 287:11-17.
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Tione, M. L., Bedano, J. C., & Blarasin, M. T. (2011). Relationship between groundwater invertebrate communities and environmental variables. Ecología Austral, 21(1), 087–100. Retrieved from https://ojs.ecologiaaustral.com.ar/index.php/Ecologia_Austral/article/view/1298
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Copyright (c) 2011 María L. Tione, José C. Bedano, Mónica T. Blarasin
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