| Pascalis | |
| Protocols for the Assessment and Conservation of Aquatic Life In the Subsurface |
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| The transfer and practical
implications of basic knowledge in groundwater ecology is still severely
limited by the lack of appropriate tools for assessing and conserving
biodiversity. The present project is resolved to fill this gap and
provide new data and innovative methods that are of critical importance in
advancing the assessment and conservation of groundwater biodiversity.
Major creative products will concern both the way to look at, to assess,
to predict and to conserve biodiversity in European groundwater. |
The project will provide a tool-box that includes several validated methods for: 1) determining the reliability of patterns of regional biodiversity revealed by the mapping of existing data; 2) predicting overall species richness based on biodiversity indicators in regions with incomplete data set; 3) obtaining by means of a standardized field sampling method an unbiased estimate of groundwater biodiversity in regions for which no data are existing. To date, none of these three important issues have been addressed, thereby severely restricting the usefulness of distribution maps for the assessment and conservation of groundwater biodiversity. For a better understanding of groundwater biodiversity, a database compiles 11 000 records of bibliographic references to subterranean species from 6 countries France, Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, Spain and the Canary Islands. 2200 species were recorded among which 1200 obligate subterranean species (stygobites). This bibliographic compilation improves knowledge in biodiversity assessment in south European groundwater. Furthermore, a comprehensive sampling strategy was suggested based on 6 selected regions: meridional Jura and Roussillon for France, the Krim massif in Slovenia, the Lessinian Mountains in Italy, Cantabric region in Spain and the Walloon karst in Belgium. 1300 samples were taken to study environmental and biological attributes. The preliminary analysis of these samples regions show that most regions are gathered in a medium risk group in terms of priority conservation but all are subject to the influence of human pressure. The lists of species identified for each region gives an overview of the existing groundwater biodiversity and its partition. It can already be asserted that groundwater biodiversity is underestimated. Biodiversity conservation must be designed at the level of the aquifer or the hydrogeological basin. We expect to be able to study the % of common species in all sampled regions which enhances the significant number of endemic species and thus with limited distribution. It can already predicted that to establish an index of conservation value for aquifers, sites and assemblages, a selection of indicators is needed. This project is of great scientific value as research on groundwater biodiversity assessment and conservation is carried out for the first time at the European level. It will also contribute to the 2010 target in offering applicable recommendations in terms of water management, legislation and procedures of biodiversity assessment and conservation. |
| For more information
about the Pascalis project, click here.
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