Assessing and conserving groundwater biodiversity: synthesis and perspectives

1. This paper is a synthesis of a special issue on groundwater biodiversity with a focus on obligate subterranean species, the stygobionts. The series of papers constitutes a great leap forward in assessing and understanding biodiversity patterns because of the use of large quantitative data sets obtained over a broad geographic scale. They also represent a conceptual shift, away from a purely taxonomic and phylogenetic focus to the analysis of whole groundwater assemblages.
2. The general patterns emerging for groundwater fauna are: very high levels of endemism, low local diversity relative to regional diversity, a limited number of lineages, occurrence of many relicts, and truncated food webs with very few predators.
3. β-Diversity is at least as important as α-diversity in determining total richness at different scales (aquifer, basin and region) and overall taxa richness increases across spatial scales.
4. Advances in understanding groundwater biodiversity patterns further include identification of several important factors related to geology and hydrology that determine the composition of European stygobiotic assemblages.
5. Important challenges for future research include improving sampling strategies, filling gaps in sampling coverage, intensifying research on theoretical and statistical models, and including functional and genetic diversity components in biodiversity assessments.
6. Strategies are proposed for protecting groundwater biodiversity and an argument is made to integrate biodiversity in groundwater management. Applying principles such as complementarity and flexibility for groundwater biodiversity conservation is a major step toward delineating a reserve network that maximise species representation at the European scale.     

Groundwater copepods: diversity patterns over ecological and evolutionary scales

Copepods are common components of the groundwater fauna, and greatly increase the diversity of groundwater communities. With more than 900 species/subspecies known from continental groundwaters, stygobiont copepods inhabit all kinds of aquifers (karstic, fissured, porous), as well as surface/subsurface ecotones (land/water and water/water). The polyhedral and varied structure of the stygohabitats is reflected in the surprising mixture of functional morphologies and habitat exploitations experienced by groundwater copepods. Morphological adaptations and specializations are discussed, as well as the chronology of their appearance in the evolutionary history of several taxa. Diversity patterns of copepod assemblages in groundwater are examined under both structural and functional profiles, as well as across a range of scales. Structure and function operate in an interactive, sometimes hierarchical ways, as well as scales. On the ecological scale, local heterogeneity and patchiness in geomorphic and hydrologic characteristics, as well as biotic interactions, are to be considered causal factors affecting the diversity patterns over a range of spatial and temporal scales. On the evolutionary scale, it is widely accepted that stygobiont copepods evolved from ancestors living in marine, freshwater and semiterrestrial environments. They gained access to the groundwater through major highways represented by the interstitial and the crevicular/karstic corridors. `Phylogenetic diversity' in groundwater copepod taxocoenoses is viewed as a heterogeneous assemblage of species belonging to different phylogenetic lineages, which entered groundwater at different times and by different ways.     

皖南地区非飞行小型兽类多样性调查及编目

皖南地区是安徽省动物资源最丰富的区域, 也是华东地区生物多样性热点研究区域, 但目前该区域小型兽类多样性研究相对滞后, 物种本底数据仍不清楚。本研究于2018年5月至2019年12月利用夹日法和陷阱法对皖南地区14个区域的小型兽类进行了调查, 结合传统形态鉴定方法和DNA条形码技术(Cyt b和COI基因)对标本进行鉴定。同时, 结合历史资料对皖南小型兽类名录进行了整理。此次调查共采集小型兽类标本647号, 隶属3目8科17属23种, 其中啮齿目13种, 劳亚食虫目9种, 兔形目1种。分子分析结果显示皖南地区的川西缺齿鼩(Chodsigoa hypsibia)、华南缺齿鼹(Megera latouchei)、青毛巨鼠(Berylmys bowersi)、赤腹松鼠(Callosciurus erythraeus)和侯氏猬(Mesechinus hughi)与其他地区的样本存在较为明显的分化。结合历史资料, 皖南地区共有小型兽类3目9科24属34种, 其中啮齿目23种, 劳亚食虫目10种, 兔形目1种。皖南地区小型兽类资源十分丰富, 对于华东地区生物多样性保护非常重要, 但其多样性仍可能被低估, 该地区小型兽类资源还有待进一步深入调查。     

Recovery in aquatic ecosystems: an overview of knowledge and needs

This article summarizes the views of scientists asked to address some of the critical unanswered questions concerning recovery in aquatic systems. Spatial and temporal variability were emphasized because of their implications for our abilities to distinguish between recovered and non-recovered ecosystems and the consequent effects such variability has on the statistical precision of developed recovery metrics. There was also consensus that pre-disturbance ecosystem states may not be re-established in the absence of a disturbance event and that better data sets will be required to separate the influences of natural variability from disturbance event induced fluctuations in many biological measures. Although discussions tended to focus at the population or community level, evidence from physiological-based measures of recovery indicates divergent rates of recovery at varying levels of biological organization, a fact which suggests a role for biomarkers in developing a complete understanding of recovery. Critical questions concerning the determination and understanding of recovery that remain to be answered are identified. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Biodiversity in the Gulf of Guinea: an overview

Patterns of species-richness and endemism in the Gulf of Guinea reflect the region's biogeographic history. Bioko is a continental-shelf island that was recently connected to the African mainland, whereas Príncipe, São Tomé and Annobón are truly oceanic and have never been connected with each other or with the mainland. As a result, Bioko supports a much more diverse flora and fauna but with relatively low levels of endemism at the species level, whereas the oceanic islands are relatively depauperate because of their isolation but rich in endemic taxa. Species endemism is 0–3% on Bioko for angiosperms, bats, birds, reptiles and amphibians, compared with much higher values on Principe for these same taxa of 8% (plants) to 100% (amphibians), on São Tomé between 14% (plants) and 100% (amphibians), and on Annobón 0% (bats) to 71% (reptiles). On a global scale, for their size both Príncipe and São Tomé support unusually high numbers of single-island endemic species of birds, reptiles and amphibia. For its tiny size, Annobón is also notable for its endemic birds and reptiles. Among terrestrial molluscs the rates of endemism are in general higher than for plants and vertebrates, from ca 50% on Bioko to ca 80% on the oceanic islands. In contrast and as might be expected, only Bioko supports a rich freshwater fish fauna and it contains many endemic taxa, whereas the oceanic islands support only a few salt-tolerant species. The Gulf of Guinea islands are also important for their marine organisms, amongst which coral reef fish and marginellid molluscs show high levels of endemism, though they are not especially species-rich. The Gulf of Guinea islands are of great interest to conservationists and evolutionary biologists. Each island, of greatly differing size and degree of isolation, has acquired its unique sub-set of plants and animals separately from the neighbouring mainland, followed by adaptive radiations in situ. For this reason the conservation value of the archipelago as a whole is greater than the sum of the biodiversity contained in its individual islands. Conservation initiatives in the Gulf of Guinea should therefore ensure that representative terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats and groups of organisms are targeted in a co-ordinated manner among the islands.     

Distribution and community structure of Ostracoda (Crustacea) in shallow waterbodies of southern Kenya

The current study presents the ostracod communities recovered from 26 shallow waterbodies in southern Kenya, combined with an ecological assessment of habitat characteristics. A total of 37 waterbodies were sampled in 2001 and 2003, ranging from small ephemeral pools to large permanent lakes along broad gradients in altitude (700–2 800 m) and salinity (37–67 200 µS cm^?1). Between 0 and 12 species were recorded per site. Lack of ostracods was associated with either hypersaline waters, or the presence of fish in fresh waters. Three of the 32 recovered ostracod taxa, Physocypria sp., Sarscypridopsis cf. elizabethae and Oncocypris mulleri, combined a wide distribution with frequent local dominance. Canonical correspondence analysis on species–environment relationships indicated that littoral vegetation, altitude, surface water temperature and pH best explain the variation in ostracod communities. Presence of fish and water depth also influence species occurrence, with the larger species being more common in shallow waterbodies lacking fish. Based on Chao’s estimator of total regional species richness, this survey recovered about two-thirds (60–68%) of the regional ostracod species pool. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of the valve morphology of 14 ostracod taxa are provided, in order to facilitate their application in biodiversity and water-quality assessments and in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.     

The Parvidrilidae – a diversified groundwater family: description of six new species from southern Europe,and clues for its phylogenetic position within Clitellata (Annelida)

The Parvidrilidae Erséus, 1999 constitute the most recently described family of oligochaete microdriles. Prior to this study, Parvidrilus strayeri Erséus, 1999, and Parvidrilus spelaeus Martínez‐Ansemil, Sambugar & Giani, 2002, found in groundwaters of the USA (Alabama) and Europe (Slovenia and Italy), respectively, were the only two species in this family. In this paper, six new species – Parvidrilus camachoi , Parvidrilus gianii , Parvidrilus jugeti , Parvidrilus meyssonnieri , Parvidrilus stochi , and Parvidrilus tomasini – and Parvidrilus gineti (Juget, 1959) comb. nov. are added to the family. With all species being stygobiont, the Parvidrilidae is unique in being the only family of oligochaetes worldwide comprising taxa that are restricted to groundwater habitats. Parvidrilids are exceedingly small worms whose principal morphological characteristics are the presence of hair setae in ventral bundles, the markedly posterior position of setae within the segments, the presence of mid‐dorsal glandular pouches in mesosomial segments, the lateral development of the clitellum, the presence of a single male pore in segment XII, and the presence (or absence) of a single spermatheca. The phylogenetic relationships of the Parvidrilidae within the Clitellata were investigated using the nuclear 18S rRNA gene, and the most representative and taxonomically balanced data set of clitellate families available to date. The data were analysed by parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference. Irrespective of the method used, Parvidrilidae were placed far from Capilloventridae, one family once suggested to be closely related to parvidrilids. Although closer to Enchytraeidae than Phreodrilidae, two other suggested putative sister families, the exact position of Parvidrilidae within Clitellata still remained uncertain in the absence of branch support. The examination of reproductive structures, together with the similarity of other important anatomical traits of the new species herein described, reinforced the idea that phreodrilids were the best candidate to be the sister group to parvidrilids on morphological grounds. A fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene, used as a barcode, also genetically characterized a few Parvidrilus species. The observation that two species diverge from each other by high genetic distances, even though their type localities are more or less only 100 km apart, is interpreted in the context of low dispersal abilities of inhabitants of the subterranean aquatic ecosystem, and habitat heterogeneity. The Parvidrilidae appear to be a diversified, Holarctic, and probably widely distributed family in groundwater, but very often overlooked because of the small size and external similarity with the polychaete family Aeolosomatidae of its members. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 166 , 530–558.     

Aquatic biodiversity under anthropogenic stress: an insight from the Archipelago Sea (SW Finland)

The Archipelago Sea in the northern Baltic has been subjected to large-scale cultural, economic and ecological changes, especially during the last three decades. Environmental threats originate from both basin-wide sources, affecting the whole Baltic Sea, and from local sources, such as nutrient loading from nearby river outflows, intense agriculture, fish farming, ships' traffic, boating, and man's physical impacts on the landscape and seascape. Both the Åland archipelago and the Archipelago Sea have been listed as hot-spots by HELCOM, Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, eutrophication being the main threat to the aquatic environment. In this study we review how biological communities have reacted to an increase in man-induced multisource stresses. Changes in plankton, benthic animals, macroalgal assemblages and fish communities have been documented in most parts of the Baltic Sea since the 1970s. What remains to be understood is the importance of these structural changes for the functioning of the Archipelago Sea ecosystem under various levels of human impact.     

An overview of the geographic and chronologic distribution of west European cercopithecoids

Four genera of fossil cercopithecoid monkeys have been recorded from Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene deposits of West Europe: the subfamilyColobinae is represented byMesopithecus andDolichopithecus while the subfamilyCercopithecinae is represented byMacaca andParadolichopithecus. Mesopithecus, Dolichopithecus andParadolichopithecus have not been recorded in “Cromerian” and younger faunas, indicating that they belonged to a more archaic biocoenosis. In contrast, the genusMacaca was apparently able to adapt to the new environment of the middle and late Pleistocene of Europe, being the only primate, along with man, to live in this region, perhaps until very recent times.     

Specific and genetic diversity at deep-sea hydrothermal vents: an overview

Hydrothermal vent communities are ancient (i.e. early Mesozoic) and characterized by high biomasses, low number of species and high levels of endemism. However, little is known about the ecology and behaviour of the vent macro-and megafauna. Data on the biology and the life-history of hydrothermal-vent organisms are scarce and lead us to hypothesize various ways in which such species disperse and colonize their habitat. Such biological and ecological patterns are important for assessing both the spatial and temporal distribution of the vent fauna and the evolution of such peculiar species with geological times and, therefore need to be reviewed. Scattered information referring to vent-site distribution, bottom currents, temporal evolution of the vent emissions and their implication on the related fauna have been accumulated over the last decade. To date, several ecological and genetic studies have attempted to analyse vent fauna structures to understand how populations and communities evolve with time in such a patchy and unstable environment. They also provide faunistic comparisons across the vent communities discovered so far on well-separated oceanic ridges. This article provides a synthetic overview on biodiversity in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, genetic diversity of hydrothermal-vent species and factors responsible for similarities or differences among the vent fauna within and between well-separated venting areas of the Atlantic and Pacific ridges.     

Hidden biodiversity in the groundwater of the Danube Flood Plain National Park (Austria)

A high number of stygobites (35 taxa) was recorded within a protected area, the Lobau in Vienna. It is shown that within National Parks, the identification of biodiversity hotspots of stygobites represents an attractive scientific activity, which increases the cultural value of protected landscapes.     

Marine and continental synchronous climatic records: Towards a revision of the European Mid-Miocene mammalian biochronological framework

The Middle Miocene climatic cooling (MCC) is a global event recorded synchronously in the marine and continental realms by several geo- and bioindicators around 15-13.5 Ma. The temporal distribution of European plants and ectothermic vertebrates indicates a similar response to the MCC around 15-13.5 Ma. According to the existing correlations of the European mammalian biochronological time scale to the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale (GPTS), a cenogram analysis revealed an important reorganisation of the Middle Miocene European terrestrial mammalian faunas that seems to take place later, around 11.5-11 Ma. This discrepancy between the timing of faunal changes can be solved by considering the recent biochronological and magnetostratigraphic data leading to reinterpretations of the debated ages of several Middle Miocene localities that need to be placed before the MCC event.     

Barcoding of Central European Cryptops centipedes reveals large interspecific distances with ghost lineages and new species records from Germany and Austria (Chilopoda,Scolopendromorpha)

In order to evaluate the diversity of Central European Myriapoda species in the course of the German Barcode of Life project, 61 cytochrome c oxidase I sequences of the genus Cryptops Leach, 1815, a centipede genus of the order Scolopendromorpha, were successfully sequenced and analyzed. One sequence of Scolopendracingulata Latreille, 1829 and one of Theatopserythrocephalus Koch, 1847 were utilized as outgroups. Instead of the expected three species (Cryptopsparisi Brolemann, 1920; Cryptopsanomalans Newport, 1844; Cryptopshortensis (Donovan, 1810)), analyzed samples included eight to ten species. Of the eight clearly distinguishable morphospecies of Cryptops, five (Cryptopsparisi; Cryptopscroaticus Verhoeff, 1931; Cryptopsanomalans; Cryptopsumbricus Verhoeff, 1931; Cryptopshortensis) could be tentatively determined to species level, while a further three remain undetermined (one each from Germany, Austria and Croatia, and Slovenia). Cryptopscroaticus is recorded for the first time from Austria. A single specimen (previously suspected as being Cryptopsanomalans), was redetermined as Cryptopsumbricus Verhoeff, 1931, a first record for Germany. All analyzed Cryptops species are monophyletic and show large genetic distances from one another (p-distances of 13.7–22.2%). Clear barcoding gaps are present in lineages represented by >10 specimens, highlighting the usefulness of the barcoding method for evaluating species diversity in centipedes. German specimens formally assigned to Cryptopsparisi are divided into three clades differing by 8.4–11.3% from one another; their intra-lineage genetic distance is much lower at 0–1.1%. The three clades are geographically separate, indicating that they might represent distinct species. Aside from Cryptopsparisi, intraspecific distances of Cryptops spp. in Central Europe are low (<3.3%).     

Obesity in Eastern Europe: An overview of its health and economic implications

AIMS: To assess the evolution and patterns of obesity in countries of the WHO European Region with a particular focus on the Eastern European countries, and to discuss the health and economic implications of obesity for those countries. METHODS: The available data on overweight and obesity in children and adults for the countries of the WHO European countries were collated from the International Obesity TaskForce database and considered in the light of estimates for the costs of obesity-related ill health. RESULTS: Overweight and obesity in most countries of Europe show rising secular trends, and are predicted to continue rising if not addressed. Estimates of the costs to the health services and to economic productivity indicate that some countries may find it hard to cope with the burden of obesity: up to 6% of total health care costs and as much in indirect costs of lost productivity could be attributed to obesity and its associated illnesses. CONCLUSIONS: Transition, despite the many benefits it has undoubtedly conferred to the population living in the Region, has also entailed the collateral damage of a fast growing obesity challenge. Policy-makers in the new and candidate EU countries as well as other countries of the European Region can learn from the negative Western European and global experience, act now to stem the obesity epidemic from further developing and in so doing, reduce the substantial economic losses associated with obesity. Local, national and international strategies will be needed to combat the problem.