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Di Cicco M, Di Lorenzo T, Fiasca B, Galmarini E, Vaccarelli I, Cerasoli F, Tabilio Di Camillo A, Galassi DMP. Some like it hot: Thermal preference of the groundwater amphipod Niphargus longicaudatus (Costa, 1851) and climate change implications. J Therm Biol 2023; 116:103654. [PMID: 37478581 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2023.103654] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2023] [Revised: 06/21/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 07/23/2023]
Abstract
Groundwater is a crucial resource for humans and the environment, but its global human demand currently exceeds available volumes by 3.5 times. Climate change is expected to exacerbate this situation by increasing the frequency of droughts along with human impacts on groundwater ecosystems. Despite prior research on the quantitative effects of climate change on groundwater, the direct impacts on groundwater biodiversity, especially obligate groundwater species, remain largely unexplored. Therefore, investigating the potential impacts of climate change, including groundwater temperature changes, is crucial for the survival of obligate groundwater species. This study aimed to determine the thermal niche breadth of the crustacean amphipod species Niphargus longicaudatus by using the chronic method. We found that N. longicaudatus has a wide thermal niche with a natural performance range of 7-9 °C, which corresponds to the thermal regime this species experiences within its distribution range in Italy. The observed range of preferred temperature (PT) was different from the mean annual temperature of the sites from which the species has been collected, challenging the idea that groundwater species are only adapted to narrow temperature ranges. Considering the significant threats of climate change to groundwater ecosystems, these findings provide crucial information for the conservation of obligate groundwater species, suggesting that some of them may be more resilient to temperature changes than previously thought. Understanding the fundamental thermal niche of these species can inform conservation efforts and management strategies to protect groundwater ecosystems and their communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mattia Di Cicco
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy.
| | - Tiziana Di Lorenzo
- National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy; IRET-CNR, Istituto di Ricerca Sugli Ecosistemi Terrestri Del CNR, Florence, Italy; Racovitza Institute of Speleology, Romanian Academy, Clinicilor 400006 Cluj Napoca, Romania; Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências, Centre for, Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c) & CHANGE - Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal. 4 Natural History Museum of Denmark
| | - Barbara Fiasca
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Emma Galmarini
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Ilaria Vaccarelli
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy; University Institute of Higher Studies in Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Francesco Cerasoli
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
| | - Agostina Tabilio Di Camillo
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy; IRET-CNR, Istituto di Ricerca Sugli Ecosistemi Terrestri Del CNR, Florence, Italy
| | - Diana Maria Paola Galassi
- Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
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Ecophysiological and life-history adaptations of Gammarus balcanicus (Schäferna, 1922) in a sinking-cave stream from Western Carpathians (Romania). ZOOLOGY 2020; 139:125754. [PMID: 32088526 DOI: 10.1016/j.zool.2020.125754] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2019] [Revised: 12/12/2019] [Accepted: 01/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Freshwater gammarids are known to colonise occasionally sinking-cave streams, providing contrasting morphological, life-history and ecophysiological adaptations compared to their surface conspecifics. In this study, a subterranean and a surface population of the species Gammarus balcanicus was surveyed for one year in a sinking-cave stream from the Western Carpathians (Romania). The results showed that the cave-dwelling population comprised individuals that were significantly larger compared to their surface conspecifics, had larger body-size at sexual maturity and that the females produced fewer, but larger eggs, compared to the population situated outside the cave. The trophic position and the omnivory were significantly higher for the cave-dwelling compared to surface population and the elemental imbalance for C:P molar ratios lower, but similar for C:N. However, the subterranean population did not present troglomorphic characters or longer lifespan as known for other cave-surface paired crustaceans. This, together with the rather extensive hydrological connection of the habitats, suggests active gene-flow between populations and similar response to seasonality for body-size distributions, indicating that the observed ecophysiological and life-history differences are rather the consequence of phenotypic plasticity than the result of genetic adaptation.
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Is subterranean lifestyle reversible? Independent and recent large-scale dispersal into surface waters by two species of the groundwater amphipod genus Niphargus. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2018; 119:37-49. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.10.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2017] [Revised: 10/23/2017] [Accepted: 10/27/2017] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
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Copilaș-Ciocianu D, Fišer C, Borza P, Balázs G, Angyal D, Petrusek A. Low intraspecific genetic divergence and weak niche differentiation despite wide ranges and extensive sympatry in two epigean Niphargus species (Crustacea: Amphipoda). Zool J Linn Soc 2017. [DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlw031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
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