Some like it hot: Thermal preference of the groundwater amphipod Niphargus longicaudatus (Costa, 1851) and climate change implications

Di Cicco, Mattia; Di Lorenzo, Tiziana; Fiasca, Barbara; Galmarini, Emma; Vaccarelli, Ilaria; Cerasoli, Francesco; Tabilio Di Camillo, Agostina; Galassi, Diana Maria Paola

doi:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2023.103654

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Therefore, environmental filtering, primarily related to thermal ranges, appeared to mainly determine the set of species being unique to the different caves, and thus between-cave turnover. This may derive from the combination of two processes: (i) differences in temperature averages between regions may translate into differences in the timing and amount of groundwater recharge following ice and snow melting, along with rainfall, which in turn affects the degree to which non-stygobitic copepods can move in the groundwater through the hydrologic continuum between surface water and groundwater 85 ; (ii) since temperature within caves is generally correlated to surface mean annual temperature 86 , temperature patterns in the neighbourhoods of the different caves may directly translate into thermal differences in cave waters, thus shaping the corresponding assemblages based on the thermal niche breadth of the species forming the respective regional pools 87 , 88 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional climate contributes more than geographic distance to beta diversity of copepods (Crustacea Copepoda) between caves of Italy

Galmarini,

Vaccarelli,

Fiasca

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Despite the study of subterranean biodiversity facing harsh sampling and mapping challenges, the huge diversity of taxa, ecological adaptations and evolutionary trajectories in subterranean environments is gaining increasing attention. Yet, the spatial and environmental factors driving the composition of groundwater communities are still poorly understood. To partially fill this knowledge gap, we collected copepod crustaceans from 12 caves along the Italian peninsula between 2019 and 2022, sampling each cave twice. The resulting presence-absence data were analysed to assess: (i) between-cave taxonomic beta diversity, also partitioning between turnover and nestedness-resultant dissimilarity; (ii) the relative weight of geographic distance and climatic differences in shaping observed beta diversity. Seventy-one species of copepods were collected overall. Pairwise beta diversity was high for most pairs of caves, with turnover being the major component. Geographic distance-decay models partially explained total beta diversity and turnover patterns. However, in Generalized Dissimilarity Models (GDM), including surface climatic conditions as predictors, the contribution of seasonal temperature averages was generally higher than that of geographic distance. Further, the explanatory and predictive performance of the GDMs notably increased, along with temperature contribution, when widening the spatial extent from which climate data were gathered. Our results confirmed a high spatial turnover in groundwater copepods’ assemblages and strengthened the link between regional climate and subterranean biodiversity.

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