Groundwater is a hidden global keystone ecosystem
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Review › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Dokumenter
- Fulltext
Forlagets udgivne version, 8,65 MB, PDF-dokument
Groundwater is a vital ecosystem of the global water cycle, hosting unique biodiversity and providing essential services to societies. Despite being the largest unfrozen freshwater resource, in a period of depletion by extraction and pollution, groundwater environments have been repeatedly overlooked in global biodiversity conservation agendas. Disregarding the importance of groundwater as an ecosystem ignores its critical role in preserving surface biomes. To foster timely global conservation of groundwater, we propose elevating the concept of keystone species into the realm of ecosystems, claiming groundwater as a keystone ecosystem that influences the integrity of many dependent ecosystems. Our global analysis shows that over half of land surface areas (52.6%) has a medium-to-high interaction with groundwater, reaching up to 74.9% when deserts and high mountains are excluded. We postulate that the intrinsic transboundary features of groundwater are critical for shifting perspectives towards more holistic approaches in aquatic ecology and beyond. Furthermore, we propose eight key themes to develop a science-policy integrated groundwater conservation agenda. Given ecosystems above and below the ground intersect at many levels, considering groundwater as an essential component of planetary health is pivotal to reduce biodiversity loss and buffer against climate change.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | e17066 |
| Tidsskrift | Global Change Biology |
| Vol/bind | 30 |
| Udgave nummer | 1 |
| Antal sider | 21 |
| ISSN | 1354-1013 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2024 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the broader groundwater ecology community for its persistence in raising awareness of the importance of groundwater ecosystems for life on Earth. Open access publishing facilitated by Curtin University, as part of the Wiley - Curtin University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.
Funding Information:
This project received support from the School of Molecular and Life Sciences at Curtin University, and Biodiversa+, the European Biodiversity Partnership under the 2021–2022 BiodivProtect joint call for research proposals, co‐funded by the European Commission (GA N°101052342) and with the funding organizations Ministry of Universities and Research (Italy), Agencia Estatal de Investigación—Fundación Biodiversidad (Spain), Fundo Regional para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), Suomen Akatemia—Ministry of the Environment (Finland), Belgian Science Policy Office (Belgium), Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V.—BMBF‐VDI/VDE INNOVATION + TECHNIK GMBH (Germany), Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Forderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Switzerland), Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Austria), Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation (Slovenia) and the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (Romania). S.M. and T.D.L. acknowledge the support of NBFC to CNR, funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, P.N.R.R., Missione 4 Componente 2, ‘Dalla ricerca all'impresa’, Investimento 1.4, Project CN00000033. S.M. was further supported by the PRIN DEEP CHANGE (2022MJSYF8), funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. A.S.P.S.R was supported by the VILLUM FONDEN (research grant 15471) and by Portuguese National Funds through ‘Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia’ (FCT) within the cE3c Unit funding UIDB/00329/2020. A.B. was supported by national Slovenian program P1‐0255 financed by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS). F.A. has been funded by the University of Zurich Research Priority Programme on Global Change and Biodiversity and the Swiss National Science Foundation Grant. Š.B., M.Z. and C.F. were funded by Slovenian Research Agency through core program P1‐0184 and project J1‐2464. R.L.F. was supported by the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, grant n. 302925/2022–8). E.L. was funded by the Water Development and Partnership Programme of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. K.K. was supported by Australian Research Council (ARC) grant LP190100927. S.J.B.C., M.T.G. and W.F.H. were funded by ARC grants LP190100555, DP180103851 and DP230100731. F.M. was supported by the French National Research Agency projects CONVERGENOMICS (ANR‐15‐CE32‐0005) and EUR H20'Lyon project (ANR‐17‐EURE‐0018). R.B., D.N. and F.C. have benefited from the equipment and framework of the COMP‐R Initiative, funded by the ‘Departments of Excellence’ program of the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MUR, 2023–2027).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ID: 389596800