Using Springs as Sentinels of Climate Change in Nature Parks North and South of the Alps: A Critical Evaluation of Methodological Aspects and Recommendations for Long-Term Monitoring

Abstract

Spring ecosystems are diverse transition zones between ground- and surface-water habitats. Due to their characteristics and vulnerable species assemblages, springs are considered indicator systems for monitoring environmental change. In particular, climate change is expected to alter spring-ecosystem features, such as water temperature and discharge, affecting otherwise typically stable biotic and abiotic conditions. However, reliable trend-development recognition and analysis require a uniform methodology and comparable data series over long periods of time. Spring research findings in the Berchtesgaden National Park and the Adamello-Brenta Nature Park have been consolidated to develop methodological recommendations to create lasting societal-added value. The successful transfer of the methodology to the Bavarian Forest National Park and the experienced contribution of the Bavarian Association for the Protection of Nature (Bavarian Climate Alliance) strongly improved method validations. Our resulting, newly developed recommendations for long-term spring monitoring have a focus on climate change impacts and aim at providing a decision-making basis for establishing programs in similar ecological and climatic zones. Uniform site-selection criteria and selected climate-sensitive parameters are indicated. This includes documenting the spring’s environment and structure, measuring abiotic parameters, and determining selected floristic and faunistic groups. We recommend measurement and sampling-survey intervals ranging from 3(4) times yearly to every 5 years, depending on the parameter. We further suggest a database system that integrates all monitoring parameters to ensure consistent data management and storage. Analysing the data resulting from our new holistic spring monitoring methodology should provide critical knowledge about putatively changing ecosystems that can then be used as evidence of climate-change impact on spring ecosystems.

Assessing spatial and temporal changes in diversity of copepod crustaceans: a key step for biodiversity conservation in groundwater-fed springs

“…Springs are known to be hotspots of biodiversity for plants and vertebrates, but little specific information is available about their unique aquatic invertebrate fauna (Cantonati et al, 2022). This trend could be further accentuated when focusing on a single meiofaunal target group, even when it is as widespread and greatly diversified as the Crustacea Copepoda.…”

“…represents the main karst spring in Central Italy, with a mean annual discharge (hereafter mean discharge) of 7 m 3 s -1 . The spring is rheo-limnocrene (Di Sabatino et al, 2003;Cantonati et al, 2022) with high habitat heterogeneity represented by a limnocrenic sector (mainly defined by sand and gravel, and patches of hygrophilous vegetation), and rheocrenic areas, with patchy distribution of sediments, mosses and macrophytes (Stoch et al, 2015). The Presciano spring is located at 330 m a.s.l.…”

“…Several karst fractures are present, and the groundwater flows downstream in the deeply incised Chiarino Valley, as a typical rheocrene spring. Habitat heterogeneity is mainly described by the bedrocks at the spring mouths, sand and gravel in the hypocrenon (the transitional zone between spring and spring-fed rivulet after Cantonati et al, 2022). The submerged vegetation is composed by mosses, which predominantly cover the bedrocks at the spring mouths.…”

“…This lack of attention translates into a noticeable knowledge gap about the ecological processes shaping biodiversity at the interfaces between groundwater and surface water environments. Springs are groundwater-dependent ecosystems, which provide relevant ecosystem services to human wellbeing (e.g., provisioning of drinking water), especially in arid and semiarid regions of the world (Khorrami and Malekmohammadi, 2021), and host a multifaceted biodiversity (Cantonati et al, 2012;Cantonati et al, 2020;Cantonati et al, 2022). Springs represent evolutionary refugia, hosting relics of ancient lineages, particularly concerning obligate groundwater-dwelling organisms (i.e., stygobites), whose existing representatives have persisted in these habitats across geologic timescales under generally stable conditions (Davis et al, 2013).…”