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Groundwater, ecosystems and bio-indicators

Abstract:

Groundwater has different faces according to the perspective of analysis. It should not be biased between an anthropocentric perspective and an ethnocentric view. According to the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment there are many ecosystems that are threatened by groundwater over-exploitation, topic and diffuse pollution, direct and indirect impacts of climate change on water availability. All these anthropogenic activities have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and the services they provided, as is the particular case of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, defined here as those that require partial or totally underground water to maintain ecological processes, ensuring their own biodiversity. Aquifers are themselves biological systems, containing a type of fauna with idiosyncratic characteristics which are vulnerable to physical and chemical factors. Such fauna can play in most situations the role of bio-indicators providing an important ecosystem service: the purification of water through the microbial degradation of organic compounds that enter the system, removing chemical contaminants and pathogens.