Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul 26:9:e11711.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.11711. eCollection 2021.

Between darkness and light: spring habitats provide new perspectives for modern researchers on groundwater biology

Raoul Manenti  1   2 , Beatrice Piazza  1
Affiliations

Between darkness and light: spring habitats provide new perspectives for modern researchers on groundwater biology

Raoul Manenti et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Springs are interfaces between groundwater and surface habitats and may play an important role in the study of subterranean animals. In this systematic evidence review and meta-analysis, we explore whether observations of stygobionts in springs are relevant and more common than observations of epigean animals in groundwater. We searched the Web of Science database for papers on groundwater fauna and spring fauna. For each paper we found, we recorded whether the paper reported the occurrence of typical stygobionts in springs, of surface animals in groundwater, or of the same taxa in both habitats. If so, we recorded how many such species were reported. We also recorded the scientific discipline of each study and the year of publication. Our search yielded 342 papers. A considerable number of these papers reported stygobionts in springs: 20% of papers dealing with groundwater fauna and 16% of papers dealing with spring fauna reported the occurrence of stygobionts in spring habitats. Both the number of papers that mentioned stygobionts in springs, and the number of stygobiont species that were documented in springs, were higher than equivalent measures for the occurrence of surface fauna underground. We also detected a positive relationship between year of publication and the number of reports of stygofauna in springs. To broaden the insights from biological research on underground environments, we suggest that springs should be considered not only as simple sampling points of stygobionts but also as core stygobiont habitats.

Keywords: Adaptation; Cave; Seepage; Shallow subterranean habitats; Source; Subterranean biology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Diagram of a spring showing differences between surface and groundwater habitats during day (A) and night (B).
During night the border between surface waters and groundwaters softens and stygobionts can move outside interacting with surface invertebrates and vertebrates including predators (here represented by a diurnal predator fish and a nocturnal predator salamander larva). White silhouettes represent stygobionts, black silhouettes represent potential predators (fish and salamanders), and brown silhouettes surface aquatic invertebrates. The drawing is modified from Andrea Melotto and Benedetta Barzaghi.
Figure 2
Figure 2. PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for the systematic reviews which included search of Web of Science database only.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Acreman M, Hughes KA, Arthington AH, Tickner D, Duenas MA. Protected areas and freshwater biodiversity: a novel systematic review distils eight lessons for effective conservation. Conservation Letters. 2020;13(1):731. doi: 10.1111/conl.12684. - DOI
    1. Alfaro C, Wallace M. Origin and classification of springs and historical review with current applications. Environmental Geology. 1994;24:112–124.
    1. Aljančič G. History of research on Proteus anguinus Laurenti 1768 in Slovenia . Folia Biologica et Geologica. 2019;60:39–69.
    1. Balland D. Les eaux cachées. Études géographiques sur les galleries drainantes souterraines. Paris: Departement de Géographie, University Sorbonne; 1992.
    1. Barzaghi B, Ficetola GF, Pennati R, Manenti R. Biphasic predators provide biomass subsidies in small freshwater habitats: a case study of spring and cave pools. Freshwater Biology. 2017;62(9):1637–1644. doi: 10.1111/fwb.12975. - DOI