Abstract
Earth’s ecosystems provide a multitude of goods and functions, recently conceptualized under the term ecosystem services (ES; [1]). Many of these services and their associated ecosystems have received considerable attention, but groundwater ecosystems, soils, and sediments that are hidden below our feet are often overlooked. In fact, subsurface ecosystems deliver services of immense societal and economic value, most prominently the purification of water through (1) nutrient cycling; (2) biodegradation of contaminants; (3) inactivation and elimination of pathogens; and (4) storage and transmission of water that can mitigate floods and provide a stable water supply during droughts. Several of these services are directly connected to the presence and activity of the microorganisms and metazoans living in groundwater. We argue that, due to global and climate change, many of the groundwater ecosystem services are at serious risk. The pressures on groundwater ecosystems include aspects of global change such as local (point) and diffuse (non-point) sources of contamination, and overexploitation of groundwater resources. Moreover, even though groundwater ecosystems are located below ground, their organisms and the services they provide are affected by climate change—inter alia through changes in temperature regime as well as changes in recharge patterns and hydrological conditions due to floods and droughts.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and human well-being: wetlands and water synthesis. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute; 2005. http://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.358.aspx.pdf. Accessed 19 Oct 2017
Griebler C, Avramov M. Groundwater ecosystem services: a review. Freshw Sci. 2015;34:355–67.
Schwarzenbach R, Egli T, Hofstetter TB, von Gunten U, Wehrli B. Global water pollution and human health. Annu Rev Environ Res. 2010;35:109–36.
Lapworth DJ, Baran N, Stuart ME, Warda RS. Emerging organic contaminants in groundwater: a review of sources, fate and occurrence. Environ Pollut. 2012;163:287–303.
Rivett MO, Buss SR, Morgan P, Smith JWN, Bemment CD. Nitrate attenuation in groundwater: a review of biogeochemical controlling processes. Water Res. 2008;42:4215–32.
Krauss S, Griebler C. Pathogenic microorganisms and viruses in groundwater. Acatech Materialien. 2011;6:67.
Boulton AJ, Fenwick GD, Hancock PJ, Harvey MS. Biodiversity, functional roles and ecosystem services of groundwater invertebrates. Invertebr Syst. 2008;22:103–16.
Griebler C, Brielmann H, Haberer CM, Kaschuba S, Kellermann C, Stumpp C, et al. Potential impacts of geothermal energy use and storage of heat on groundwater quality, biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Environ Earth Sci. 2016;75:1391.
Gleeson T, Wada Y, Bierkens MFP, van Beek LPH. Water balance of global aquifers revealed by groundwater footprint. Nature. 2012;488:197–200.
Wada Y, van Beek LPH, van Kempen CM, Reckman JWTM, Vasak S, Bierkens MFP. Global depletion of groundwater resources. Geophys Res Lett. 2010;37:L20402.
United Nations Millennium Declaration, A/RES/55/2. 2000. http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.pdf. Accessed 20 Oct 2017.
Di Lorenzo T, Galassi DMP. Agricultural impacts on Mediterranean alluvial aquifers: do invertebrates respond? Fundam Appl Limnol. 2013;182:271–81.
Larned ST. Phreatic groundwater ecosystems: research frontiers for freshwater ecology. Freshw Biol. 2012;57:885–906.
Stumpp C, Hose GC. Impact of water table drawdown and drying on subterranean aquatic fauna in in-vitro experiments. PLoS One. 2013;8:e78502.
Hose GC, Jones P, Lim RP. Hyporheic macroinvertebrates in riffle and pool areas of temporary streams in south eastern Australia. Hydrobiologia. 2005;532:81–90.
DiStefano RJ, Magoulick DD, Imhoff EM, Larson ER. Imperiled crayfishes use hyporheic zone during seasonal drying of an intermittent stream. J N Am Benthol Soc. 2009;28:142–52.
Green TR, Taniguchi M, Kooi H, Gurdak JJ, Allen DM, Hiscock KM, et al. Beneath the surface of global change: impacts of climate change on groundwater. J Hydrol. 2011;405:532–60.
Taylor RG, Scanlon B, Döll P, Rodell M, van Beek R, Wada Y, et al. Ground water and climate change. Nat Clim Chang. 2013;3:322–9.
Russo TA, Lall U. Depletion and response of deep groundwater to climate-induced pumping variability. Nat Geosci. 2017;10:105–8.
Di Lorenzo T, Di Marzio WD, Cifoni M, Fiasca B, Baratti M, Sáenz ME, et al. Temperature effect on the sensitivity of the copepod Eucyclops serrulatus (Crustacea, Copepoda, Cyclopoida) to agricultural pollutants in the hyporheic zone. Curr Zool. 2015;61:629–40.
Griebler C, Malard F, Lefébure T. Current developments in groundwater ecology — from biodiversity to ecosystem function and services. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2014;27:159–67.
Acknowledgements
This contribution was funded by the Research Program “Terrestrial Environment” (Topic 3—Sustainable Water Resource Management) of the Helmholtz Association and by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of ReWaM and the project “GroundCare” (grant number 033W037A–J).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Griebler, C., Avramov, M., Hose, G. (2019). Groundwater Ecosystems and Their Services: Current Status and Potential Risks. In: Schröter, M., Bonn, A., Klotz, S., Seppelt, R., Baessler, C. (eds) Atlas of Ecosystem Services. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96229-0_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96229-0_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96228-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96229-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)