Descrizione del progetto
Uno sguardo più attento alla salute delle risorse freatiche
Le falde acquifere costiere promuovono ecosistemi del sottosuolo caratteristici a livello di confini terra-oceano del mondo e forniscono risorse idriche a oltre un miliardo di persone nelle regioni costiere. Tuttavia, esse sono anche soggette agli effetti dei cambiamenti climatici e alla crescita della popolazione umana. Quali sono i fattori determinanti della biodiversità nelle falde acquifere costiere? Come rispondono ai cambiamenti ambientali? Il progetto DARKEST, finanziato dall’UE, cercherà risposte integrando un database globale della fauna sotterranea con i dati geochimici e le mappe idrogeologiche ad alta risoluzione esistenti delle falde acquifere mondiali. Adottando un approccio olistico, collegherà le discipline scientifiche attraverso l’ecologia e le geoscienze. Il progetto identificherà comunità biologiche che potrebbero fungere da indicatori della salute delle risorse freatiche.
Obiettivo
Subterranean estuaries extend inland into coastal aquifers inhabited by a surprising diversity of subterranean animals with peculiar ecological and evolutionary features. How complex ecosystems thrive in this globally distributed habitat in different hydrological and geological settings is poorly understood. This study aims to integrate a novel global database of subterranean fauna with existing geochemical data and high-resolution hydrogeology maps of the world’s aquifers, using modern statistical and modelling methods, to achieve an integrated understanding of the drivers of biodiversity in coastal aquifers and their response to global environmental change. Indeed, coastal aquifers connect the world’s oceanic and hydrologic ecosystems and provide water source for more than one billion people in coastal regions, but these habitats are among those most prone to the long-term effects of climate change and human population growth. Therefore, expected outcomes of the study will contribute to the increasing efforts to discover, describe, and sustain groundwater-dependent ecosystems and to identify biological communities that could serve as indicators of the health of groundwater resources. To achieve these goals, a holistic approach is proposed that bridges scientific disciplines across ecology and geosciences. The project also targets to build the foundation for my long-term plans, that is, to reintegrate in Europe and establish myself as a leading expert in the emerging field of Earth System Ecology. Ensuring success, I will be supervised by host Diego Fontaneto, an expert in ecology, evolution, and large-scale patterns of biodiversity of microscopic animals at the Water Research Institute of CNR in Italy. Moreover, I will benefit from interactions with secondment-host Nils Moosdorf, who has expertise in aquifer hydrogeology, data-driven geoscience, and mega-scale hydrological modelling, at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Germany.
Campo scientifico
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Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
00185 Roma
Italia