scholarly journals Conservation Studies on Groundwaters’ Pollution: Challenges and Perspectives for Stygofauna Communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7030
Author(s):  
Raoul Manenti ◽  
Beatrice Piazza ◽  
Yahui Zhao ◽  
Emilio Padoa Schioppa ◽  
Enrico Lunghi
Keyword(s):  
Interspecific Competition ◽  
Keystone Species ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Trophic Webs

Assessing the effects of pollution in groundwaters is recently considered among the most relevant aims for subterranean biology; with this perspective, we aim to provide examples of the most relevant effects that pollution may cause on stygofauna community and underline patterns deserving further investigations. We retrieved different cases in which pollution caused alteration of groundwater trophic webs, favored invasions by epigean mesopredators, damaged stygobiont keystone species, and promoted interspecific competition between stygobionts and epigean animals. The results and the remarks derived from our perspective review underline that pollution may play multifaceted effects on groundwaters communities, and the paucity of information that exists on community-level changes and threats underlines the necessity for further studies.

Flowering phenology and flower predation of Cullenia exarillata (Bombacaceae) by arboreal vertebrates in Western Ghats, India

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Ganesh ◽  
Priya Davidar
Keyword(s):  
Western Ghats ◽  
Keystone Species ◽  
Flowering Phenology ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Canopy Tree ◽  
Southern Western Ghats ◽  
Annual Period

ABSTRACTThe flowering phenology and flower predation of Cullenia exarillata, a canopy tree at Kakachi in the southern Western Ghats, India, was studied from 1991 to 1993 in relation to general phenological patterns at the community level. Flowering was monitored from 30 marked trees and flower predation estimated from fallen flowers in 40, 1 m2 nets placed under the trees. Flowering occurs in the dry season and coincides with the period of fruit scarcity in the forest. Flowering is synchronous in the population and each tree produces a mean of c. 8730 flowers per tree over a period of c. 47 d. Flowers produced little nectar but the edible fleshy sepals compensated for this. Six species of arboreal mammals and seven species of birds ate the flowers. These consumed 57% of the flower crop of which 37% were completely destroyed. Flower predators could be important in flower fertilization. The overabundance of the flower crop and the timing of flowering, may have evolved as a strategy to satiate predators and enable the flowers to be pollinated during the annual period of fruit scarcity in the forest. This in turn makes Cullenia exarillata a possible keystone species in this forest.

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