Impact of Climate Change on Subterranean Wetland Biodiversity in Tafilalet South-Eastern Morocco

Impact of Climate Change on Subterranean Wetland Biodiversity in Tafilalet South-Eastern Morocco

Asma El Alami El Filali, Abdelkrim Ben Salem, Mohammed Messouli
Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-9289-2.ch004
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Abstract

Groundwater in Tafilalet supports diverse faunas (stygofauna) that include many obligate groundwater-dependent species (stygobites). Prospecting campaigns on underground fauna in Tafilalt region were collected in a database that was later used to develop distribution patterns for each species harvested. Tafilalet is characterized by low rainfall, high temperatures, and very high evaporation. Those severe climate conditions influence water availability for vegetation growth and fauna stability. The present work aims to, assess stygobiont richness in subterranean environment of Tafilalet. Species data were organized in database form and geographic information system (GIS) was used to establish geographical patterns of species and test fauna and environment parameters relationship, to identify a network of stygofauna sites priority for conservation and defined areas with high taxonomic richness and high level of endemism. Risk assessment and decision-making framework for managing groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs) development are required.
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Background

Over the last few centuries, the economic development that the world has experienced as well as the demographic explosion and the migration of populations, have disrupted the natural functioning of ecosystems. The impact of the dysfunction of ecosystems is reflected in the permanent reduction of their species richness. Currently, the richness of biodiversity is in continuous and unprecedented decline. Although species extinction has always been a natural phenomenon, the rate of extinction has increased dramatically by at least a factor of 100-1000 over the natural rate due to human activities (Vitousek et al., 1997; Pimm and Lawton, 1998; Koh et al., 2004). Among the ecosystems that have suffered these alterations are aquatic ecosystems and more specifically, groundwater (GW). GW not only constitute a vast reservoir of water, but they are also, in a much more difficult to perceive way, the reservoir of an original biological diversity composed of organisms, most of which have no equivalent in surface ecosystems and some of which are tens of millions of years old (Boutin, 1993; Messouli, 1994; and Humphreys, 2000).

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