The stygobionts are anophthalmic, without pigment and they live in water which moves throughout fissures and karstic caves of carbonate aquifers. Their biodiversity is sensitive to the mutation of hypogeous habitat due to environmental stresses. Though the stygofauna are aquatic hypogean active organisms which contribute to the biodegradation of organic compounds in wastewater artificially (or naturally) injected, the ecologists do not know their resistance to the water pollution. As, at the Nardò site (Salento Peninsula) 12000 m3/d of 2y effluent of municipal treatment plants have been injected since 1991 in a natural sinkhole, the abundance of the stygofauna recovered in three wells (Colucci, Brusca and Spundurata cave) has been correlated with ground water quality.
STYGOFAUNA ABUNDANCE AND DISTRIBUTION IN THE FISSURES AND CAVES OF THE NARDÒ (SOUTHERN ITALY) FRACTURED AQUIFER SUBJECT TO RECLAIMED WATER INJECTIONS
MASCIOPINTO C;
2005
Abstract
The stygobionts are anophthalmic, without pigment and they live in water which moves throughout fissures and karstic caves of carbonate aquifers. Their biodiversity is sensitive to the mutation of hypogeous habitat due to environmental stresses. Though the stygofauna are aquatic hypogean active organisms which contribute to the biodegradation of organic compounds in wastewater artificially (or naturally) injected, the ecologists do not know their resistance to the water pollution. As, at the Nardò site (Salento Peninsula) 12000 m3/d of 2y effluent of municipal treatment plants have been injected since 1991 in a natural sinkhole, the abundance of the stygofauna recovered in three wells (Colucci, Brusca and Spundurata cave) has been correlated with ground water quality.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
