A new study has found that Invertebrates living in the cool meltwater rivers of the European Alps could lose most of their habitat and disappear, as the mountain range’s glaciers melt at an unprecedented rate due to climate change.
Although they are often overlooked, these animals are crucial for alpine ecosystems.
To undertake the study, researchers focused on the mountain range of the Alps and collated data from 30 years of studies on the rate at which its glaciers are melting and how that affects the area’s river flows over time. They homed in on how past changes affected the populations of 15 species of invertebrates such as midges and stoneflies that are specialised at living in those waters.
Some species of mayflies are sometimes known as blue-winged olive flies by people who do fly-fishing. Midges tend to be mistaken for mosquitoes and are also known as lake flies. Glacier-fed rivers are generally species-poor, as few species can cope with this environment, so these creatures are quite adaptive and specialised to hostile environments.
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Relying on data, the researchers made predictions of how these species will fare between now and 2100.
According to Lee Brown, a professor of aquatic science at the University of Leeds and one of the lead authors of the study, global heating causes a big decrease in the glacier cover of the Alps, rivers will become drier and flow slower, sometimes disappearing.
“Water will become warmer as it will no longer be chilled by the melting ice, becoming inhospitable to invertebrates that have evolved to thrive in cold, unstable and nutrient-poor conditions,”Brown was quoted as saying. “The habitat for those specialist species is shrinking rapidly,”.
They researchers further found that most of the species will face population drops and the stonefly Rhabdiopteryx and three species of non-biting midges will face the risk of extinction in the Alps.
“These small animals represent unique biodiversity and genetic diversity,” said Dean Jacobsen, an associate professor of freshwater biology at the University of Copenhagen, who was not involved in the study. “They are often overlooked because they are small and not particularly charismatic,”.
Speaking further, he said “they form part of food webs and conduct vital ecosystem processes like organic matter breakdown and transformation.” They are also food for fish, birds, and mammals in water and on land”.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
