Groundwater Ecology and Evolution

Florian Malard works at CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) and University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France. Dr Florian Malard is a groundwater evolutionary ecologist. Over the last ten years, his research focus has been on understanding patterns of groundwater biodiversity at regional to continental scales. He has led the “Ecology, Evolution and Groundwater Ecosystems” research group, formerly headed by Professor Janine Gibert, the lead editor of the first edition of the Groundwater Ecology book published in 1994. Christian Griebler works at the University of Vienna, Austria. Dr Christian Griebler is a functional ecologist with a broad research interest stretching from the roles of microorganisms to metazoans in groundwater ecosystems. Rooted in aquatic microbial ecology and biogeochemistry, his research group tackles groundwater biodiversity, cycling of carbon and nutrients, effects of climate and global change, as well as the assessment of groundwater systems in terms of ecological status. Sylvie Rétaux works at CNRS and University Paris-Saclay, France. Dr Sylvie Rétaux is a neuroscientist and developmental biologist whose interests have shifted to evolutionary biology about 20 years ago. Her laboratory works on ecological evolutionary developmental biology of a cave-dwelling organism, the blind cavefish Astyanax mexicanus. Using an integrated approach combining embryology, neuroscience, behavior, and population genetics, she aims at discovering the mechanisms of adaptation to life in the dark.

Introduction Section 1: Setting the scene: groundwater as ecosystems 1. Hydrodynamics and geomorphology of groundwater environments 2. Classifying groundwater ecosystems 3. Physical and biogeochemical processes of hyporheic exchange in alluvial rivers 4. Ecological and evolutionary jargon in subterranean biology

Section 2: Drivers and patterns of groundwater biodiversity 5. Groundwater biodiversity and constraints to biological distribution 6. Patterns and determinants of richness and composition of the groundwater fauna 7. Phylogenies reveal speciation dynamics: case studies from groundwater 8. Dispersal and geographic range size in groundwater

Section 3: Roles of organisms in groundwater 9. Microbial diversity and processes in groundwater 10. Groundwater food webs 11. Role of invertebrates in ecosystem processes and services

Section 4: Principles of evolution in groundwater 12. Voices from the underground: animal models for the study of trait evolution during groundwater colonization and adaptation 13. Ecological and evolutionary perspectives on groundwater colonization by the amphibian Proteus anguinus 14. The Asellus aquaticus species complex: an invertebrate model in subterranean evolution 15. Developmental and genetic basis of troglomorphic traits in the teleost fish Astyanax mexicanus 16. Ecological and evolutionary perspectives on groundwater colonization by the amphipod crustacean Gammarus minus 17. Evolutionary genomics and transcriptomics in groundwater animals

Section 5: Biological traits in groundwater 18. Dissolving morphological and behavioral traits of groundwater animals into a functional phenotype 19. Life histories in groundwater organisms 20. Physiological tolerance and ecotoxicological constrains of groundwater fauna

Section 6: Section 6: Biodiversity and ecosystem management in groundwater 21. Global groundwater in the Anthropocene 22. Assessing groundwater ecosystem health, status and services 23. Recent concepts and approaches for conserving groundwater biodiversity 24. Existing framework for the conservation of groundwater biodiversity and ecosystem services