Epikarstic crustaceans from some Italian caves: endemisms and spatial scales.

Abstract

The epikarst crustacean fauna from four Sicilian caves (Conza, Entella, Molara, and Zubbia del Cavallo caves) and four caves in the Lessinian Massif in the Venetian Prealps (Covolo della Croce, Ponte di Veja, Roverè Mille, Buso della Rana caves) was recently investigated. The two groups of caves differ in their environmental conditions: the Sicilian caves are fossil except one which has an active branch; they are all fed by strongly intermittent and scarce rainfall peaking in the fall. The Lessinian caves are fed by more abundant rainfall, with two yearly peaks (May-June and October-November); two of them are active, one has a temporary stream, one is fossil. The crustacean fauna found in the epikarst drip of each of the studied caves is characterized by interesting endemic harpacticoid and cyclopoid copepods, and one bathynellacean syncarid, often collected in only one cave. Higher diversity of stygobiotic taxa was recorded for the Lessinian caves (9 species of copepods in the Lessinian, and 6 species of copepods and one bathynellacean in Sicily); most of the taxa collected in Sicily are endemic to one cave. Spatial analysis showed very different distributions over short spatial scales (tens of kilometers) and, within each cave, the distribution also varied over distances of a few meters. Our data correspond with other studies where many epikarst crustaceans showed a distribution with a linear extent of only a few hundred meters: the epikarst fauna is not uniformly distributed but rather divided in “blocks” probably characterized by different environmental conditions and, as a consequence, by different taxocoenoses. The data highlight the epikarst as a source of “hidden” biodiversity, and the importance of management protection plans which include not only the caves, but also the epikarst overlying layer and the water sources that feed it.</p