At least four new species of crustaceans have been discovered in the Montalbo aquifers. Very small and whitish, they have adapted to life in dark environments and in what is their ecosystem: far and isolated from the “prying” eyes of science. Their existence, even if laboratory tests are still underway, has been confirmed by researchers from the Free University of Brussels and by speleodivers from the Phreatic association of Calagonone in Dorgali. The cave studies, dedicated to better understanding the biodiversity in the extraordinary maze of underground karst waters along the mountain range that separates Barbagia and Baronie, began in the spring of 2024 thanks to funding from the Tepilora Regional Natural Park which manages the MaB Unesco Biosphere Reserve of Tepilora, Rio Posada, Montalbo. The central point of the surveys is the cave of Sa Conca 'e Locoli, in Siniscola.

The new crustaceans, present only in the depths of the Locoli aquifer, are blind and whitish . The largest reaches 2 centimeters in length, another half a centimeter and the two smallest remain under a millimeter. To make them known to the research community and pay homage to the area in which they live, the two largest crustaceans will be recognizable as "montisalbi and tepilorae", thus immortalizing these territories of Sardinia forever in scientific literature.

The project supported by the Park has characterized the underground waters of the Montalbo massif with innovative molecular techniques, based on the study of environmental DNA. In the past, these analyses had only been used to search for single species. With the innovations developed (known as “metabarcoding”) it was possible to define the entire living world of the aquifer: from bacteria, to fungi and all the animals that make up this hidden ecosystem and that describe the interrelationships with surface environments and other cave guests, such as bats, which leave their traces in the water. The techniques tested in Locoli and at the Fruncu 'e Oche aqueduct, also in Montalbo, have been accepted as standards by the members of the European project Biodiversa+ Sub-BioMon (dedicated to the biological monitoring of caves) and will therefore be applied in the same way to the caves of Slovenia, Romania, Hungary, Belgium, Luxembourg and other regions of Italy, thus creating a European monitoring network.

"The new developments emerging from the biological study of the Monte Albo aquifer , which combines the technical skills of Phreatic's cave divers with the scientific expertise of the University of Brussels," explained geologist Francesco Murgia, contact person for the Biosphere Reserve for the Tepilora Park, " place the karst waters of Baronia at the center of Europe . At the conclusion of the study, the communities of a large portion of the Unesco MaB Reserve will be able to count on a fundamental knowledge tool for enhancing underground water resources for the benefit of the entire territory."

«The project on the biodiversity of the underground waters of Monte Albo has proposed for the first time to apply innovative analyses of environmental DNA to a karst aquifer complex. The research, which is being completed, is providing new data on biodiversity, laying the foundations for future monitoring of aquifers based simply on water filtering. The results will also allow us to better understand the interactions between surface environments and underground ecosystems , allowing us to obtain a broader vision of the vulnerability, structure and compartmentalization of the aquifer, with scientific and applicative implications on its management and conservation that, at the moment, have no equal in Europe». Thus Professor Fabio Stoch, of the Free University of Brussels and coordinator of the research group, who specified: «With these studies, Sardinia has been the pioneer for a completely new way of doing research on underground waters which are, in a time of climate change, one of the greatest resources to know and protect».

But the exploration of the Sa Conca 'e Locoli cave – as explained by the president of Phreatic Aps, Andrea Marassich – represents a very complex challenge in the field of underwater speleology. Access to the submerged part occurs only after a long dry stretch, which forces divers to transport the technical material in physically demanding conditions. During the dives, submerged speleothems, fossils and interesting fauna were observed, potentially relevant for the reconstruction of the evolution of the aquifer". The techniques used for the collection of biological and environmental data, at depths of up to 70 meters, "represent an advanced operational model", concludes Marassich, underlining how the project is destined to "become a reference at European level for studies and interventions in karst contexts of similar complexity and relevance".

(Unioneonline/vf)

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