Citizen science project set to tap into groundwater biodiversity

Citizen science is increasing across all disciplines, from environmental monitoring to public health. It is also known as a fundamental element of open science. However, it still represents only a very small fraction of total scientific research and the full potential has yet to be exploited.

Groundwater is an important resource across Romania, but the knowledge on groundwater as habitat for organisms and its function as a reservoir of biodiversity is less known. Cluj-BioGround aims to explore the groundwater biodiversity of the aquifers from Cluj County with the involvement of citizens.

What’s in the groundwater?

Groundwater samples will be collected from hand-dug wells and boreholes, to assess the presence of stygofauna (species strictly adapted to groundwater). Previous sampling of the alluvial aquifer of the Somesul Mic River allowed the identification of large diversity of small blind and colorless crustaceans such are ostracods, copepods, amphipods and syncarids. These tiny little creatures are important because they are important players in the subterranean aquatic food web and provide a large array of ecosystem services, the most important being their indication for good groundwater quality.