7.4 Towards a Microbial Conservation Perspective
in High Mountain Lakes
Microorganisms are fundamental components to maintain the ecological integrity of
any ecosystem but the exercise to define challenges and strategies (if needed) for
microbial diversity conservation have only been seldom considered. Through the
detailed studies carried out in the past years in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant
Maurici National Park and recent few works available in the literature from other
high mountain lakes districts such as the Alps, Himalayas and the western mountains of North America mentioned above, it arises that high mountain lakes hold a
high microbial phylogenetic uniqueness and are reservoirs of large evolutionary
potential. Microbes are therefore an important part of the biological richness of
these environments that should be considered as a fundamental component of the
natural heritage. However, we are in the very beginning for understanding microbial tolerance to different environmental conditions and how such underappreciated
microbiota will respond to stresses and disturbances brought by the global change.
How is the potentiality of survival and dispersal abilities for the different species,
and whether or not the distribution of a single microbial population is restricted by
the interactions established with other biological entities are also mostly unknown.
Despite the advent of laboratory-friendly molecular methods and approaches, this
incomplete knowledge and the lack in databases of enough microbial biogeographical studies of the high mountain realm to compare with, strongly limits the
scientifically informed advice microbial ecologists can provide to managers dealing
with the challenges for conservation of the whole high mountain landscape. Our
basic knowledge of the biology and ecology of microorganisms will only improve
after intensive inventories and worldwide-distributed field studies (Cotterill et al.
2007).
Whether or not there is any worry for microbes conservation in the high
mountain ecosystem (and, in fact, in any other ecosystem) is yet a controversial and
difficult to answer question, but global-scale warming and eutrophication may
jeopardise the most idiosyncratic microbial populations that found in these areas the
most appropriate conditions to grow. Conservation biology perspectives that rely
mostly on habitat conservation apply very well for microorganisms. The microbial
world may also nicely merge the compositionalist (i.e. entity-oriented through the
lens of evolutionary ecology) and the functionalist (i.e. process-oriented through the
lens of ecosystem ecology) views on conservation biology (Callicott et al. 1999).
Conservation biology main concepts such as species, extinction, biotic interactions
and management are however difficult to apply or poorly explored for microbes
in situ. As mentioned above, microbial ecologists have managed somehow to sort
out the problem of the species definition using either an operational and pragmatic
biodiversity unit or phylogenetic approaches. Now they can sort out species rich
and poor environments and explore how is the diversity of microbial life distributed
around the planet and the relationships between microbial diversity, ecosystem
health and biotic interactions (Faust and Raes 2012). The general concept that
7 Towards a Microbial Conservation Perspective …
175
in High Mountain Lakes
Microorganisms are fundamental components to maintain the ecological integrity of
any ecosystem but the exercise to define challenges and strategies (if needed) for
microbial diversity conservation have only been seldom considered. Through the
detailed studies carried out in the past years in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant
Maurici National Park and recent few works available in the literature from other
high mountain lakes districts such as the Alps, Himalayas and the western mountains of North America mentioned above, it arises that high mountain lakes hold a
high microbial phylogenetic uniqueness and are reservoirs of large evolutionary
potential. Microbes are therefore an important part of the biological richness of
these environments that should be considered as a fundamental component of the
natural heritage. However, we are in the very beginning for understanding microbial tolerance to different environmental conditions and how such underappreciated
microbiota will respond to stresses and disturbances brought by the global change.
How is the potentiality of survival and dispersal abilities for the different species,
and whether or not the distribution of a single microbial population is restricted by
the interactions established with other biological entities are also mostly unknown.
Despite the advent of laboratory-friendly molecular methods and approaches, this
incomplete knowledge and the lack in databases of enough microbial biogeographical studies of the high mountain realm to compare with, strongly limits the
scientifically informed advice microbial ecologists can provide to managers dealing
with the challenges for conservation of the whole high mountain landscape. Our
basic knowledge of the biology and ecology of microorganisms will only improve
after intensive inventories and worldwide-distributed field studies (Cotterill et al.
2007).
Whether or not there is any worry for microbes conservation in the high
mountain ecosystem (and, in fact, in any other ecosystem) is yet a controversial and
difficult to answer question, but global-scale warming and eutrophication may
jeopardise the most idiosyncratic microbial populations that found in these areas the
most appropriate conditions to grow. Conservation biology perspectives that rely
mostly on habitat conservation apply very well for microorganisms. The microbial
world may also nicely merge the compositionalist (i.e. entity-oriented through the
lens of evolutionary ecology) and the functionalist (i.e. process-oriented through the
lens of ecosystem ecology) views on conservation biology (Callicott et al. 1999).
Conservation biology main concepts such as species, extinction, biotic interactions
and management are however difficult to apply or poorly explored for microbes
in situ. As mentioned above, microbial ecologists have managed somehow to sort
out the problem of the species definition using either an operational and pragmatic
biodiversity unit or phylogenetic approaches. Now they can sort out species rich
and poor environments and explore how is the diversity of microbial life distributed
around the planet and the relationships between microbial diversity, ecosystem
health and biotic interactions (Faust and Raes 2012). The general concept that
7 Towards a Microbial Conservation Perspective …
175