An international team of scientists from Serbia, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia and other countries has found that global warming threatens the world’s largest reserves of drinking water, found in caves around the world. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Scientific Reports (SciRep).
Caves allow experts to observe underground ecosystems. They act as a reservoir for vast amounts of clean freshwater and a home for organisms that recycle organic matter and pollutants, ensuring the quality of these strategic reserves for the future of humanity.
Researchers analyzed more than 105 thousand temperature changes in caves in different climatic zones and then compared the indicators with surface temperatures.
“The temperature changes revealed three different patterns of previously unobserved thermal responses underground compared to the surface. The results show that the average temperature in the caves reflects the average temperature outside. As a result, the temperature increase predicted at the surface in the context of climate change will also be reflected underground,” said the University of Lisbon in Portugal. den study coordinator Ana Sofia Reboleira.
Annual temperature fluctuations recorded in caves range between 0.1 °C and 8.8 °C. Because communities of rare and sensitive species live in underground areas, temperature changes can destroy the ecosystems they create. Biologists emphasized that this will inevitably affect the quality of water resources.
Previous scientists warned It is stated that 25 percent of freshwater fish are in danger of extinction due to global warming.