Monolistra del Buco del Piombo (Monolistra pavani)

Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 220529020

Conservation of the cave-dwelling isopod Monolistra pavani: effects on groundwater ecosystem services

 

The main goal of this project is the conservation of the cave-dwelling isopods, providing essential information for the assessment of Monolistra pavani in the IUCN Red List on the basis of satisfactory ecological and quantitative data.

 

This species, despite being an important endemism and fundamental indicator for groundwater quality is strongly neglected in the European and Italian legislation without any protection status. Even if the species is potentially reported protected areas within its range, it is absolutely not included or even mentioned in the actions plans of the parks or of the reservoirs in which the species occurs. The main problem is that for this and other species of cave-dwelling isopods of Italy, there is a strong lack of information on populations abundance, distribution and ecology.

With this project we aim to: 1) perform multiple surveys for each of the karst areas that are included in the potential range of the species; 2) acquire essential information on populations density to allow a conservation status assessment in the IUCN Red List; 3) understand the ecological determinants that favour the species occurrence; 4) provide a detailed conservation plan freely accessible and with useful managing indications. 5) Assess ecosystem services provided by Monolistra pavani