This project, completed by the University of Seville, has aimed to assess the vulnerability to climate change of the endemic aquatic beetles of the Sierra Nevada.

The project ‘Vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in aquatic endemic species of Sierra Nevada (AlpineDiving)’, launched by the University of Seville, has aimed to assess the vulnerability to climate change of the endemic aquatic beetles of Sierra Nevada. To this end, an integrative approach has been used that considers the resistance capacity of these animals and their potential for colonization. In addition, different specific management measures will be designed. The initiative has had the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition through its call for grants.

The research has focused on knowing the detailed distribution of the species of beetles targeted by the study, Agabus nevadensis Lindberg 1939 and Hydroporus sabaudus sierranevadensis Shaverdo 2004, in Sierra Nevada and evaluating the status of their populations. To know their distribution, a field sampling has been carried out in aquatic habitats, allowing specimens of both species to be obtained. Areas with suitable climatic conditions for each species in the future have been estimated under different climate change scenarios.

The results obtained have shown that both species will see their climatically favourable area dramatically reduced in the coming decades, even for the most optimistic CO2 emission scenarios, which would inevitably lead them to extinction.

On the other hand, thermal tolerance experiments in the laboratory have made it possible to know the temperature tolerance limits of these species and their plasticity, that is, whether these limits depend on the acclimatization temperature. The results, so far, have shown that both species have temperature tolerance limits within the estimated range of increase for their current localities for some of the future scenarios, which gave them some ability to persist in situ. However, in the two species studied, a low potential can be observed to adjust their thermal tolerance ranges to the increase in temperature through physiological plasticity.

The results obtained represent a substantial advance in the knowledge of the factors that determine vulnerability to climate change in high mountain aquatic insects and will allow the development of proactive strategies to reduce the impacts of global warming on the biodiversity of these sensitive and fragile ecosystems.