Global ecosystem typology

Alternative site for the Global ecosystem typology with additional information for ecosystem profiles and indicative maps.

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F2.9 Geothermal pools and wetlands

Biome: F2. Lakes biome

Contributors:
(texts)

Geothermal pools and associated wetlands are fed by deeply circulating groundwater that mixes with magma and hot rocks in volcanically active regions. Mineral concentrations are therefore high and produce chemically precipitated substrates as waters cool. The extreme temperatures and water chemistry limit life to a low diversity of specialised bacteria, extensive algal mats and insect larvae which can live in warm acid or alkaline water with high mineral content. Away from their hottest waters, aquatic plants, crustaceans, frogs, fish, snakes and birds can all occur.

Key Features

Hot springs, geysers and mud pots dependent on groundwater interactions with magma and hot rocks, supporting highly specialised low diversity biota tolerate of high temperatures and high concentrations of inorganic salts.

Overview of distribution

Tectonically or active volcanic areas from the tropical to subpolar latitudes.

Profile versions

Main references

Selected references for this functional group:

  • Channing A (2018) A review of active hot-spring analogues of Rhynie: environments, habitats and ecosystems Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 373: 20160490

  • Power JF, Carere CR, Lee CK, Wakerley GLJ, Evans DW, Button M, White D, Climo MD, Hinze AM, Morgan XC, McDonald IR, Cary SC, Stott MB (2018) Microbial biogeography of 925 geothermal springs in New Zealand. Nature Communications 9: 2876. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05020-y

Diagrammatic assembly model

Diagrammatic assembly model of F2.9 Geothermal pools and wetlands. See general notes on diagrams. Open image full size.

Maps

Maps are indicative of global distribution patterns are not intended to represent fine-scale patterns. The maps show areas of the world containing major (coloured red) or minor occurrences (coloured yellow) of each ecosystem functional group. See general notes on maps.

There are 2 alternative versions of the indicative map for this functional group, please compare description and sources below.

F2.9.IM.mix_v1.0

Datasets

  • GSW-1.1
  • FEOW-2008
  • HydroLAKES-1.0

Map references

  • Pekel JF, Cottam A, Gorelick N, Belward AS (2016) High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes Nature 540, 418-422 DOI:10.1038/nature20584

  • Abell R, Thieme ML, Revenga C, Bryer M, Kottelat M, Bogutskaya N, Coad B, Mandrak N, Contreras Balderas S, Bussing W, Stiassny MLJ, Skelton P, Allen GR, Unmack P, Naseka A, Ng R, Sindorf N, Robertson J, Armijo E, Higgins JV, Heibel TJ, Wikramanayake E, Olson D, López HL, Reis RE, Lundberg JG, Sabaj Pérez MH, Petry P (2008) Freshwater ecoregions of the world: A new map of biogeographic units for freshwater biodiversity conservation, BioScience 58: 403–414. DOI:10.1641/B580507

  • Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016) Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach Nature Communications 13603 DOI:10.1038/ncomms13603

F2.9.web.mix_v1.0

Freshwater ecoregions (Abell et al. 2008) were identified as containing occurrences of these functional groups if: i) their descriptions mentioned features consistent with those identified in the profile of the Ecosystem Functional Group; and ii) if their location was consistent with the ecological drivers described in the profile. Within those areas, locations of small lakes (<100km2), excluding artificial lakes (inclusion on types 1 and 3 only), were taken from the HydroLAKES database (Messager et al. 2016) and combined with global estimates of surface water phenology (classes 1, 2 and 7 from Pekel et al. 2016), occurrences were aggregated to 10 minutes spatial resolution. Open image full size.

Datasets

  • HydroLAKES-1.0
  • FEOW-2008
  • GSW-1.1

Map references

  • Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016) Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach Nature Communications 13603 DOI:10.1038/ncomms13603

  • Abell R, Thieme ML, Revenga C, Bryer M, Kottelat M, Bogutskaya N, Coad B, Mandrak N, Contreras Balderas S, Bussing W, Stiassny MLJ, Skelton P, Allen GR, Unmack P, Naseka A, Ng R, Sindorf N, Robertson J, Armijo E, Higgins JV, Heibel TJ, Wikramanayake E, Olson D, López HL, Reis RE, Lundberg JG, Sabaj Pérez MH, Petry P (2008) Freshwater ecoregions of the world: A new map of biogeographic units for freshwater biodiversity conservation, BioScience 58: 403–414. DOI:10.1641/B580507

  • Pekel JF, Cottam A, Gorelick N, Belward AS (2016) High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes Nature 540, 418-422 DOI:10.1038/nature20584

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