Almost half of Catalonia’s natural springs have dried up. This is indicated by two different investigations that agree to offer very similar figures.
The Sources project, which is coordinated by the Catalan Institute of Natural History in collaboration with CREAF, highlights that 46% of the sources analyzed last year (in January and February) have dried up according to a comparison between the evaluation carried out in 2013 and carried out last year. The study included 31 sources, located in the Central Coastal Range (Corredor, Montnegre, Serralada de Marina, Conreria…) between Besòs and the Tordera River.
The conclusions indicate that 90% of the flow has been lost in these 10 years.
On the other hand, the Ter Defense Group, which for 25 years has been analyzing nitrate pollution in the waters of the springs and springs of Osona and Lluçanès, found last year that of the 170 sources where 99 (42%) were looking for water-only samples. The results of this 2024 have also shown a worsening of the situation, since the sources in which no water flows are a little more than half, according to the data that will be made public next March.
“The figures from these two studies match”, highlights Marcos Fernández-Martínez, a CREAf researcher, who foresees a worsening of this situation over the last year, due to the drought, as has already been detected in Montnegre, where the Font de l’Aranyal in the Vall d’Olzinelles, in Sant Celoni, or the Font de n’Homs, in Dosrius, have dried up. In fact, sources in Montseny have dried up, “a situation we had no knowledge of for decades”; among others, the Font Bona, where the Tordera river is born.
“It is a very sad situation, since these are sources that we have followed for many years: sources where large amounts of water used to flow or others where the bryophyte communities (group of mosses, which absorb the water and nutrients from the air) due to lack of humidity”, adds the researcher.
Marcos Fernández emphasizes that in the Mediterranean areas the sources are small oases that are usually scattered in the landscape and isolated from each other; and this precisely favors a high number of endemic species – which are unique from one or a few sources -. Some typical examples are the pumice stone-forming moss Palustriella commutata, the midwife toad Alytes obstetricans or microscopic crustaceans. For example, the threat to a small freshwater prawn ( Echinogammarus longitetousum ), very abundant ten years ago, and today very scarce in the Font Nespereta, in Sant Martí de Montnegre, stands out, which is at risk of disappearing after the torrent has stopped flowing. “The problem is that, when the sources dry up, these communities disappear. In Catalonia, for example, we have already observed that ecosystems have disappeared in the Montseny, in the Font de les Naiades, or in the Maresme, such as the Font del Ferro, among others”, explains Fernández.
In addition to the wealth they treasure, springs are climatic refuges where animals go to protect themselves from the heat, drink water or reproduce. In its surroundings, you can see everything from deer or birds that hydrate to salamanders, which seek a fresh environment, or toad larvae, which need water to grow. “With climate change, this function is increasingly necessary”, comments Fernández.
