Deliberate omission or unfortunate oversight: Should stygofaunal surveys be included in routine groundwater monitoring programs?

Abstract

I thank my principal supervisor, Professor Andrew Boulton, for his encouragement, support, guidance, and generosity with his time and knowledge. I also thank Dr Darren Ryder for his crucial on-campus supervision during the final stages of writing up, and his critical and insightful comments on the final draft. I am grateful to the Australian Research Council, the University of New England, Ecowise Environmental and the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists for generous financial support. Dr Peter Hancock patiently showed me the field work and laboratory processing of samples. I could not have done the field work without his help and that of Garry Bennison,

A tiered framework for assessing groundwater ecosystem health

“…Integrated management of aquifers and surface waters is needed (Tomlinson et al, 2007) and may be fostered by a consistent definition of ecosystem health across both environments. Accordingly, we propose a definition of groundwater health, based on that for rivers by Vugteveen et al (2006) but modified to articulate more clearly the role of providing ecosystem goods and services (collectively 'ecosystem services'), because this is the key attribute setting apart assessments of ecosystem health and ecosystem integrity/condition (Boulton, 1999).…”

“…In reality, aquifers often represent a vertical and lateral continuation of riverine systems (Ward, 1989), and so, the two should be managed holistically rather than as separate resources (Tomlinson et al, 2007). As global demand for water increases, pressure on aquifers from water abstraction and contamination is also increasing (Danielopol et al, 2003), so it is timely that the condition of aquifers is being considered in water management directives across the world (e.g.…”

Low flow controls on benthic and hyporheic macroinvertebrate assemblages during supra‐seasonal drought

“…This reflects the recognition that the habitat supports a number of unique (obligate) taxa and has wider linkages in the landscape with other surface and groundwater habitats (Malard et al, 2002). There is increasing evidence that processes operating within the hyporheic zone may significantly contribute to maintaining ecosystem health (Tomlinson et al, 2007;Pinay et al, 2009) through the provision of key ecosystem services (Boulton et al, 2008). It is now widely recognized that the hyporheic zone is a focal point for important biogeochemical processes and the transient storage of nutrients (Mulholland et al, 2008;Pinay et al, 2009).…”

Recent progress in the conservation of groundwaters and their dependent ecosystems

“…This resistance reflects concerns about sampling costs, taxonomic constraints, the lack of baseline data for comparison, and uncertainty about how to interpret stygofaunal data as an indicator of groundwater condition. A staged approach, with stages varying in cost and complexity, to sampling groundwater fauna has been proposed (Tomlinson et al, 2007) in the hope of overcoming these reservations and, among other benefits, providing baseline data for conservation planning.…”