Johns et al 2015.pdf (618.77 kB)
Regional-scale drivers of groundwater faunal distributions
journal contribution
posted on 2015-07-31, 10:18 authored by Tim Johns, J. Iwan Jones, Lee Knight, Louise Maurice, Paul WoodPaul Wood, Anne L. RobertsonFreshwater aquifers are a major source of drinking water; they also possess unique assemblages of organisms. However, little is known about the distributional drivers of obligate groundwater organisms at the regional scale. We examine the distribution and composition of stygobiont assemblages in a complex geological setting and explore the relationship between groundwater fauna, hydrogeology and water chemistry. In the study area we grouped similar geologies into five hydrogeological formations (hydro-units) within which habitats for groundwater fauna were broadly similar. We found that the occurrence of stygobionts differed significantly between hydro-units. Stygobionts were significantly less likely to be recorded in mudstone/siltstone and sandstone aquifers compared with carbonate rocks or with igneous/metamorphic rocks. Variance partitioning indicated that the hydro-units explained a greater proportion of the variance (7.52%) in the groundwater community than water chemistry (5.02%). However, much of the variation remained unexplained. The macrofaunal stygobiont species in our study area formed three groups: (1) Niphargus glenniei was recorded in a range of hydro- units but only in the west of the study area. (2) Niphargus kochianus , Niphargus fontanus, Proasellus cavaticus and Crangonyx subterraneus were predominately recorded in carbonate aquifers in the east of the study area. (3) Niphargus aquilex and Microniphargus leruthi, were found throughout the study area and in a range of hydro-units. We hypothesise that physical barriers exist that prevent some stygobiont taxa from colonizing apparently suitable geologies; the low permeability deposits dividing the western and eastern parts of the study area may partly explain the observed distributions.
Funding
This research was funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, grant number 08-551 101,7 to ALR, PJW, LK and LM.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Geography and Environment
Published in
Freshwater ScienceVolume
34Issue
1Pages
316 - 328Citation
JOHNS, T. ... et al, 2015. Regional-scale drivers of groundwater faunal distributions. Freshwater Science, 34 (1), pp. 316 - 328.Publisher
University of Chicago Press / © Society for Freshwater ScienceVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2015Notes
This article was accepted for publication in the journal, Freshwater Science [University of Chicago Press / © Society for Freshwater Science]. The definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/678460ISSN
2161-9565Publisher version
Language
- en