A comprehensive review of South Australia’s Great Artesian Basin spring and discharge wetlands biota

Context

The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) feeds thousands of springs in Australia’s arid centre, supporting relictual species not found elsewhere on Earth. Springs are considerably threatened by ongoing water abstraction by industry. Robust management plans are needed to prevent further extirpations of GAB taxa, but fundamental biodiversity knowledge is lacking.

Aims

We aimed to characterise major organismal groups in South Australian GAB springs and surrounding wetlands, their conservation and taxonomic status, and potential biodiversity hotspots and connectivity of spring ecosystems.

Methods

Focusing on South Australia as a case study, we conducted a comprehensive review of GAB spring biota based on the published scientific and grey literature.

Key results

Almost 500 taxa have been recorded from GAB springs, the majority being invertebrates. Community composition is highly heterogeneous among spring clusters and the true extent of spring biodiversity is far greater than currently known.

Conclusions

GAB springs have intrinsic value as refugia for both endemics and cosmopolitan taxa. GAB invertebrates are poorly conserved and largely lacking in taxonomic knowledge. We highlight several potential biodiversity hotspots that have been overlooked in the literature.

Implications

Fundamental biodiversity information on the GAB is crucial for decision making in conservation management, for industry, and for Traditional Custodians.