Director Spring Stewardship Institute Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
Abstract: Spring ecosystems develop where groundwater reaches the Earth’s surface. While generally small, springs are abundant, often biologically diverse, productive, and highly individualistic. Springs have played ecologically interactive roles in arid, mesic, and humid regions throughout evolutionary time and human history. However, springs everywhere are neglected, poorly mapped and managed, and are widely threatened by human activities. Here I present the results of collaboration with 65 collaborators in a global investigation of the distribution, ecology, biodiversity, socio-cultural significance, threats, and conservation status of nearly 300,000 springs in 75 countries on all continents except Antarctica.
We conducted this research by reviewing published literature and recently compiled information on spring ecosystems in each author’s study area. Study areas ranged in scale from individual synoptic landscapes to national and international scales, and available information varied greatly in quality and extent.
We report large differences in spring ecosystem information availability among countries and continents, with only moderate data availability even among the most highly developed countries. Limited ecological information exists across the developing world. Where data are available, ecological impairment of springs is commonplace, sometimes exceeding 90%. Ecological integrity among Holarctic nations is generally positively related to distance from human development, and negatively related to elevation and latitude, patterns that are less evident in the Southern Hemisphere. Declining ecological integrity compound threats to and loss of spring-dependent taxa. Common local impacts on springs include livestock impacts, flow diversion, geomorphic alteration, under-informed land use practices, recreation effects, and the introduction of non-native species. Many local threats can be reduced through education, rehabilitation of geomorphology and habitat quality, and species reintroductions, provided that the supporting aquifer remains relatively intact. However, aquifers and the springs they support also are threatened by regional to global factors, including groundwater extraction, pollution, and climate change.
Our data point to a poorly recognized global crisis in spring ecosystem integrity, with levels of ecosystem impairment ranging from Vulnerable to fully Collapsed using the EU Red List of Ecosystems assessment protocol. Improving understanding and stewardship of springs will require: much additional systematic mapping; inventory and assessment; better information management; reconsideration of basic conservation concepts (e.g., habitat connectivity); and more thoughtful cultural and socio-economic valuation and policy. Substantial societal recognition, discussion, and policy reform are needed within and among nations to better protect and sustainably manage and rehabilitate springs, their supporting aquifers, and the spring-dependent human and biotic populations that depend upon them.
