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The spring habitat:
biota and sampling methods

350 pages
[Content summery ]

Freshwater mites (Hydrachnidia) from springs in Trentino

Many studies have produced evidence that water mites play an outstanding role within invertebrate communities of spring habitats, not only in terms of species diversity and the evolution of particular habitat preferences, but often also with regard to their high population densities and particular significance within the food web.

At the nymphal (more correctly: deutonymphal) and adult stage they are predators of minute invertebrates or invertebrate eggs, while larvae of most species have a parasitic-phoretic life style and are bound to particular insect hosts. The complex life cycle is completed by two pupa-like resting stages (protonymph, between larva and deutonymph, and tritonymph, between deutonymph and adult), which need protection in microcavities of the sediment under stable environmental conditions. Due to requirements of single stages, water mites are particularly interrelated with the biotic and abiotic components of their environment.

[ more ]

Bryophytes and vascular plants in Trentino’s springs: preliminary results

Chironomids

Nematodes in spring

Ostracodi (Crustacea, Ostracoda)

WATER - A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

A joint undertaking of the 24 UN agencies comprising UN-Water, and in partnership with governments and other entities concerned with freshwater issues, this volume, covering as it does all regions and most countries of the world, provides an up-to-date global overview of the state and uses of freshwater, critical water-related problems, and societies' coping mechanisms.

[ http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=UNWater ]

SIL2007

Interested colleagues are invited to submit contributions to the SPECIAL SESSION:

Springs and small streams: understudied and under-protected key habitats for biodiversity conservation

SIL2007 (30th Congress of the International Association of Theoretical and Applied Limnology). Montréal, Canada, 12-18 August 2007

Session organizers:
Dr Marco Cantonati, Trento Science Museum, Limnology and Phycology Section, Trento, Italy & Prof John S. Richardson, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Session motivation and description
The biological communities of small streams and springs are distinctive, and more than simply a nested subset of species found downstream. Springs are considered special habitats by all running water classification systems in recognition of their marked environmental stability and generally low degree of pollution. They are however much less studied than other freshwater habitats. The processes that provide habitat conditions suitable for specialized taxa have often only been described in general terms. Advances in testing physical, chemical and biological mechanisms that select amongst taxa have started to demonstrate the roles of hydraulic and other physical processes that set habitat constraints. As applied problems emerge, it is increasingly important to strengthen fundamental knowledge on these environments. Indeed, springs and groundwater-fed streams are often under-protected in some landscapes (e.g. managed forests), while in others they are increasingly threatened by capture for drinking water use (European Alps).

This session will explore the distinctiveness of the biological and physical systems, as well as how these are affected by various kinds of management. The links (or absence thereof) to broader policy, such as the Clean Water Act (USA) and the Water Framework Directive (EU-WFD) will also be considered. Initiatives for an improved international cooperation in spring-research will be explored.

Keynote speakers: Prof Eugen Rott, University of Innsbruck, Austria:
Headwater streams: Biodiversity and conservation aspects.

Dr Reinhard Gerecke, University of Tübingen, Germany:
Spring habitats: the biota and pros for long-term ecological research.

For further information on the Special Session please contact: cantonati@mtsn.tn.it
Der Link zur Tagungsseite mit allen Infos: [ http://www.sil2007.org ]

Partners/contacts sought for German Cratoneurion springs project

Among the more unusual priority habitat types listed in Directive 92/43/EEC* are petrifying springs with tufa formation (Cratoneurion). These habitats consist of springs where water comes out of the ground with high calcium carbonate content.

Alpenquellen.com - The idea

The Alps are the water castle of Europe. There is not any other region with such an amount of water sources than the Alps. Therefore, we made it to our assignment to realise an interactive information system especially for Alpine sources.