THE HYDROGEOLOGY OF SPRINGS IN RELATION TO THE BIODIVERSITY OF SPRINGFAUNA - A REVIEW

Hydrogeological setting has a controlling influence on the ambient con ditions of springs (the flow rate, water quality and temperature), and the governing hydrogeological processes are reasonably well understoo d. Springs are points of concentrated discharge from groundwater flow systems. The stability of the flow of a spring depends mostly on the e xtent and storage capacity of the flow systems that feed it. Spring wa ter is always a mixture of water that infiltrated at different times a nd in different places. This mixing property of springs can Lead to co mplex patterns of variability in flow, quality and temperature. With r egard to biodiversity of spring fauna the filtration capacity of the g eological formations especially as it relates to the movement of small and large living organisms is likely to be important, and thus it is useful to distinguish between springs fed from porous formations and f rom cavernous formations. Nutrient concentrations in the discharging g roundwater are also likely to be important.