Mining, irrigation, and groundwater: Towards a reliable protocol for assessing the impacts of extraction on groundwater fauna and ecology

与采矿和灌溉需求增加相关的地下水波动可能威胁到澳大利亚许多独特的地下水无脊椎动物（stygofauna）的灭绝。冥河动物是生物多样性的一个隐藏库，被认为在提高地下水质量方面具有关键作用，但人们对此知之甚少。地下水资源的环境可持续发展受到以下因素的阻碍：缺乏关于地下水动物的生态需求以及它们如何应对人类引起的变化的信息。使用现场和实验室实验，我们的目标是确定如何地下水位波动威胁stygofauna。根据我们的研究结果，我们将制定采样和管理协议，以监测和保护stygofauna社区。

Groundwater fluctuations associated with mining and increased irrigation demands, potentially threaten many of Australia's unique groundwater invertebrates (stygofauna) with extinction. Stygofauna represent a hidden store of biodiversity and are thought to have a critical, but poorly understood, role in enhancing groundwater quality. Environmentally sustainable development of groundwater resources is hampered by a dearth of information on the ecological needs of stygofauna and how they respond to human-induced change. Using field and laboratory experiments, we aim to determine how water table fluctuations threaten stygofauna. From our results we will develop sampling and management protocols to monitor and protect stygofauna communities.