developing stygobiology for tracking groundwater

Developing stygobiology

for tracking groundwater

Jim Mitchell, James Paterson, Remko Leijs, Renee Smith, Shane Tobe, Eddie Banks, Etienne Bresciani, Ben

Roudnew, Josephine Hyde, Maria Stefanidakis, Anthony Carlesso, Jody Fisher, Elise Launer, Eliesa Morello, Bill

Humphreys, Steve Cooper, Okke Batelaan, Andy Austin

GC Myers, http://redtreetimes.com/2011/11/30/archaeology-rainbows-end/

Groundwater Importance

• 97% of the world’s unfrozen freshwater reserves (Gibert & Deharveng 2002)

• 2 billion people rely on freshwater reserves for potable drinking water + industrial and agricultural production (Kemper 2004)

• Important in Australia -> drought events (Mpelasoka et al., 2008)

Geosystem Services High specificity water tracers Purifying water (metabolic diversity) Long term genetic repository Maintaining or increasing porosity Carrying out useful chemical reactions

Geosystem Disservices Harbouring pathogens Clogging Creating bad chemistry

Services

Using stygobiology tracers

Distinct levels of tracers Stygofauna (coarse) Bacteria (fine) Viruses (finest)

Multiple techniques Classical identification Flow cytometry DNA sequencing Bioinformatics

Using stygobiology tracers

• Distinct in different aquifers and water sources

• water quality

Impacted vs pristine

• Cross fault (transport, leakage, diversion)

Stygofauna biodiversity

amphipods

copepods

isopods

pseudoscorpions

Araneae spiders

Palpigradi bathynellids

Beetles hemipterans

oligochaetes

Courtesy Hyde & Austin

The Yilgarn Calcrete Aquifers

Courtesy Andy Austin


• 185 of 527 sites with stygofauna

• 200+ new species

no stygofauna present

stygofauna present

Microbe Abundance and Diversity abundance by flow cytometry

(Roudnew et al., 2012)

-105

-90

-75

-60

-45

-30

-15

0 0.01 0.1 1 10

Dep

th (m

) Log bacteria ( ×105 cells mL-1)

Unpurged Purged

0.01 0.1 1 10

Log VLP ( ×105 particles mL-1)

A B

Variation in groundwater abundances

1.E+04

1.E+05

1.E+06

1.E+07

1.E+08

1 10 100

Abu

ndan

ce (/

ml)

rank

South Australian Aquifers Microbial Abundances

of various group

What about bacteria on stygos?

> No asymptote @ ~ 150,000 seq.

> Gold = water > Red =

parabathynellid bodies

> Blue = legs

What about Viruses?

Normalized Goodall’s similarity matrix

Circovirus – Conserved replication region

Current work Mapping food web structure Developing analysis tools to quantify decontamination potential ecosystem health status microbial water signatures viral mixing models

Demand Driven Research – Research Informing Policy

West-End (WE) transect –years BP-

Courtesy Okke Batelaan


Courtesy Bill Humphreys

Courtesy Andy Austin

Acknowledgments

What about viruses?

• Circoviridae

Maize streak virus Beak and feather disease

Porcine Circovirus Associated Diseases

(PCVAD) (www.environment.gov.au) (www.octagon-services.co.uk) (www.geminiviridae.wordpress.com)


Regional groundwater modelling

• Automatic calibration using PEST – Number of head observations

increased (retrieved from waterconnect):

• 639 wells (10 times more than previously) • 46072 transient head observations (3

times more than previously used) – Observations updated to 2014 – Use of streamflow data – Use of concentration data (salinity,

isotopes) • Calibration-constrained uncertainty

analysis


Cross section (looking East)

Willunga Fault

Modified from Watkins, 1995

Aquifer

FRA Aquifer

Aquifer

Aquifer

Aquitard FRA

Aquifer


Hydro-stratigraphic units (latest version, in collaboration with DEWNR)

Adelaide CBD Topography N

taxonomic group Amphipods (Chiltoniidae) Amphipods (3 families) Amphipods (Melitidae) Isopods (Heterias) Anaspidacea Bathynellidae Cyclopoidea Harpacticoidea Ostracoda Oligochaeta Gastropoda Coleoptera Hydracarina

n 34 6

13 11 13 23

111 38 36 32 19 1 7

% 18.2 3.2 7.0 5.9 7.0

12.3 59.4 20.3 19.3 17.1 10.2

0.5 3.7

n. sp. >30

6 9

>8 >4

>15

1

localities estimated number of

developing stygobiology for tracking groundwater

Documents