Coho salmon populations in the karst landscape of north Prince of Wales Island, southeast Alaska, 1998, Bryant Md, Swanston Dn, Wissmar Rc, Wright Be,

Karst topography is a unique and distinct landscape and its geology may have important implications for salmon productivity in streams. The relationship between salmonid communities and water chemistry and the influence of habitat was examined in a set of streams on north Prince of Wales Island, southeast Alaska. Streams in karat landscapes showed higher alkalinities (1,500-2,300 mu eq/L) than streams not influenced by karst landscapes (750-770 mu eq/L). A significant, positive relationship was observed between alkalinity and density of coho salmon parr Oncorhynchus kitsutch. Backwater pools supported higher densities of coho salmon than did other habitat units. Both coho salmon fry and parr tended to be larger in most karst-influenced streams than in nonkarst streams. Although past timber harvest practices in the riparian areas of several of the streams appeared to influence stream habitat and water temperature, streams flowing through karat landscapes had a distinct water chemistry. Furthermore, these streams appeared to support more fish than nonkarst streams

Karst and agriculture in Australia, 1999, Gillieson David, Thurgate Mia

Much of the development and degradation of karst lands in Australia has occurred in the last two centuries since European settlement. Recent prolonged El Nino events add further climatic uncertainty and place real constraints on sustainable agriculture. The lower southeast of South Australia is perhaps the one area in Australia where karst, and particularly karst hydrology, impinge on the daily lives of the community in that pollution and overexploitation of the aquifer are readily apparent to the local population. Effluent from intensive dairy farms, piggeries and cheese factories enters the karst and has caused concern over pollution of water supplies. Human impacts on the Mole Creek karst of Tasmania have been well documented. The principal recent impacts on the karst arc associated with land clearance for farmland, forest cutting for timber, road building, refuse disposal and associated hydrological change. There is similar evidence of agricultural impacts un karst in central New South Wales, with clear evidence of vegetation clearance and soil stripping on the limestones at Wellington, Orange and Molong.

Working with knowledge at the science/policy interface: a unique example from developing the Tongass Land Management Plan, 2000, Shawiii Charles G. , Everest Fred H. , Swanston Douglas N. ,

An innovative, knowledge-based partnership between research scientists and resource managers in the U.S. Forest Service provided the foundation upon which the Forest Plan was developed that will guide management on the Tongass National Forest for the next 10-15 years. Criteria developed by the scientists to evaluate if management decisions were consistent with the available information base were applied to major components of the emerging final management strategy for the Forest. While the scientists remained value neutral on the contents of the Forest Plan and the management directions provided in it, their evaluation indicated that the decisions it contained for riparian and fish sustainability, wildlife viability, karst and cave protection, slope stability, timber resources, social/economic effects, and monitoring achieved a high degree of consistency with the available scientific information. The Forest Plan, revised to conform with existing scientific knowledge, represents a management strategy designed to sustain the diversity and productivity of the ecosystem while producing goods and services commensurate with the agency’s multiple-use mandate. Execution of this research/management partnership highlighted the role of scientific knowledge in forestry decision-making and provided a new mechanism to input such information into the decision making process. The partnership continues as the scientists are addressing high priority information needs generated by the planning effort in order to have additional information available for plan implementation and revision through adaptive management over the next 3-5 years

Uncalculated impacts of unsustainable aquifer yield including evidence of subsurface interbasin flow, 2000, Bacchus St,

Unsustainable withdrawals from regional aquifers have resulted in adverse impacts considerable distances from the point locations of supply wells. In one area of the southeastern (SE) Coastal Plain, conservative estimates for repair/replacement of some residential wells damaged or destroyed by unsustainable yield from the Floridan aquifer system exceeded $4 million. However, a comprehensive assessment of damage/economic loss to private property and public resources due to unsustainable yield from that regional karat aquifer has not been made. Uncalculated direct costs to home-owners from damage attributed to those withdrawals are associated with destruction of homes from increased sinkhole formation, devalued waterfront property, and removal of diseased and dead trees. Examples of other uncalculated economic burdens resulting from unsustainable aquifer yield in the SE Coastal Plain include: (1) irreversible damage to the aquifer matrix and concomitant increased potential for groundwater contamination, (2) large-scale wildfires with subsequent degradation of air quality, debilitation of transportation corridors, and destruction of timber, wildlife habitat and property, and (3) destruction of 'protected' natural areas. This paper provides a general background of the regional Floridan aquifer system's karst characteristics, examples of known impacts resulting from ground water mining in the SE Coastal Plain, and examples of additional damage that may be related to unsustainable yield from the Upper Floridan aquifer. Costs of these impacts have not been calculated and are not reflected in the price users pay for ground water. Evidence suggests that the classic watershed management approach must be revised in areas with mined regional karst aquifers to include impacts of induced recharge from the surficial aquifer, and subsurface interbasin flow. Likewise, associated impacts to surface water and interrelated systems must be calculated The true cost of groundwater mining to this and future generations should be determined using a multidisciplinary approach

Molluscan assemblages from deposits filling small karst forms in the Tatra Mountains (Southern Poland), 2001, Alexandrowicz, Witold Pawel

Numerous shells of molluscs were found in loamy sediments rich in limestone and dolomite scree filling small karst forms and forming debris fans. They have been analysed from several logs in the Tatra Mountains. Woodland and open-country snails are the main components of fauna. Relations between two mentioned ecological groups of molluscs indicate climatic changes and moving the timberline. Three phases of warming separated by two stages of the colder climate were recognised. They can be related to following ages: XIII and first half of XIV centuries AD (warm phase), second half of XIV - XVII centuries AD (cold phase), XVIII and the first half of XIX centuries (warm phase), second half of the XIX century (cold phase) and finally to XX century (warm phase).

Tanella cave (Monte Baldo – Verona, Italy): a record of environmental data on the Last Glacial period, 2011, Zorzin Roberto, Agostini Laura, Montecchi Maria Chiara, Torri Paola, Accorsi Carla Alberta,

Since 2003, an extensive hydrogeological investigation has been carried out on Monte Baldo, in order to make a census of springs occurring along the west side of the mountain and to evaluate the quality of their water. The investigation included morphological and hydrogeological observations concerning the Tanella cave and interdisciplinary investigations performed on the deposits found in the cave. This paper shows the first data concerning the hydrogeology of the cave, as well as data on stratigraphy, pollen and micro-charcoals obtained from the analyses of a well preserved sequence located at ca. 80 m from the entrance (sequence A). The aim of the study was to reconstruct the environment of the area around the cave along the time span testified by the sequence. The sequence is 60 cm thick and was built up by fluvioglacial sediments followed by lacustrine sediments. Five samples taken along the sequence plus three recent control samples (mosses), collected in places assumed as origins of the pollen input, were studied for pollen and micro-charcoals. Pollen preservation was good and concentration varied from 101 to 103 p/g. Pollen spectra from the cave showed the evolution from a landscape of alpine grassland above the timberline, likely of glacial age, to a more forested Holocene landscape similar in flora to the current one testified by the control samples. Pollen probably arrived in the cave by air, water and animals and from plants growing near the cave. It appears to have been continuously underwater after its deposition due to its very good state of preservation. Micro-charcoals suggested that fires were sometimes lit near the cave.

Preliminary notes on the Cavernicolous Arthropod Fauna of Judbarra / Gregory Karst Area, northern Australia, 2012, Moulds Timothy, Bannink Peter

The Judbarra / Gregory Karst Region is situated in the Judbarra / Gregory National Park, west of Timber Creek, Northern Territory. Several large joint controlled maze caves occur within the area, developed within and below a prominent dolomitic layer (the Supplejack Member). The caves are predominantly shallow in depth (< 15 m below the surface) but are occasionally developed deeper as multi-level systems, reaching the aquifer. Two biological surveys from the largest caves have revealed 56 morphospecies from 43 families, 19 orders, and 7 classes. All collecting was undertaken in the northern dry season (April to September) and consisted predominantly of opportunistic collecting. The diversity of invertebrates collected from the Judbarra / Gregory karst comprised non-troglobionts (48 species, 86%), troglobionts (5 species, 9%), stygobionts (2 species, 3%), and trogloxenes (1 species, 2%). Five of the species are considered to be potential troglobionts, and two potential stygobionts as indicated by troglomorphisms such as elongate appendages and reduced or absent eyes. The five troglobiont species are an isopod (Platyarthridae: Trichorhina sp.), a scorpion (Buthidae: Lychas? sp. nov.), a pseudoscorpion (Geogarypidae: Geogarypus sp. nov.), a millipede (Polydesmida: sp.), and a planthopper (Meenoplidae: sp.). The two stygobiont species are a hydrobiid snail (Hydrobiidae: sp.), and an amphipod (Amphipoda: sp.). The troglobiont scorpion is only the second collected from a cave environment from continental Australia.

THE LATE MIOCENE MINERALIZED HYPOGENE KARST AT BARE MOUNTAIN, SOUTHERN NEVADA, USA, 2013, Dublyansky Yuri, Spötl Christoph

Bare Mountain is an isolated complex of mountain peaks Southeast of the town of Beatty in southern Nevada. This small mountain range is located between the alluvial basins of Crater Flat to the East and the northern Amargosa Desert to the Southwest. The range is built of a folded and complexly faulted, generally northward-dipping sequence of weakly to moderately metamorphosed upper Proterozoic and Paleozoic marine rocks. Along the eastern and northern margins of Bare Mountain there are four clusters of Ag-Hg-fluorite deposits from which pipe-like breccia bodies have been reported in the literature. One of these deposits, the Diamond Queen Mine (aka Goldspar Mine; 36°50.4’ N, 116°38.3’ W) was prospected for gold and mined for fluorspar. The age of the mineralization is younger than 12.9±0.4 Ma (according to K/Ar dates of replacement adularia). During our visit in 2010 we observed solutional cavities in the open-pit works of the mine carved in the dolomite of the Cambrian Nopah Formation. The cavities have dimensions of a few meters to tens of meters. Their inner surfaces are smooth and barren. The morphology of the cavities strongly suggests dissolution under phreatic conditions. Cavities are filled with buff-colored clay material containing bands of black to dark-violet to yellow- green to colorless fluorite. Fluid inclusions in the Diamond Queen fluorite yielded homogenization temperatures of ca. 130°C. We measured the δD of the fluid inclusion water in this fluorite and compared them to δD values measured in scalenohedral calcite from the Sterling Mine (Au) located 1.5 km to the north. Isotopic values are remarkably similar: δD = -100±2 ‰ (n = 6). Despite the fact that the analyzed water was derived from hypogene, hydrothermal minerals these isotopic values bear a paleoclimatological significance. This is because according to the currently accepted model, the Au-Hg-fluorite deposits at Bare Mountain owe their existence to the circulation of meteoric water triggered by emplacement of the silicic magma chamber under the Timber Mountain-Oasis Valley caldera some 15 km to the north. The Late Miocene meteoric- hydrothermal water is isotopically similar to the modern-day precipitation (-106 to -92 ‰). Between ca. 1.5 and 2.5 Ma the δD values of meteoric water in the area were substantially less negative (-70 to -50 ‰) and then gradually decreased to modern values. Knowledge regarding hypogene karst associated with the epithermal ore deposits in Nevada is limited. In north-central Nevada, post-ore hypogene dissolution, brecciation and mineralization occurred at some of the Carlin Trend deposits at ca. 2 Ma. In contrast, hypogene karst was a preore process at Diamond Queen; it has played a role in creating the ore-bearing structure.