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Mound Spring Conservation

Research Scientist: Dr Winston Ponder

The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is the largest artesian basin the world. Around its periphery are many natural springs, some of which contain very interesting fauna, including endemic snails, crustaceans, worms and fishes. Most of the endemic invertebrates were not discovered until the 1980s and because many springs have dried up as a result of water extraction from the GAB, endemic faunas may well have been lost over the last 100 years of so. Very few springs are currently protected, most being on pastoral leases and, in many cases, subjected to considerable damage from stock.

The image shows one of the springs on the south-western side of Lake Eyre South in northern South Australia. The springs in this area have some of the most interesting endemic faunas, including two endemic genera containing 10 species of hydrobiid snails, as well as crustaceans, worms and the Desert Goby.

Blanche Cup Spring. One of the Lake Eyre Super Group of artesian springs, Blanche Cup rises like a volcanic crater above the surrounding plain, on a mound that it has built over many centuries as the salts in its water precipitate out to form a hard rock. The black mark down the right side of the mound is the springs outflow, and in this water can be found small snails and crustacea in densities of 1 million per square metre!

Publications from this project

1. Colgan, D.J., Ponder, W.F. (1994) The evolutionary consequences of restrictions in gene flow: examples from hydrobiid snails. Nautilus, Supplement 2: 25-43.
2. Ponder, W.F. (1985) South Australian mound springs. Relict faunas in the desert. Australian Natural History, 21(8): 352-355.
3. Ponder, W.F. (1986) Mound Springs of the Great Artesian Basin. In: Limnology in Australia, De Deckker, P., Williams, W. (eds), CSIRO, Melbourne. pp. 403-420.
4. Ponder, W.F. (1989) Mollusca. In: The natural history of Dalhousie Springs, Zeidler, W., Ponder, W.F. (eds), South Australian Museum, Adelaide. pp. 71-77.
5. Ponder, W.F. (1995) Hydrobiid snails of the South Australian mound springs. The Case for Conservation. In: The conservation biology of molluscs, Kay, E.A. (ed), IUCN, Gland Switzerland. Pp. 13-18.
6. Ponder, W.F., Clark, G.A. (1990) A radiation of hydrobiid snails in threatened artesian springs in western Queensland. Records of the Australian Museum, 42: 301-363.
7. Ponder, W.F., Colgan, D.J., Terzis, T., Clark, S.A., Miller, A.C. (in press) Three new morphologically and genetically determined species of hydrobiid gastropods from Dalhousie Springs, northern South Australia, with the description of a new genus. Molluscan Research.
8. Ponder, W.F., Eggler, P., Colgan, D.J. (1996) Genetic differentiation of aquatic snails (Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae) in artesian springs in arid Australia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 56: 553-596.
9. Ponder, W.F., Hershler, R., Jenkins, B. (1989) An endemic radiation of Hydrobiidae from artesian springs in northern South Australia: their taxonomy, physiology, distribution and anatomy. Malacologia, 31: 1-140.
10. Zeidler, W., Ponder, W.F. (eds) (1989) Natural History of Dalhousie Springs, South Australian Museum, Adelaide. 138 pp.

Freshwater Molluscs of Australia

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