RFI - Appendix 6 - Ground Water Response · MCU19/0117

Groundwater Dependant Ecology Preliminary Impact Assessment v1                               NCES REF: J000538
90 Beach Road, Noosa North Shore




                 Plate 4 – Matters of State Environmental Significance (SPP Interactive System)

3.4.4 Groundwater Organisms
Stygofauna are any fauna that live in groundwater systems or aquifers. Stygofauna are found all
over the world and include turbellarians, gastropods, isopods, amphipods, decapods, fishes, or
salamanders. Stygofauna have adapted to the limited food supply and are extremely energy
efficient. Stygofauna feed on plankton, bacteria, and plants found in streams. To survive in an
environment where food is scarce and oxygen levels are low, stygofauna often have very low
metabolism. As a result, stygofauna may live longer than other terrestrial species (Wikipedia 2020).

The natural composition and abundance of stygofauna in the groundwater table beneath the site
and the GDE is undefined and requires further investigation. Several methods are currently used
to sample stygofauna. The accepted method is to lower a haul net, which is a weighted plankton
net (with minimum 50 µm mesh size), to the bottom of the bore, well or sinkhole and jiggled to
agitate sediments at the base of the bore. The net is then slowly retrieved, filtering stygofauna out
of the water column on the upward haul. This methods provide animals for morphological and
molecular analyses.




                                                            8                                             2020