What better way to draw this to public attention than with a Decade for Ocean Science? I’m sure the majority of unknowing members of the public, just cottoning on to the danger represented by plastics on the surface, will be appalled to realize that the same thing is happening in the Deep. The public is slow to mobilize but once it is riled, it is also slow to forget the lessons, especially if it’s reminded every year for a decade.

I am preparing a manuscript for the World Encyclopedia of Biomes on the ecological integrity of the world’s springs, and am inviting springs ecosystem experts from around the world to co-author by contributing brief synopses on the status of springs in their region of study, country, subcontinent, or continent. The distribution, uses, and status of seafloor vent springs is a large gap for this manuscript, and I am inquiring whether you and your colleagues there would be interested in contributing in co-authorship. We have brought together most of the world’s renowned springs authorities for this manuscript, and your contribution would be most deeply appreciated. The deadline for submission of the brief write-ups (300-500 words) is 1 December, with a submission deadline to World Biomes before the end of 2020. Apologies for the tight timeline, but the write-ups can be quite brief.

If you agree to participate, please send along your full name, contact information, including affiliation information, as you wish to see it on the manuscript, as well as your ORCID number.

Please keep your paragraph to <500 words (not including references). Concepts for co-authors to include in their summary text on the status of springs ecosystems by study region include, but are not limited to:

• Study area name, land area, array and hydrogeology of aquifers
• Number, density, and types of springs in the landscape
• Estimated or known percent of springs affected by human activities (percent used for potable water, agriculture including livestock and irrigation, industrial including mining, recreation, etc.
• Ecological integrity or health of springs (by percent affected, if known, in the following categories): devastated, very poor, poor, moderate, good, very good, and pristine
• Potential impacts of climate change, if studied
• 1-2 case studies of springs imperilment from your landscape
• 1-2 case studies of sustainable management or springs rehabilitation efforts
• Other brief, relevant comments on your region’s springs
• Please include references on springs distribution, status and management in your study area.

We have very little room in the manuscript for figures and tables, but please feel free to include relevant figures (maps, photographs, etc.) and tables that can be included into the Supplementary Materials section.

I look forward to hearing from you, and please let me know if you have questions.

Best wishes, stay well, and please vote,

Larry Stevens, Director
Springs Stewardship Institute
Museum of Northern Arizona
3100 N. Ft. Valley Rd.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(928) 380-7724 mobile

Improving springs ecosystem ecology and stewardship.

Colorado River Basin: The 627,824 km2 Colorado River basin (CRB) in the American Southwest is equally divided between the upper basin Colorado Plateau and the lower CRB Basin and Range geologic province (Stevens et al. 2020). With elevations ranging from sea level up to 4,365 m in the Rocky Mountains, the aquifers of this arid river basin include surficial basalts and deeper sandstone and karstic strata, conformably perched in the upper basin, but highly deformed in the lower basin. A total of 20,872 springs are reported in the CRB, co-dominated by rheocrene, hillslope, and helocrenes, and with a globally significant concentration of hanging gardens in the upper basin but few limnocrenes or geysers. Those springs support at least 330 CRB springs-dependent species (SDS), and Montezuma Well in central Arizona supports six unique SDS (Blinn 2008), the highest point-source concentration of endemic SDS in North America. While pristine springs are found in many CRB national parks, springs outside the parks have a long history of intensive use for livestock watering. Estimates of ecological impairment exceed 70% on private ranches and federally and state-managed forests and rangelands. Climate change impacts in the CRB may reduce winter snowpack at higher elevations and increase evapotranspiration at middle and lower elevations, reducing infiltration and springs discharge. However, wildfire may reduce forest cover in middle and upper elevation landscapes, potentially increasing infiltration. An example of an imperiled spring is Roaring Springs in Grand Canyon, a karstic gushet fed by snowmelt through sinkholes on the Kaibab Plateau to the north and which, through a complex pipeline and pumping system, provides potable water for several million visitors to this world renowned national park (Tobin et al. 2017). Pakoon Springs, a large springs complex in northwestern Arizona was successfully rehabilitated after more than a century of intensive cattle and ostrich ranching (Burke et al. 2015).

References Cited
Blinn, D. 2008. The extreme environment, trophic structure, and ecosystem dynamics of a large, fishless desert spring: Montezuma Well, Arizona. Pp. 98–126 in Stevens, LE, Meretsky VJ, editors. Aridlands Springs in North America: Ecology and Conservation. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Burke KJ, Harcksen KA, Stevens LE, Andress RJ, Johnson R.J. 2015. Collaborative rehabilitation of Pakoon Springs in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, Arizona. Pp. 312-330 in Huenneke L, van Riper C III, Hayes-Gilpin KA, editors. The Colorado Plateau VI: Science and Management at the Landscape Scale. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Stevens LE, Jenness J, Ledbetter JD. 2020. Springs and springs-dependent taxa in the Colorado River Basin, southwestern North America: geography, ecology, and human impacts. Water 12, 1501; doi:10.3390/w12051501.
Tobin, B.W.; Springer, A.E.; Kraemer, D.K.; Schenk, E. 2017. Review: The distribution, flow, and quality of Grand Canyon springs, Arizona (USA). Hydrogeology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-017-1688-8.

Perhaps use a wave or a blue whale