SIMILARITIES IN LARGE-SCALE ECOLOGICAL PATTERNS OF MICROBIAL AND BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES IN DESERT SPRINGS OF THE PANAMINT MOUNTAIN RANGE

Desert springs are groundwater-dependent ecosystems that often serve as critical habitat for local and migratory wildlife, including many endemic and endangered crenophiles (obligate spring-dwelling organisms). Sitting between Panamint Valley and Badwater Basin, the Panamint Mountain Range in Death Valley, CA harbors numerous desert springs that are located at various elevations. In the past, little research has focused on exploring the hydrogeochemistry and biological communities of these springs, largely due to the rugged and remote nature of the Panamints. To address this, a targeted sampling campaign was conducted to collect hydrogeochemical, microbiological, and benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI) samples from 18 springs in the Panamint Range (May 2017). Preliminarily, we have begun to identify hydrogeochemical parameters that correlate with both microbial and BMI community structure. Microbial community structure of high-elevation springs was observed to be significantly (p-value = 0.001) different from that of low-elevation springs. Additional physicochemical parameters observed to significantly (p-value = 0.001) correlate with large-scale shifts in microbial community structure include temperature, specific conductance, and various cations and anions, including Ca⁺², Na⁺, Cl^-, F^-, and SO₄^-2. BMI community structure was observed to significantly (p-value < 0.05) correlate with temperature and F^- concentration. In the microbial analysis, 34,728 unique sequence variants (representing 76 phyla) were recovered from 94 planktonic and benthic samples. Ten distinct orders (representing 5 phyla) were identified in the BMI samples, with Diptera and Littorinimorpha being the most abundant across all springs. These preliminary results suggest that desert springs in the Panamints possess diverse biological communities (microbial and BMI) that are influenced by and responding similarly to spring hydrogeochemistry.