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SUBTERRANEAN GROUNDWATER HABITATS

• Streams, pools and shallow lakes in caves.
• Groundwater exposed in wells, fissures, and deep cave passages (deep phreatic habitats). 
• The interstitial media, which may occur under a variety of conditions characterized by unconsolidated sediments saturated by groundwater. Interstitial habitats are found in the underflow or hyporheic zone beneath surface streams, in coarse alluvial deposits lateral to surface streams (nappes phréatiques), and in the littoral and sublittoral zones of coastal areas. 
• Outflow from small springs and seeps through loose sediments or leaf litter above the ground water table (hypotelminorheic habitats). 

• Landlocked pools or cave lakes in limestone or basalt with subterranean connections to the adjacent sea (anchialine habitats).   

Aquatic subterranean habitats  

Drip pool habitat in cave

Cave stream habitat

Karaman-Chappuis hole technique for collecting  amphipods from shallow groundwater aquifers

Sampling artesian well in San Marcos, Texas, USA

 
  Using a Bou-Rouch pump to sample groundwater fauna from an interstitial groundwater habitat.

Two scenes showing outlets of drain tiles in central Illinois. Stygobiont amphipods and isopods are often found in these outlets, presumably having been flushed out of interstitial habitats and into drain tiles when groundwater tables are elevated during wet periods. On the left, water is passing from a pipe into a ditch or small creek. On the right one can see both the outlet pipe and the large, flat field that is drained by the drain tile system. These systems consist of a series of perforated tiles, which are buried approximately 2 meters beneath the surface of poorly drained farm fields in glacial drift areas of the mid-west or in unconsolidated sediments on the eastern coastal plain. They are used to drain excess water from the fields in late winter and early spring in preparation for seasonal plowing and planting.

Compound drain tile system in central Indiana composed of two outlets emptying into a concrete basin. A fine mesh net has been placed over the pipe outlet on the left to capture any small crustaceans that might pass through to the surface.

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