7043

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7043
• Author: Desert Fishes Council ‎(Edwin Pister, e.
• Title: Proceedings of the Desert Fishes Council Volumes XVI-XVIII
• USFW Year: 1987.
• USFW - Doc Type: The Sixteenth - Eighteenth Annual Symposia.
• Copyright Material: NO

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great need to protect the fragile aquatic habitats in those arid
lands.
Suppose that we are successful, what then? Of what use are
those scattered springs, creeks, and pools? Again, 'por quo?
The number of answers could be as large as the number of
participants, though I doubt that. From my perspective, the
biota of the desert waters offer an exceptional opportunity to
increase our understanding of the way the world operates in
general. I say this because each of those isolated patches of
water is in itself a natural experiment. Many of those
experiments have been thousands of years in the making and could
not be replicated by us even with the budget of the Department of
Defense.
It is not dust a matter of age. It is also a matter of
propitious circumstances. One of these is scale. The spring
systems, in particular, present to the investigator bodies of
water small enough to be manageable in the context of many types
of studies. Further, the water is often exceptionally clear,
permitting unimpeded observations, especially where shallow. For
one who studies behavior and ecology, such systems are a dream.
Research in behavior and ecology can be done in harmony with
the goal of preservation. Such studies are basically
nonintrusive. Modification of the environment, or manipulation
of the inhabitants, can be minimized to such an extent that the
effect is trivial.
There are many directions in which the research could go. I
will confine my comments to an area that reflects my own
interests yet one that makes the larger point. The area is the