Complimentary Article

Roux continues to spearhead an understanding of California’s desert ecosystems. In our most recent publication, we examined the similarity of ecohydrological characteristics for a broad suite of previously investigated springs, requiring integration of multiple lines of evidence from diverse disciplines. Our results indicate that the ecological and hydrological characteristics of virtually all of these springs show distinctiveness, and therefore each represents a somewhat unique ecosystem that has developed in relative isolation from the other springs. 

These results are important more broadly because it demonstrates that the use of mitigation compensation or mitigation offset via replacement or substitution, to address impacts to these regions, can never be truly achieved. Any ecosystem used as a replacement or substitution could not reasonably be expected to match the ecological and hydrological conditions of the ecosystem lost. While such offsets typically represent a coarser view of replacements or substitution, more importantly are the specific conditions at desert springs, which support endemic and water-dependent biodiversity, that cannot be easily replaced or substituted.

To download a complimentary copy of the article, published by Frontiers in Environmental Science, please complete the form.