Regional Baseline Stygofauna Survey Onshore Gippsland Basin, Victoria
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VICTORIAN GAS PROGRAM Regional baseline stygofauna survey Onshore Gippsland Basin, Victoria T.A. Bold, P. Serov, C.P. Iverach & M. Hocking Victorian Gas Program Technical Report 14 February 2020 Authorised by the Director, Geological Survey of Victoria Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions 1 Spring Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Telephone (03) 9651 9999 © Copyright State of Victoria, 2020. Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions 2020 Except for any logos, emblems, trademarks, artwork and photography this work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au. It is a condition of this Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence that you must give credit to the original author who is the State of Victoria. This document is also available in an accessible format at www.djpr.vic.gov.au Bibliographic reference BOLD, T.A., SEROV, P., IVERACH, C.P. & HOCKING, M. 2020. Regional baseline stygofauna survey, Onshore Gippsland Basin, Victoria. Victorian Gas Program Technical Report 14. Geological Survey of Victoria. Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. Melbourne, Victoria. 31p. ISBN 978-1-76090-261-2 (pdf/online/MS word) Geological Survey of Victoria Catalogue Record 160955 Key Words stygofauna, Gippsland Basin, groundwater-dependent ecosystems Acknowledgements All fieldwork and sample collections were carried out by Attila Gaal, Charlotte Iverach, Tiffany Bold, Cassady O’Neill and Josh Grover. Graphs and photos were provided by Tiffany Bold, Dr Peter Serov of Stygoecologia provided the stygofauna identifications, images and conducted a report review, Luong Tran compiled the maps and Allyson Crimp designed the final report. About the Victorian Gas Program The Victorian Gas Program (VGP) is a comprehensive science-led program, incorporating geoscientific and environmental research to assess the risks, benefits and impacts of potential onshore conventional gas exploration and production. The program is also investigating the potential for further discoveries of onshore conventional and offshore gas in the Otway and Gippsland geological basins and assessing the feasibility of additional onshore underground gas storage in depleted reservoirs around the Port Campbell area. The VGP includes an extensive, proactive and phased community and stakeholder engagement program, through which the results of the scientific studies are being communicated. About the Geological Survey of Victoria The Geological Survey of Victoria (GSV) is the Victorian Government’s geoscience agency and sits within the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. GSV provides evidence-based knowledge and information to Government, industry, academia and the community, on Victoria’s earth resources, using the latest geoscience technologies and methods. For more details visit earthresources.vic.gov.au/gsv Disclaimer This publication may be of assistance to you, but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. The Victorian Government, authors and presenters do not accept any liability to any person for the information (or the use of the information) which is provided or referred to in the report. Table of contents Summary...................................................................................................................................................................v 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Victorian Gas Program ..................................................................................................................................1 1.2 What are stygofauna? ....................................................................................................................................1 1.3 Australian stygofauna knowledge .......................................................................................................2 2 Study area ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 2.1 Climate .......................................................................................................................................................................4 2.2 Land use ....................................................................................................................................................................5 2.3 Geology ......................................................................................................................................................................5 3 Groundwater dependent ecosystems ................................................................................................. 9 3.1 Stygofauna habitat ...................................................................................................................................... 10 3.2 Stygofauna ecological requirements ............................................................................................. 10 3.3 Factors impacting stygofauna ..............................................................................................................11 4 Methods ............................................................................................................................................................12 4.1 Survey design .....................................................................................................................................................12 4.2 Environmental attributes ..........................................................................................................................12 4.3 Equipment .............................................................................................................................................................13 4.4 Stygofauna sampling ...................................................................................................................................13 4.5 Laboratory analysis .......................................................................................................................................14 4.6 Limitations ............................................................................................................................................................15 5 Results ...............................................................................................................................................................16 5.1 Stygofauna results .........................................................................................................................................16 5.2 Groundwater quality ..................................................................................................................................... 17 6 Discussion .......................................................................................................................................................20 6.1 Environmental significance .....................................................................................................................21 7 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................... 22 References ............................................................................................................................................................. 23 Glossary ................................................................................................................................................................. 28 Appendix A1 Example field sample sheet ................................................................................................29 Appendix A2 Stygofauna results ................................................................................................................30 Appendix A3 Stygofauna sample groundwater quality results ....................................................31 List of figures Figure 1.1 Stygofauna specimen (Amphipoda Melitidae) collected in SW Victoria (Stygoecologia, 2019). ..........................................................................................................................................................3 Figure 2.1 Study area for the baseline stygofauna survey, showing the extent of the VGP environmental study area, the VGP onshore conventional gas program study area and the location of the east and west Gippsland CMAs. .....................4 Figure 2.2 Victorian Gas Program Gippsland Basin land use map. .......................................................5 Figure 2.3 Surface geology of the Gippsland Basin, Victoria. .....................................................................6 Figure 2.4 Outcropping units of the VAF of the Gippsland Basin, Victoria.......................................6 Figure 3.1 The known and potential surface aquatic GDEs of the Gippsland Basin, Victoria............................................................................................................................................................................9