TERN bi-monthly webinar: Lifelines in the Desert – the critical role of oases in biodiversity and heritage

Across Australia’s vast drylands (and those of other continents), springs and oases emerge as remarkable lifelines, tiny fragments of the landscape that have critical ecological and cultural significance. These natural discharge points of aquifers create biodiversity hotspots in otherwise inhospitable terrain, serving as critical refuges for unique flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth. Beyond their ecological importance, desert springs have been essential to human survival, health and cultural heritage for millennia. They provide windows into the hidden dynamics of aquifer systems that sustain life across the world’s arid regions. Yet these precious ecosystems rank amongst the most threatened on the planet, facing pressures from aquifer drawdown, spring extinctions, invasive species, and direct human modification.