BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//pretalx//talks.caving.dev//nss-convention-2026//talk//JZHX3X
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:EST
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:20001029T030000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10;UNTIL=20061029T070000Z
TZNAME:EST
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:20071104T030000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=11
TZNAME:EST
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20000402T030000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=4;UNTIL=20060402T080000Z
TZNAME:EDT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20070311T030000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYMONTH=3
TZNAME:EDT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:pretalx-nss-convention-2026-JZHX3X@talks.caving.dev
DTSTART;TZID=EST:20260708T083000
DTEND;TZID=EST:20260708T085000
DESCRIPTION:The Upper Floridan Aquifer is one of the most productive aquife
 rs in the United States\, providing drinking water for millions of people 
 across the southeastern United States. Despite its ecological and economic
  importance\, the aquifer remains poorly studied with respect to its uniqu
 e and often highly specialized groundwater fauna. Previous work has reveal
 ed that the region supports a remarkable diversity of stygobionts\, includ
 ing several iconic and imperiled taxa such as the Georgia Blind Salamander
  (Eurycea wallacei) and Dougherty Plain Cave Crayfish (Cambarus cryptodyte
 s). Yet many areas of the aquifer\, particularly in southwestern Georgia a
 nd the Florida panhandle\, have received little recent biological study.\n
 \nTo address this knowledge gap\, we surveyed 50 caves and springs in the 
 Dougherty Plain across 61 surveys conducted from August 2024 through Febru
 ary 2026. We documented 52 taxa representing 5 phyla\, 16 classes\, 40 ord
 ers\, and 63 families. A total of 9 stygobionts were observed across 23 si
 tes\, highlighted by new locality records for the Dougherty Plain Cave Cra
 yfish and Georgia Blind Salamander. Notably\, we also discovered two poten
 tial new sites for the Shaggy Ghost snail (Dasyscias franzi)\, a species p
 reviously known only from a single cave spring in Washington County\, Flor
 ida.\n\nThese findings underscore both the exceptional biodiversity of the
  Upper Floridan Aquifer and the continued need for surveys in understudied
  regions. Expanding the known distributions of rare and endemic taxa provi
 des critical baseline data for management and conservation of groundwater 
 ecosystems in the southeastern United States.
DTSTAMP:20260826T232449Z
LOCATION:205
SUMMARY:New surveys of cave and groundwater fauna in the Upper Floridan Aqu
 ifer - 
URL:https://talks.caving.dev/nss-convention-2026/talk/JZHX3X/
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR