The Southern Nevada Water Authority has begun to develop water rights to carbonate aquifers in many isolated basins of eastern Nevada. Springs in pluvial lake beds are at risk of drying if the surface water table is depressed by the pumping. It is unknown how unique the invertebrate communities in these springs are within or between basins.   Furthermore, it is unknown which taxa are capable of recolonizing if dried springs are restored through mitigation efforts.  We hypothesize that the aquatic invertebrate community composition will be more similar within basins than between basins and that aquatic invertebrates with low dispersal ability will tend to be more unique within basins than those with high dispersal ability.  Multiple springs from each of four basins were qualitatively sampled.  Two of these basins will be directly impacted by the pumping project.  Aquatic invertebrates were identified to genus and community structure was assessed according to richness and taxonomic distinctness.  This study was the first part of a population genetics study of strong and weak dispersers in these systems.  It will ultimately allow us to compare the resolution of community-based and genetic-based analyses.