Aquatic root mat communities of stygofauna occur in limestone caves in the Margaret River and Yanchep karst areas in southwest Western Australia. These threatened ecological communities (TECs) are listed as critically endangered under the Environmental Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Most known occurrences of these TECs have been declining and many have disappeared in the last two decades, including in Lake Cave, Jewel Cave and Easter Cave, where several locally endemic species of stygofauna are probably now extinct.