Biospeleology

Last updated
A 3D cross-section of the Lukina jama-Trojama cave system in the Velebit mountains of Croatia. The collection sites (1) of the shells and the single living specimen (2) of the cave-dwelling snail Zospeum tholussum are indicated. The Lukina Jama-Trojama cave system - SubtBiol-011-045-g001.jpg
A 3D cross-section of the Lukina jama–Trojama cave system in the Velebit mountains of Croatia. The collection sites (1) of the shells and the single living specimen (2) of the cave-dwelling snail Zospeum tholussum are indicated.
The spider Trogloraptor marchingtoni from a cave in Oregon. Trogloraptor marchingtoni (Female); Josephine County, Oregon.jpg
The spider Trogloraptor marchingtoni from a cave in Oregon.

Biospeleology, also known as cave biology, is a branch of biology dedicated to the study of organisms that live in caves and are collectively referred to as troglofauna.

Contents

Biospeleology as a science

History

The first documented mention of a cave organism dates back to 1689, with the documentation of the olm, a cave salamander. Discovered in a cave in Slovenia, in the region of Carniola, it was mistaken for a baby dragon and was recorded by Johann Weikhard von Valvasor in his work The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola . The first formal study on cave organisms was conducted on the blind cave beetle. Found in 1831 by Luka Čeč, an assistant to the lamplighter, when exploring the newly discovered inner portions of the Postojna cave system in southwestern Slovenia. [2] [3] [4] The specimen was turned over to Ferdinand J. Schmidt, who described it in the paper Illyrisches Blatt (1832). [5] He named it Leptodirus Hochenwartii after the donor, and also gave it the Slovene name drobnovratnik and the German name Enghalskäfer, both meaning "slender-necked (beetle)". [6] The article represents the first formal description of a cave animal (the olm, described in 1768, wasn't recognized as a cave animal at the time). Subsequent research by Schmidt revealed further previously unknown cave inhabitants, which aroused considerable interest among natural historians. For this reason, the discovery of L. hochenwartii (along with the olm) is considered as the starting point of biospeleology as a scientific discipline. [2] [3] [7] Biospeleology was formalized as a science in 1907 by Emil Racoviță with his seminal work Essai sur les problèmes biospéologiques ("Essay on biospeleological problems”).[ citation needed ]

Subdivisions

Organisms Categories

Cave organisms fall into three basic classes:

Troglobite

Troglobites are obligatory cavernicoles, specialized for cave life. Some can leave caves for short periods, and may complete parts of their life cycles above ground, but cannot live their entire lives outside of a cave environment. Examples include chemotrophic bacteria, some species of flatworms, springtails, and cavefish.

Troglophile

Troglophiles can live part or all of their lives in caves, but can also complete a life cycle in appropriate environments on the surface. Examples include cave crickets, bats, millipedes, pseudoscorpions and spiders.

Trogloxene

Trogloxenes frequent caves, and may require caves for a portion of its life cycle, but must return to the surface (or a parahypogean zone) for at least some portion of its life. Oilbirds and most Daddy longlegs are trogloxenes.

Environmental Categories

Cave environments fall into three general categories:

Endogean

Endogean environments are the parts of caves that are in communication with surface soils through cracks and rock seams, groundwater seepage, and root protrusion.

Parahypogean

Parahypogean environments are the threshold regions near cave mouths that extend to the last penetration of sunlight.

Hypogean

Hypogean or "true" cave environments. These can be in regular contact with the surface via wind and underground rivers, or the migration of animals, or can be almost entirely isolated. Deep hypogean environments can host autonomous ecologies whose primary source of energy is not sunlight, but chemical energy liberated from limestone and other minerals by chemoautotrophic bacteria.

Notable biospeleologists

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cave</span> Natural underground space large enough for a human to enter

A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word cave can refer to smaller openings such as sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos, that extend a relatively short distance into the rock and they are called exogene caves. Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called endogene caves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speleology</span> Science of cave and karst systems

Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their composition, structure, physical properties, history, ecology, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology). The term speleology is also sometimes applied to the recreational activity of exploring caves, but this is more properly known as caving, potholing, or spelunking. Speleology and caving are often connected, as the physical skills required for in situ study are the same.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olm</span> Species of amphibian

The olm or proteus is an aquatic salamander which is the only species in the genus Proteus of the family Proteidae and the only exclusively cave-dwelling chordate species found in Europe; the family's other extant genus is Necturus. In contrast to most amphibians, it is entirely aquatic, eating, sleeping, and breeding underwater. Living in caves found in the Dinaric Alps, it is endemic to the waters that flow underground through the extensive limestone bedrock of the karst of Central and Southeastern Europe in the basin of the Soča River near Trieste, Italy, southwestern Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Introduced populations are found near Vicenza, Italy, and Kranj, Slovenia. It was first mentioned in 1689 by the local naturalist Valvasor in his Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, who reported that, after heavy rains, the olms were washed up from the underground waters and were believed by local people to be a cave dragon's offspring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauna</span> Set of animal species in any particular region and time

Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora, and for fungi, it is funga. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as biota. Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess Shale fauna". Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils. The study of animals of a particular region is called faunistics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emil Racoviță</span> Romanian polar explorer

Emil Gheorghe Racoviță was a Romanian biologist, zoologist, speleologist, and Antarctic explorer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stygofauna</span>

Stygofauna are any fauna that live in groundwater systems or aquifers, such as caves, fissures and vugs. Stygofauna and troglofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna. Both are associated with subterranean environments – stygofauna are associated with water, and troglofauna with caves and spaces above the water table. Stygofauna can live within freshwater aquifers and within the pore spaces of limestone, calcrete or laterite, whilst larger animals can be found in cave waters and wells. Stygofaunal animals, like troglofauna, are divided into three groups based on their life history - stygophiles, stygoxenes, and stygobites.

  1. Stygophiles inhabit both surface and subterranean aquatic environments, but are not necessarily restricted to either.
  2. Stygoxenes are like stygophiles, except they are defined as accidental or occasional presence in subterranean waters. Stygophiles and stygoxenes may live for part of their lives in caves, but don't complete their life cycle in them.
  3. Stygobites are obligate, or strictly subterranean, aquatic animals and complete their entire life in this environment.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Troglofauna</span> Species that lives in caves and similar subterranean environments

Troglofauna are small cave-dwelling animals that have adapted to their dark surroundings. Troglofauna and stygofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna. Both are associated with subterranean environments – troglofauna are associated with caves and spaces above the water table and stygofauna with water. Troglofaunal species include spiders, insects, myriapods and others. Some troglofauna live permanently underground and cannot survive outside the cave environment. Troglofauna adaptations and characteristics include a heightened sense of hearing, touch and smell. Loss of under-used senses is apparent in the lack of pigmentation as well as eyesight in most troglofauna. Troglofauna insects may exhibit a lack of wings and longer appendages.

Cave-dwelling insects are among the most widespread and prominent troglofauna, including troglobites, troglophiles, and trogloxenes. As a category of ecological adaptations, such insects are significant in many senses, ecological, evolutionary, and physiological.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slovenian Museum of Natural History</span>

The Slovenian Museum of Natural History is a Slovenian national museum with natural history, scientific, and educational contents. It is the oldest cultural and scientific Slovenian institution.

<i>Leptodirus</i> Genus of beetles

Leptodirus is a cave beetle in the family Leiodidae. The genus contains only the single species Leptodirus hochenwartii. It is a true troglobite, endemic to Slovenian, Croatian and, partly, Italian caves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French Federation of Speleology</span>

The French Federation of Speleology, is a French organisation that represents all persons practicing or studying caving and canyoning and promotes the study and conservation of caves.

Atanu Kumar Pati is an Indian zoologist, served as the Vice-Chancellor Gangadhar Meher University (GMU), Sambalpur, Odisha from 2017 till 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subterranean fauna</span>

Subterranean fauna refers to animal species that are adapted to live in an underground environment. Troglofauna and stygofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna. Both are associated with hypogeal habitats – troglofauna is associated with terrestrial subterranean environment, and stygofauna with all kind of subterranean waters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Troglomorphism</span>

Troglomorphism is the morphological adaptation of an animal to living in the constant darkness of caves, characterised by features such as loss of pigment, reduced eyesight or blindness, and frequently with attenuated bodies or appendages. The terms troglobitic, stygobitic, stygofauna, troglofauna, and hypogean or hypogeic, are often used for cave-dwelling organisms.

There are a number of terms that are used in connection with caves, caving and speleology. The following is an incomplete list.

Abisso Bonetti is a Karst cave in the municipality of Doberdò del Lago, 1 km (0.62 mi) SE from the small village of Bonetti, near Slovenian border. The cave is one of the most famous cavities in the Gorizia Karst. Anyway, due to its dangerous pit opening, entry is allowed only to expert cavers with the necessary equipment for single-rope descend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferdinand Joseph Schmidt</span>

Ferdinand Joseph Schmidt was an Austro-Hungarian businessman, naturalist and explorer who was among the pioneers of biospeleology, the study of cave fauna.

Niphargellus is a genus of Amphipod crustaceans within the family Niphargidae. The genus contains three known species, which are characterized by the absence of D-setae on the Amphipods mandibular palp. The presence or absence of setae, specifically the D-setae, is a distinguishing feature used to classify organisms within the genus.

An anchialine system is a landlocked body of water with a subterranean connection to the ocean. Depending on its formation, these systems can exist in one of two primary forms: pools or caves. The primary differentiating characteristics between pools and caves is the availability of light; cave systems are generally aphotic while pools are euphotic. The difference in light availability has a large influence on the biology of a given system. Anchialine systems are a feature of coastal aquifers which are density stratified, with water near the surface being fresh or brackish, and saline water intruding from the coast at depth. Depending on the site, it is sometimes possible to access the deeper saline water directly in the anchialine pool, or sometimes it may be accessible by cave diving.

References

  1. Alexander M. Weigand (2013). "New Zospeum species (Gastropoda, Ellobioidea, Carychiidae) from 980 m depth in the Lukina jama–Trojama cave system (Velebit Mts., Croatia)" (PDF). Subterranean Biology. 11: 45–53. doi: 10.3897/subtbiol.11.5966 .
  2. 1 2 Vrezec A. et al. (2007) Monitoring populacij izbranih ciljnih vrst hroščev (končno poročilo) Archived 2017-09-16 at the Wayback Machine (Monitoring of selected populations of target beetle species). Natura 2000 report. (in Slovene)
  3. 1 2 "Narrow-necked" blind cave beetle Archived 2014-01-08 at the Wayback Machine . Slovenian museum of natural history. Accessed 2009-03-16.
  4. "Narrow-necked" blind cave beetle Archived 2014-01-08 at the Wayback Machine . Slovenian museum of natural history. Accessed 2009-03-16. Natura 2000 report. (in Slovene)
  5. Schmidt F. "Beitrag zu Krein's Fauna". Illyrisches Blatt nr. 3, 21 January 1832. Digitized version at the Digital library of Slovenia Archived 2017-09-16 at the Wayback Machine . (in German)
  6. Mader B. (2003). Archduke Ludwig Salvator and Leptodirus hohenwarti from Postonjska jama Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine . Acta carsologica32(2): 290-298.
  7. Polak S. (2005). "Importance of discovery of the first cave beetle Leptodirus hochenwartii Schmidt, 1832." . Endins28 (2005).