Cave Communities: From the Surface Border to the Deep Darkness

Lunghi, Enrico; Manenti, Raoul

doi:10.3390/d12050167

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…However, the concluding remark deals with the difficulty that exists in understanding communitylevel changes and threats, because little information exists on groundwaters communities. Studies on stygofauna are often focused on single specialized taxa [86] and rarely consider the role of epigean species entering groundwaters [17]. Paucity of information makes it difficult to compare pre-and post-pollution conditions and know which were the community pre-disturbance features.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation Studies on Groundwaters’ Pollution: Challenges and Perspectives for Stygofauna Communities

et al. 2021

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Assessing the effects of pollution in groundwaters is recently considered among the most relevant aims for subterranean biology; with this perspective, we aim to provide examples of the most relevant effects that pollution may cause on stygofauna community and underline patterns deserving further investigations. We retrieved different cases in which pollution caused alteration of groundwater trophic webs, favored invasions by epigean mesopredators, damaged stygobiont keystone species, and promoted interspecific competition between stygobionts and epigean animals. The results and the remarks derived from our perspective review underline that pollution may play multifaceted effects on groundwaters communities, and the paucity of information that exists on community-level changes and threats underlines the necessity for further studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation Studies on Groundwaters’ Pollution: Challenges and Perspectives for Stygofauna Communities

et al. 2021

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“…small cracks and interstices, gravel, sand, clay) and organic resources (e.g. trunks, leaves, fine vegetable debris, roots, guano and carcasses) (Lunghi et al, 2017;Lunghi and Manenti, 2020). However, caves are unique environments with fragile fauna, being highly vulnerable to the impacts caused by human actions (Souza-Silva et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scarabs in the dark: occurrence of Scarabaeoidea beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) in Brazilian caves

Correa

Rabelo

Audino

et al. 2022

Rev. Bras. entomol.

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Scarabeoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera) present more than 2000 species recorded from all over Brazil. They have been scarcely recorded from caves, and truly troglobitic species are yet to be found in the country. In this study, we carried out a review of all existing scarab beetles deposited until 2017 in the Coleção de Invertebrados Subterrâneos de Lavras (ISLA), at the Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA) (Minas Gerais, Brazil), one of the most important collections of subterranean invertebrates in South America. Ninety-two individuals belonging to 52 species were recorded, distributed in six families (Cetoniidae, Hybosoridae, Melolonthidae, Passalidae, Scarabaeidae and Trogidae). Scarabaeidae was the most diverse of them, representing more than 50% of the total of species recorded. We found Scarabeoidea beetles in 51 of the ~ 1600 caves examined, distributed in nine Brazilian states: Alagoas,

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“…As such, they display unique morphological adaptations (troglomorphy), such as appendage elongation, visual organ reduction, and pigmentation loss (Mammola 2019). In addition, they also commonly have a low metabolic rate, small population sizes, and are highly sensitive to environmental disturbance (Howarth and Moldovan 2018;Lunghi and Manenti 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stygobiotic isopod Stenasellus sp. in Sarongge Jompong cave, Tasikmalaya karst area, Indonesia

Kurniawan

Rahmadi²,

Akbar³

et al. 2022

Biodiversitas

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Abstract. Kurniawan ID, Rahmadi C, Akbar RTM, Prakarsa TBP. 2022. Stygobiotic isopod Stenasellus sp. in Sarongge Jompong cave, Tasikmalaya karst area, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 23: 1495-1504. Stenasellus, a stygobiotic isopod, was first reported in Tasikmalaya karst by local cavers in 2018 in Sarongge Jompong Cave. This study aimed to investigate the population, activities, and habitat characteristics of Stenasellus sp. in Sarongge Jompong, Tasikmalaya karst area, Indonesia. Population and activities were recorded through direct intuitive search. We measured several important physicochemical parameters to study habitat characteristics. Statistical analyses-namely Non-metric Multi-dimensional Scaling and Detrended Correspondence Analysis-were conducted to understand the difference in water characteristics among microhabitats and the relation between water characteristics and population size. The results showed that the population was distributed in 4 microhabitats with the maximum observed individuals of 8. Several activities were successfully monitored, including crawling, resting, hiding in crevices, and moving to different locations through the water. All microhabitats were wet gours connected to small water currents located in the dark zone of the cave passage. Water characteristics of microhabitat site 1 were more similar to site 2 and the numbers of individuals in these sites were larger than sites 3 and 4. Among water parameters, resistivity showed the most robust relation with Stenasellus population in which both variables were positively correlated. This correlation indicated that Stenasellus sp. preferred microhabitats with less contamination. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors may potentially threaten the population. The potential threats and conservation challenges need to be identified and mitigated to reduce the risk of biodiversity loss to these isopods, mainly due to their small population size, specific microhabitat, and susceptibility to disturbance. Considering these factors, research on taxonomy will be essential for conservation efforts.

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Cave Communities: From the Surface Border to the Deep Darkness

Cited by 8 publications

References 62 publications

Conservation Studies on Groundwaters’ Pollution: Challenges and Perspectives for Stygofauna Communities

Conservation Studies on Groundwaters’ Pollution: Challenges and Perspectives for Stygofauna Communities

Scarabs in the dark: occurrence of Scarabaeoidea beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) in Brazilian caves

Stygobiotic isopod Stenasellus sp. in Sarongge Jompong cave, Tasikmalaya karst area, Indonesia

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