Cave conservation

Abstract: In light of recent alarming trends in human population growth, climate change, and other environmental modifications, a “Warning to humanity” manifesto was published in BioScience in 2017. This call reiterated most of the ideas originally expressed by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 1992, including the fear that we are “pushing Earth's ecosystems beyond their capacities to support the web of life.” As subterranean biologists, we take this opportunity to emphasize the global importance and the conservation challenges associated with subterranean ecosystems. They likely represent the most widespread nonmarine environments on Earth, but specialized subterranean organisms remain among the least documented and studied. Largely overlooked in conservation policies, subterranean habitats play a critical role in the function of the web of life and provide important ecosystem services. We highlight the main threats to subterranean ecosystems and propose a set of effective actions to protect this globally important natural heritage.

Abstract: Preface and Acknowledgements. List of Figures. List of Plates. List of Tables. 1. The Cave System and Karst. 2. Cave Hydrology. 3. Processes of Cave Development. 4. Cave Formations. 5. Cave Sediments. 6. Dating Cave Deposits. 7. Cave Deposits and Past Climates. 8. Cave Ecology. 9. Cave Management. 10. Catchment Management in Karst. References. Further Reading. Glossary. Index.

Abstract: NO wonder that timid wanderers, peering into the dark mysterious depths of some abyss, should in their awe have peopled them with gnomes and goblins, or fancied themselves at the portals of another world. Well might poetic fancy, stirred by the thousand flashes thrown back from the spar-spangled walls of some vast cave, have called up fairy forms to give life to the beautiful stillness of the scene. Less weird and less poetic, but not less interesting, are the associations gathered by history and tradition around caves. We hear of rude tribes who habitually lived in rocky fastnesses occupying the caves for shelter and protection; and even when these were not used as permanent dwellings, we learn that in troublous times many a clan, family, or individual have had to leave their comfortable homes and betake themselves to the caves and hoies of the rocks. We might well expect, therefore, that in the earliest age, when uncultured man fought for the richest hunting-ground, or struggled with nature for bare subsistence, the caves and rock-shelters should often have been his home.Cave Hunting. Researches on the Evidence of Caves respecting the Early Inhabitants of Europe.By W. Boyd Dawkins, &c. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1874.)