Cave Communities: From the Surface Border to the Deep Darkness

• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2023
• Subjects: abundance; accidental cave visitors; amino acids; Arachnida; Araneae; arid; Astyanax; Astyanax mexicanus; behavior; biodiversity; biogeography; bioindicator; Biology, life sciences; biospeleology; Brazil; cave biology; cave community; cave evolution; cavefish; cenote; cenotes; chondroitin; classification trees; community dynamics; comparative biology; conservation; Copepoda; cybernetics; Diptera; dissolved oxygen; distribution records; ecology; environmental science; epikarst; evolution; extreme environment; fieldwork; food resources; geometric morphometrics; groundwater; growth; hypogean; infrared movies; invertebrates; levant; Limonia; Limonia nubeculosa; Mathematics and Science; Mediterranean; mitochondrial marker; movements; mysid; Neolimonia; niche; occupancy; olfactory test; origin of troglobites; Ostracoda; plasticity; population ecology; prey; random forests; Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects; Research and information: general; Sierra de El Abra; species diversity; Spelaeomysis; Speocirolana; stygobiont; stygobite; subterranean biology; subterranean fishes; subterranean habitats; São Domingos karst area; Toro cave; Trichoceridea; troglobite; Troglomexicanus; troglomorphism; troglomorphy; troglophile; trogloxene; underwater caves; vertebrates; wild fish; Yucatán Peninsula; Zoology and animal sciences
• ISBN: 9783036597522; 3036597522; 9783036597539; 3036597530
• DOI: 10.3390/books978-3-0365-9753-9

From a biological perspective, the subterranean realm is one of the less studied, but at the same time, one of the most promising, theatres for new findings and research. Compared to those on the surface, the ecological conditions occurring in subterranean habitats are relatively simple, and this may be an optimal scenario for understanding the mechanisms allowing the colonization, adaptation, and evolution of species, as well as their interactions within local communities. Diversity in subterranean habitats is often overlooked, and few studies embrace whole communities or try to assess functional relationships between species. This Special Issue reprint comprises papers covering a wide range of aspects related to the distribution, composition, and roles of subterranean communities occurring in different typologies of subterranean habitats.