Shallow Subterranean Habitats: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation

by David C. Culver, Tanja Pipan

Overview

Shallow subterranean habitats (SSHs) are areas of habitable space that are less than 10 m in depth from the surface. These range from large areas such as shallow caves and lava tubes, to tiny areas such as cracks in ceilings, or spaces in soil. Whilst being very different in many ways, they are often bound together by shared characteristics of the habitats and their faunas, and their study can help us to understand subterranean habitats in general. This book concentrates on the more typical SSHs of intermediate size (seepage springs, spaces between rocks, cracks in lava etc.), describing the habitats, their fauna, and the ecological and evolutionary questions posed. Similarities and differences between the habitats are considered and discussed in a broader ecological and evolutionary context. The book is mainly aimed at students and researchers in the field of subterranean biology, but will also be of interest to a wider range of ecologists, evolutionary biologists, freshwater biologists, and conservationists. There will also be an audience of environmental professionals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199646173
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/12/2014
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	9.70(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

David C. Culver, Professor, Department of Environmental Science, American University, Washington,Tanja Pipan, Research Advisor, Karst Research Institute ZRC-SAZU, Postojna, Slovenia

David C. Culver received his Ph.D. in 1970 in Biology from Yale University. He is currently Professor of Biology at American University in Washington, DC, with broad research interests in subterranean biology, especially biodiversity, biogeography, and ecosystem function. He has active research projects on U.S. subterranean biodiversity databases, spatial statistical patterns of obligate subterranean animals, the obligate subterranean animals in seeps in the Washington, DC area and Slovenia, diversity and biogeography of epikarst invertebrates in the Appalachians and Slovenia, organic carbon flux in caves, large scale subterranean biodiversity patterns, and regional scale subterranean biodiversity patterns and protection in West Virginia. Culver is Comptroller of the Karst Waters Institute, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an Honorary Life Member of the National Speleological Society.

Tanja Pipan received her Ph.D. in 2003 in Biology from University of Ljubljana. She is currently Research Advisor at the Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU and Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia, with research interests in the ecology, biology, and systematics of the subterranean copepod fauna, especially in the epikarst. Pipan is country coordinator for the Slovenian Long Term Ecological Research program. She received the grant for the most significant young researcher from ZRC SAZU for scientific work in 2003, the 2004 award from the International Society for Subterranean Biology for best presentation at the meeting in Raipur, India and an award in 2005 for best paper at the International Association of Hydrogeology meeting in Kotar, Montenegro. She is biology editor of the International Journal of Speleology.

Table of Contents

1. The shallow subterranean domain2. Seepage springs and the hypotelminorheic habitat3. Epikarst: the soil-rock interface in karst4. Intermediate-sized terrestrial shallow subterranean habitats5. Calcrete aquifers6. Interstitial habitats along rivers and streams7. Soil8. Lava tubes9. The role of light in shallow subterranean habitats10. Environmental fluctuations and stresses in shallow subterranean habitats11. Organic carbon and nutrients in shallow subterranean habitats12. Evolution of morphology in shallow subterranean habitats13. Colonization and dispersal in shallow subterranean habitats14. Phylogeny in shallow subterranean habitats15. Conservation and protection of shallow subterranean habitats16. Epilogue and prospects

Editorial Reviews

"Shallow Subterranean Habitats is a well-researched and well-written book that offers a wealth of information about a relatively poorly known ecological domain. Although this text is primarily aimed at graduate students and researchers studying subterranean environments, much of the material presented will be largely accessible to non-specialists who may also have an interest in the ecology or geology of underground environments." —SS News

Featured in Ecology.

"This book is strongly recommended to anybody, especially biologists and ecologists, dealing with any point of the aquatic or terrestrial habitats, rocks and soils down to the depth of 10 m." —ACTA CARSOLOGICA

"[W]ell-written and very professional. ... This book will best serve professionals and advanced students with some background in biospeleology." —Journal of Cave and Karst Studies

"This book will surely captivate people interested in saving biodiversity." —Conservation Biology

"Pioneering is uncommon in any area of contemporary science, and that has skillfully been completed by Culver and Pipan's book. They harmoniously succeed in a thorough presentation in never-overwhelming details of the Shallow Subterraneous Habitats... This is a fine, illustrated work that offers a broad perspective about a vast new world, the fascinating SSH, never treated as exclusively as deserved, and as they were in this excellent book, entirely dedicated to them." —The Quarterly Review of Biology

From the Publisher