Disturbance of underground wilderness in karst caves

Weak impact of tourism activities on biodiversity in a subterranean hotspot of endemism and its implications for the conservation of cave fauna

“…Changes made to the cave environment in this respect are usually assumed to be detrimental to the troglobitic organisms (e.g. Gamble, ; Culver & Sket, ), but few studies have provided support for this statement. Conversely, there are reasons to suspect that they have little effect on the fauna of karst voids.…”

“…Caves are often considered to be fragile ecosystems (Gamble, ; Krajick, ; Culver & Pipan, ) and the need to evaluate the potential impact on subterranean fauna before opening caves for touristic purposes is indisputable, given the sensitivity of troglobites to disturbance. Nevertheless, beyond the individual fragility of cave organisms, due to their extreme biological adaptations and narrow distributions, some caves are clearly ecologically robust and resilient, such as La Verna, whereas others, especially the smallest ones where bat populations provide most of the resources for cave invertebrates, may be much more fragile.…”

Cave Management

“…We have all been guilty, at some time in our caving careers, of wittingly or unwittingly causing some degradation to a particular cave. Specific types of wilderness cave impacts are described by Gamble (1981) and Kiernan (1989). Stitt (1977) has outlined the range of internal and external impacts on caves, while Everson et a1.…”