What’s the temperature in tropical caves?

Mejía-Ortíz, Luis M.; Christman, Mary C.; Pipan, Tanja; Culver, David C.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0237051

Cited by 14 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The retractions of forests in drier periods may have been responsible for the isolation of several lineages highly dependent on the humidity inside caves (Gnaspini, 1997). Deep subterranean habitats are characterized by pronounced environmental stability and thermal inertia -including tropical caves, although the climatic stability is seemingly less pronounced (Mejía-Ortíz et al, 2021). Subterranean habitats may thus have acted as 'climatic refuges' (Ledesma et al, 2020;Mammola, Piano, et al, 2019) for the survival and diversification of subterranean-adapted species.…”

Section: Brazilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global distribution of microwhip scorpions (Arachnida: Palpigradi)

Mammola

Souza

Isaia

et al. 2021

Journal of Biogeography

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Section: Brazilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global distribution of microwhip scorpions (Arachnida: Palpigradi)

Mammola

Souza

Isaia

et al. 2021

Journal of Biogeography

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“…Even among the regions there are important differences in the diversity not only in the composition of genus or families, too in the number of species and in the specimens registered, by example due that the regions are big land extension is few possible that only one or two specimens were registered, is we check the numbers of index as Chao's or Burman & Overton the diversity estimated increase few because the taxa included in the analysis had a good representation in the area, someone are cosmopolitans in the same region. By another aspect is the subterranean environments that in first instance was classified in dry, semi-dry, freshwater flooded, and anchialine caves as has been reported in several opportunities [36], but in recently studies has been reported that even in the tropical dry caves there are some different according with the temperature and humidity that produce a major heterogeneity because these features are changing in relation with outside [37,38], and in semi-dry caves these features have a relation with the oxygen inputs in the subterranean aquatic habitats. In the Anchialine caves the size of freshwater lenses are the main changes to energy entrance and the environmental stability [28].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical Subterranean Ecosystems in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize: A Review of Aquatic Biodiversity and Their Ecological Aspects

Mejía-Ortíz¹,

Sprouse²,

Tejeda-Mazariegos³

et al. 2021

Natural History and Ecology of Mexico and Central America

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The subterranean ecosystems in tropical areas of Mexico, North of Guatemala & Belize are very abundant because the karstic soil that allow these formations are the main composition in the Yucatán Peninsula and several mountains systems in these countries; also, they have a strong relationship with tropical forest adjacent where the main energy into the caves have an alloctonous origin. In these three countries there are three different cave conditions: a) freshwater semi-dry caves, b) flooded freshwater systems and c) anchialine systems. Mainly crustaceans and freshwater fishes are the major representative group in the aquatic diversity in these systems because the anchialine members are restricted to Yucatán Peninsula and Islands adjacent. Around 5000 entries to subterranean world there are among these countries, where the Yucatan Peninsula is the area with major caves or cenotes in comparison with southern of Mexico, North of Guatemala and Belize. Into these systems are possible found crustaceans and fishes from different families. The objective of this paper is present a review of these systems according with each karstic areas and show the current map including the location of each systems; as well their subterranean aquatic biodiversity and, finally discuss the relationships among these different areas using their biological aquatic richness in consideration with ecological subterranean conditions.

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“…The open source base maps are from INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia). From: Mejía-Ortíz et al [ 15 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Relative humidity (along with temperature, see Mejía-Ortíz et al [ 15 , 28 ]) was measured at hourly intervals for the following dates:…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a previous study [ 15 ], we analyzed both spatial and temporal variation in temperature in three caves in Quintana Roo, Mexico, and found a remarkable amount of cyclical variation (both daily and annual) in temperature, both in photic and aphotic zones. The daily signal in some aphotic sites was extremely weak, but the annual cycle had an amplitude of at least 2° C. Cropley [ 16 ] reported a minimum of 4° C variation in sites 1800 m from the entrance in two large cave systems in West Virginia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What’s the relative humidity in tropical caves?

et al. 2021

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Relative humidity (RH) was measured at hourly intervals for approximately one year in two caves at seven stations near Playa del Carmen in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Sistema Muévelo Rico is a 1.1 km long cave with 12 entrances and almost no dark zone. Río Secreto (Tuch) is a large river cave with more than 40 km of passages, and an extensive dark zone. Given the need for cave specialists to adapt to saturated humidity, presumably by cuticular thinning, the major stress of RH would be its deviation from saturation. RH in Río Secreto (Tuch) was invariant at three sites and displayed short deviations from 100% RH at the other four sites. These deviations were concentrated at the end of the nortes and beginning of the rainy season. Three of the sites in Sistema Muévelo Rico showed a similar pattern although the timing of the deviations from 100% RH was somewhat displaced. Four sites in Sistema Muévelo Rico were more variable, and were analyzed using a measure of amount of time of deviation from 100% RH for each 24 hour period. Strong seasonality was evident but, remarkably, periods of constant high humidity were not the same at all sites. In most Sistema Muévelo Rico sites, there was a detectable 24 hour cycle in RH, although it was quite weak in about half of them. For Río Secreto (Tuch) only one site showed any sign of a 24 hour cycle. The troglomorphic fauna was more or less uniformly spread throughout the caves and did not concentrate in any one area or set of RH conditions. Compared to temperature, RH is much more constant, perhaps even more constant than the amount of light. However, changes in RH as a result of global warming may have a major negative effect on the subterranean fauna.

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What’s the temperature in tropical caves?

Cited by 14 publications

References 28 publications

Global distribution of microwhip scorpions (Arachnida: Palpigradi)

Global distribution of microwhip scorpions (Arachnida: Palpigradi)

Tropical Subterranean Ecosystems in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize: A Review of Aquatic Biodiversity and Their Ecological Aspects

What’s the relative humidity in tropical caves?

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