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Screening The Cultivable Cave Microbial Mats For The Production Of Antimicrobial Compounds And Antibiotic Resistance, Jerneja Ambrožič Avguštin, Patricia Petrič, Lejla Pašić Dec 2019

Screening The Cultivable Cave Microbial Mats For The Production Of Antimicrobial Compounds And Antibiotic Resistance, Jerneja Ambrožič Avguštin, Patricia Petrič, Lejla Pašić

International Journal of Speleology

The current work extends the phenotypic characterization of a bacterial culture collection obtained from white, yellow, grey or pink microbial cave wall colonies that are common in the caves of Slovenian Karst. We have determined antibiotic resistance to 22 natural and synthetic antibiotics in 69 isolates from the microbial mats. Thirty-eight isolates (52%) were resistant to 1-5 antibiotics; another 27 isolates (37%) were resistant to 6-10 antibiotics; and 7 isolates (0.1%) were resistant to 11-17 antibiotics. We screened for production of antimicrobial compounds by growing cave isolates on five different media and overlaying individual cultures with ten Gram-positive and Gram …


Drivers Of Ant Composition, Richness, And Trophic Guilds In Neotropical Iron Ore Cavities, Rodrigo A. Castro-Souza, Thais G. Pellegrini, Marconi Souza-Silva, Rodrigo L. Ferreira Nov 2019

Drivers Of Ant Composition, Richness, And Trophic Guilds In Neotropical Iron Ore Cavities, Rodrigo A. Castro-Souza, Thais G. Pellegrini, Marconi Souza-Silva, Rodrigo L. Ferreira

International Journal of Speleology

Subterranean habitats may be considered limiting for animal colonization, especially for ants, due to permanent darkness and mainly because of oligotrophic conditions. While not as deep as limestone caves, iron ore caves and other subterranean habitats may be more available for colonization because of their shallower depth. We use the richness and composition of ants to assess how differences in habitat structure affect the biodiversity and ecosystem function between cavities and surrounding epigean landscapes. We predicted that the distribution of ants would be different because of the variation in habitat structure and cavity conditions may act as a filter for …


Are Microclimate Conditions In El Malpais National Monument Caves In New Mexico, Usa Suitable For Pseudogymnoascus Growth?, Terry J. Torres-Cruz, Andrea Porras-Alfaro, Nicole A. Caimi, Ogochukwu Nwabologu, Edward W. Strach, Kaitlyn J.H. Read, Jesse M. Young, Debbie C. Buecher, Diana E. Northup Aug 2019

Are Microclimate Conditions In El Malpais National Monument Caves In New Mexico, Usa Suitable For Pseudogymnoascus Growth?, Terry J. Torres-Cruz, Andrea Porras-Alfaro, Nicole A. Caimi, Ogochukwu Nwabologu, Edward W. Strach, Kaitlyn J.H. Read, Jesse M. Young, Debbie C. Buecher, Diana E. Northup

International Journal of Speleology

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a bat disease caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which thrives in cold and very humid environments where bats frequently hibernate. Conidia of Pseudogymnoascus species are often documented on bats prior to the onset of WNS, but characterization of high-risk areas defined by microclimate cave conditions have been lacking. Investigating the occurrence of this fungal genus and appropriate environmental conditions to support P. destructans in southwestern U.S. caves is key to understanding the sites most likely to be impacted by WNS. Microclimate conditions in ten caves at El Malpais (ELMA) National Monument in New …


The Multifaceted Effects Induced By Floods On The Macroinvertebrate Communities Inhabiting A Sinking Cave Stream, Octavian Pacioglu, Nicoleta Ianovici, Mărioara N. Filimon, Adrian Sinitean, Gabriel Iacob, Henrietta Barabas, Alexandru Pahomi, Andrei Acs, Hanelore Muntean, Lucian Pârvulescu Jul 2019

The Multifaceted Effects Induced By Floods On The Macroinvertebrate Communities Inhabiting A Sinking Cave Stream, Octavian Pacioglu, Nicoleta Ianovici, Mărioara N. Filimon, Adrian Sinitean, Gabriel Iacob, Henrietta Barabas, Alexandru Pahomi, Andrei Acs, Hanelore Muntean, Lucian Pârvulescu

International Journal of Speleology

First-order sinking cave streams experience considerable hydrological variability, including spates and periods of base-flow during dry seasons. Early-summer flooding on a first-order stream sinking in Ciur-Ponor Cave (Romania) represented a suitable opportunity to test the response of the macroinvertebrate community and of basal food resources quantity and diversity to such a disturbance event. The invertebrate community and basal resources (i.e., woody debris, leaves, fine particulate organic matter and epilithon) were collected from three sampling sites, before and after the flood. The sampling strategy followed an up-downstream gradient of both species diversity and quantity of allochtonous organic matter decrease as the …


Species-Area Model Predicting Diversity Loss In An Artificially Flooded Cave In Brazil, Rodrigo L. Ferreira, Thais G. Pellegrini Jul 2019

Species-Area Model Predicting Diversity Loss In An Artificially Flooded Cave In Brazil, Rodrigo L. Ferreira, Thais G. Pellegrini

International Journal of Speleology

Subterranean environments are poorly known regarding many ecological aspects, such as community structure and its response to different disturbances. To estimate the effects of ground area lost in a limestone cave community in Southeastern Brazil, the invertebrate fauna was sampled before 76% of the cave floor was submerged by the filling of a hydroeletric power plant reservoir. Then, a 2-year monitoring was conducted. A species-area curve based on empiric data was constructed and the z-value of the species-area equation was calculated, what allowed estimating the expected cave richness after flooding comparing with data obtained during the monitoring. The results support …


Culture-Based Analysis Of ‘Cave Silver’ Biofilms On Rocks In The Former Homestake Mine In South Dakota, Usa, Amanpreet K. Brar, David Bergmann Jun 2019

Culture-Based Analysis Of ‘Cave Silver’ Biofilms On Rocks In The Former Homestake Mine In South Dakota, Usa, Amanpreet K. Brar, David Bergmann

International Journal of Speleology

Tunnels in a warm, humid area of the 1478 m level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), located in a former gold mine in South Dakota, USA, host irregular, thin whitish, iridescent biofilms, which appear superficially similar to ‘cave silver’ biofilms described from limestone and lava tube caves, despite the higher rock temperature (32°C) and differing rock surface (phyllite) present at SURF. In this study, we investigated the diversity of cultivable bacteria constituting the cave silver by using several media: CN agar, CN gellan gum and 0.1X R2A agar. The highest colony count (CFU/g of sample) was observed on …


Comparison Of Some Epigean And Troglobiotic Animals Regarding Their Metabolism Intensity. Examination Of A Classical Assertion, Tatjana Simčič, Boris Sket May 2019

Comparison Of Some Epigean And Troglobiotic Animals Regarding Their Metabolism Intensity. Examination Of A Classical Assertion, Tatjana Simčič, Boris Sket

International Journal of Speleology

This study determines oxygen consumption (R), electron transport system (ETS) activity and R/ETS ratio in two pairs of epigean and hypogean crustacean species or subspecies. To date, metabolic characteristics among the phylogenetic distant epigean and hypogean species (i.e., species of different genera) or the epigean and hypogean populations of the same species have been studied due to little opportunity to compare closely related epigean and hypogean species. To fill this gap, we studied the epigean Niphargus zagrebensis and its troglobiotic relative Niphargus stygius, and the epigean subspecies Asellus aquaticus carniolicus in comparison to the troglobiotic subspecies Asellus aquaticus cavernicolus …


Cyanobacterial And Algal Abundance And Biomass In Cave Biofilms And Relation To Environmental And Biofilm Parameters, Slađana Popović, Nataša Nikolić, Jelena Jovanović, Dragana Predojević, Ivana Trbojević, Ljiljana Manić, Gordana Subakov Simić Feb 2019

Cyanobacterial And Algal Abundance And Biomass In Cave Biofilms And Relation To Environmental And Biofilm Parameters, Slađana Popović, Nataša Nikolić, Jelena Jovanović, Dragana Predojević, Ivana Trbojević, Ljiljana Manić, Gordana Subakov Simić

International Journal of Speleology

Due to life in extreme environments, cyanobacteria and algae from cave biofilms that form at the entrances or deep inside the cave around artificial lights are of increasing interest to many scientists. It is well-known that many phototrophic microorganisms are first to colonize exposed substrata and produce the organic matter on which other biofilm constituents relly. Many studies dealing with phototrophic microorganisms from biofilms focus on the diversity and community composition of cyanobacteria and algae, while quantitative assessments are rarely implemented. Biofilm sampling was conducted in Degurić and Vernjikica Cave located in Western and Eastern Serbia, respectively. Ecological parameters (temperature, …


Fifty Years Of Cave Arthropod Sampling: Techniques And Best Practices, J. Judson Wynne, Francis G. Howarth, Stefan Sommer, Brett G. Dickson Feb 2019

Fifty Years Of Cave Arthropod Sampling: Techniques And Best Practices, J. Judson Wynne, Francis G. Howarth, Stefan Sommer, Brett G. Dickson

International Journal of Speleology

Ever-increasing human pressures on cave biodiversity have amplified the need for systematic, repeatable, and intensive surveys of cave-dwelling arthropods to formulate evidence-based management decisions. We examined 110 papers (from 1967 to 2018) to: (i) understand how cave-dwelling invertebrates have been sampled; (ii) provide a summary of techniques most commonly applied and appropriateness of these techniques, and; (iii) make recommendations for sampling design improvement. Of the studies reviewed, over half (56) were biological inventories, 43 ecologically focused, seven were techniques papers, and four were conservation studies. Nearly one-half (48) of the papers applied systematic techniques. Few papers (24) provided enough information …