Abstract
Terrestrial communities of cave-adapted invertebrates are found where surface organic material is deposited: cave entrances, upper-level terminal breakdowns, upper-level vertical shafts, cave stream banks, and cave base-level rivers. The high diversity of cave-adapted species in the Mammoth Cave region is partly due to the variety of food inputs from the surface. Surface organic material is imported into caves passively via gravity, water, or wind, or actively through transport by organisms that use caves for shelter or live inside them most of their lives. Though many organisms defecate inside cave entrances, both feces and eggs deposited by cave crickets (Hadenoecus subterraneus) support the most diverse communities of cave invertebrates in the region. H. subterraneus, relative to the two species of surface crickets with which it shares cave entrances, is long lived and feeds on the surface throughout the year. Scientific studies have partially revealed the life histories of many invertebrates supported by H. subterraneus, but there are many aspects that remain to be discovered.
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Research Resulting in Unpublished Theses and Dissertations
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Poulson, T.L. (2017). Terrestrial Cave Ecology of the Mammoth Cave Region. In: Hobbs III, H., Olson, R., Winkler, E., Culver, D. (eds) Mammoth Cave. Cave and Karst Systems of the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53718-4_13
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