Biodiversity in Subterranean Habitats

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2024) | Viewed by 3043

Special Issue Editor

Department of Bioinformatics, Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, 296 Independenței Bd., District 6, 060031 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: freshwater ecology; cave biology and hyporheic zone; food webs; invasive species
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is focused on the biodiversity of subterranean habitats. We are opening this Special Issue because whilst the habitats around us, fueled mostly by photosynthesis, currently comprise the focus of most biodiversity studies, the knowledge of the world beneath our feet lags behind. Most studies are still focused on the traditional description of taxa, given that new species are discovered and described frequently from subterranean habitats worldwide. The types of subterranean habitats are very diverse, both terrestrial and aquatic. The former comprise the soil, the Milieu Souterrain Superficiel, as well as dry caves. The latter comprise the hyporheic zone beneath streams and rivers, aquifers, cave streams and other aquatic habitats.

In this Special Issue we welcome the submission of manuscripts tackling various types of organisms, from bacteria and fungi to salamanders and bats. We encourage studies that have a main focus on the ecological relationships of taxa with environmental parameters, about the biology of species, as well as biogeographic studies. If the manuscript has a strong focus on taxonomy, it should be extended beyond simple taxonomic description of new species and embedded within a higher framework, such as the ecology of the group of study and/or molecular phylogeny and biogeography.

Dr. Octavian Pacioglu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • subterranean habitats
  • cave fauna
  • groundwater and hyporheic
  • milieu souterrain superficiel
  • soil biology
  • troglobites, troglophiles
  • stygofauna, stygophiles

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 23563 KiB  
Article
Paleoclimatic Reconstruction Based on the Late Pleistocene San Josecito Cave Stratum 720 Fauna Using Fossil Mammals, Reptiles, and Birds
by J. Alberto Cruz, Julián A. Velasco, Joaquín Arroyo-Cabrales and Eileen Johnson
Diversity 2023, 15(7), 881; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15070881 - 24 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2347
Abstract
Advances in technology have equipped paleobiologists with new analytical tools to assess the fossil record. The functional traits of vertebrates have been used to infer paleoenvironmental conditions. In Quaternary deposits, birds are the second-most-studied group after mammals. They are considered a poor paleoambiental [...] Read more.
Advances in technology have equipped paleobiologists with new analytical tools to assess the fossil record. The functional traits of vertebrates have been used to infer paleoenvironmental conditions. In Quaternary deposits, birds are the second-most-studied group after mammals. They are considered a poor paleoambiental proxy because their high vagility and phenotypic plasticity allow them to respond more effectively to climate change. Investigating multiple groups is important, but it is not often attempted. Biogeographical and climatic niche information concerning small mammals, reptiles, and birds have been used to infer the paleoclimatic conditions present during the Late Pleistocene at San Josecito Cave (~28,000 14C years BP), Mexico. Warmer and dryer conditions are inferred with respect to the present. The use of all of the groups of small vertebrates is recommended because they represent an assemblage of species that have gone through a series of environmental filters in the past. Individually, different vertebrate groups provide different paleoclimatic information. Birds are a good proxy for inferring paleoprecipitation but not paleotemperature. Together, reptiles and small mammals are a good proxy for inferring paleoprecipitation and paleotemperature, but reptiles alone are a bad proxy, and mammals alone are a good proxy for inferring paleotemperature and precipitation. The current paleoclimatic results coupled with those of a previous vegetation structure analysis indicate the presence of non-analog paleoenvironmental conditions during the Late Pleistocene in the San Josecito Cave area. This situation would explain the presence of a disharmonious fauna and the extinction of several taxa when these conditions later disappeared and do not reappear again. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity in Subterranean Habitats)
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