Sulfur and oxygen isotopes were employed to identify SO42- sources in surface water and groundwater in the Babu subterranean river basin (BSRB). Our study revealed SO42- enrichment in the BSRB waters compared with adjacent areas. The SO42- in some samples originated mainly from precipitation; in others, it was derived mainly from sulfide dissolution in coal seams or from gypsum dissolution. In ...

EDITORIAL article Front. Environ. Sci., 08 September 2022Sec. Biogeochemical Dynamics https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.988723

The prevailing paradigm in subterranean ecology is that below-ground food webs are simple, limited to one or two trophic levels, and composed of generalist species because of spatio-temporally patchy food resources and pervasive energy limitation. This paradigm is based on relatively few studies of easily accessible, air-filled caves. However, in some subterranean ecosystems, chemolithoautotrop...

The goal of this study was to test whether the breeding system and/or the degree of inbreeding of field colonies of the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus, Shiraki (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) influences bacterial load on the cuticle of foraging workers. We enumerated bacterial load on the cuticle of groups of workers foraging in 20 inground monitoring stations surrounding the...

The subterranean environment of Christmas Island is diverse and includes freshwater, marine, anchialine, and terrestrial habitats. The cave fauna comprises swiftlets, and a diverse assemblage of invertebrates, both terrestrial and aquatic, which includes a number of rare and endemic species of high conservation significance. At least twelve species are probably restricted to subterranean habita...