Predicting the Occurrence of Cave-Inhabiting Fauna Based on Features of the Earth Surface Environment.

ABSTRACT: One of the most challenging fauna to study in situ is the obligate cave fauna because of the difficulty of sampling. Cave-limited species display patchy and restricted distributions, but it is often unclear whether the observed distribution is a sampling artifact or a true restriction in range. Further, the drivers of the distribution could be local environmental conditions, such as cave humidity, or they could be associated with surface features that are surrogates for cave conditions. If surface features can be used to predict the distribution of important cave taxa, then conservation management is more easily obtained. We examined the hypothesis that the presence of major faunal groups of cave obligate species could be predicted based on features of the earth surface. Georeferenced reco

SUBMITTER: Christman MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4988700 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature