Caves and Cave Life. Philip Chapman

      

       The New Naturalist Library

      A SURVEY OF BRITISH NATURAL HISTORY

      CAVES AND CAVE LIFE

       Editors

      Max Walters, ScD, VMH

      Professor Richard West, ScD, FRS

      David Streeter, FIBiol

      Sarah A. Corbet

      Derek Ratcliffe

      The aim of this series is to interest the general reader in the wildlife of Britain by recapturing the enquiring spirit of the old naturalists. The editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native flora and fauna, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research.

      A cave spider Porhomma convexum stalks across the floor of GB Cave on Mendip. Above it, a fungus gnat Speolepta leptogaster hangs in a spreading fungal mycelium. (Philip Chapman)

Copyright

      William Collins

       An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com

      This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2018

      © Philip Chapman Philip Chapman asserts his moral rights to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

       All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this eBook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN 9780007308545

      Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2019 ISBN: 9780007403974

      Version: 2019-01-09

Dedication

      Dedicated to the memory of

      Dr G.T. ‘Jeff’ Jefferson

      a dear colleague and friend

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Editors’ Preface

1. The Fascination of Caves

The lure of caves

The sporting science

Underground naturalists

       2. The Cave Habitat

       What is a cave?

       What lives in caves?

       Caves in Limestone

       Types of cave habitat

       Food supply

       Microclimate

       3. Limestone Caves in Britain and Ireland

       Karst: the landscape of caves

       Caves in Britain and Ireland

       Mendip

       Pennines

       South Wales

       Derbyshire’s Peak District

       Sligo-Fermanagh

       Clare

       Other areas

       4. Cave Fauna and Flora

       The origin and classification of cavernicoles

       Life on the threshold

       A place of shelter

       Waifs and strays

       Denizens of darkness

       Submariners

       5. Cave Communities

       The wall association

       Terrestrial mud bank community

       ‘Batellites’

       Pool surface associations

       Freshwater stream communities

       6. Caves Through the Pleistocene

       The age of ice

       Pleistocene survivors and recent colonists

       Troglodytes

       7. The Future of Caves

       Cave conservation and the caver

       External threats to caves, groundwater pollution and public safety

       Impact of human activity on cave faunas

       Conservation of cave-roosting bats

       Limestone quarrying

       Acid rain, caves and flue gas desulphurization