Most Popular Papers *
Pitfalls of multiplied 3D landforms projection: mapping deep multilevel cave systems in the Alps (Gamssteig Cave System, Göll Massif)
Mateusz Golicz and Jacek Szczygieł
- Complex ceilings, floors, and pits require flexible mapping strategies
- LiDAR yields precise 3D data but not inherently readable maps
- Cartographic generalization remains essential for communicative cave maps
- Traditional mapping remains crucial in extensive multi-kilometer systems
Monitoring strategies in cave microclimate studies
Nenad Buzjak, Dalibor Paar, Aurel Persoiu, Christos Pennos, Franci Gabrovšek, and Valerija Rossi
- Cave microclimates are spatially and temporally heterogeneous, not thermally uniform
- Cave climate, microclimate, and meteorology are formally defined and linked
- Monitoring strategies must distinguish temporal resolution from spatial design
- Vertical microclimate structure requires three-dimensional monitoring designs
- Hybrid monitoring integrates spot surveys with long-term continuous records
Exceptional variety of baryte-celestine-series speleothems in Lechuguilla Cave (New Mexico, USA)
Max Wisshak, Johannes Birkenstock, Andrea Schröder-Ritzrau, Norbert Frank, Hazel A. Barton, and Harvey R. DuChene
- Lechuguilla Cave features an exceptional variety of baryte and celestine speleothems
- Baryte and Celestine also occur in hydrothermal veins predating the cave
- Baryte speleothems are composed of pure baryte
- Celestine is the major component of the most diverse mineral assemblages in the cave
- Radiometric dating constrains the age of formation to Middle Pleistocene to Holocene
Response of Botovskaya Cave to local and regional environmental dynamics
Jade Margerum, Oksana Gutareva, Franziska Lechleitner, Maria Box, Stuart Umbo, Anton Vaks, Hanno Meyer, Aleksandr Kononov, Aleksander Osintsev, Dimitri Sokol'nikov, Norbert Marwan, Ola Kwiecien, and Sebastian Breitenbach
- Fifteen year surface and cave temperature and 6-month pCO2 monitoring
- Botovskaya Cave shows ventilation in spring and autumn and stagnation in winter and summer
- Dripwater isotopes reflect precipitation and are not affected by secondary evaporation
- Dripwater δ18O declines with distance from the entrances
- Stalagmite δ18O from different parts of the cave might reflect different degrees of seasonal bias
The dissolution and conversion of gypsum and anhydrite
Alexander Klimchouk
Why the delay in recognizing terrestrial obligate cave species in the tropics?
Francis G. Howarth
- Several factors explain why the discovery of tropical troglobionts was delayed
- Temperature and humidity are major factors in defining troglobiont distribution
- Troglobionts evolve by an adaptive shift across a cave/surface ecotonal boundary
- Subterranean species and ecosystems are vulnerable and threatened by novel stressors
- Research in tropical caves has expanded our understanding of evolutionary ecology of cave life
SpeleoCO: an open, low-cost Arduino CO₂ datalogger for cave microclimate monitoring
Christos Pennos and Dimitrios Christaras
- Development of an open-source, low-cost datalogger
- Rugged design for extreme environments
- Successful long-term field validation
- Support for multi-parameter research
Geochemistry of crusts in palaeontological deposits, taphonomic settings in an Upper Pleistocene cave site (San Teodoro, Sicily)
Gerlando Vita, Luca Sineo, Francesco Armetta, and Maria Luisa Saladino
- Two mineral crusts were discovered in San Teodoro Cave (Sicily)
- The oldest is a white crust (calcite and phosphate) overlying a Late Pleistocene fossil deposit
- A sterile sediment layer separates it from the upper crust
- The upper crust is reddish-brown and formed by aragonite and phosphates
Ice temperature and heat transfer processes in cave glaciers
Aurel Persoiu
- Cave ice temperature measurements
- Rapid response of cave ice temperature to negative air temperature excursions
- Muted heat transfer inside ice with increasing depth
A world review of fungi, yeasts, and slime molds in caves
Karen J. Vanderwolf, David Malloch, Donald F. McAlpine, and Graham J. Forbes
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» Updated as of 03/15/26.
