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Volume 45, Issue 3 (2016)

Cover and Front Matter

Articles

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The importance of ants in cave ecology, with new records and behavioral observations of ants in Arizona caves
Robert B. Pape

  • Ants are important elements in cave ecology.
  • A global list of ant species recorded from caves is compiled from the literature.
  • A summary of ant records and behavioral observations from caves in Arizona (USA) is presented.
  • First record of Neivamyrmex preying on endemic cave arthropods.
  • Observations of hypogeic ants suggest they do not forage at great depth in caves.

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ATP luminescence assay as a bioburden estimator of biomass accumulation in caves
Janez Mulec and Andreea Oarga-Mulec

  • Applicability of an ATP assay for estimation of bioburden in caves.
  • A high variability of microbial biomass within a single cave system.
  • Cave infrastructures containing heavy metals reduce the viability of microbiota.
  • Underground habitats preserve and concentrate microbial biomass.

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Tube coalescence in the Jingfudong lava tube and implications for lava flow hazard of Tengchong Volcanism
Zhengquan Chen, Yongshun Liu, Haiquan Wei, Jiandong Xu, and Wenfeng Guo

  • An overall description of tub-fed features within Tengchong basic lava flows.
  • Detailed investigation of the longest lava tube known ( Jingfudong lava tube) in Tengchong area.
  • Lave tube coalescence phenomenon in Jingfudong lava tube.
  • Interpretation the coalescence and bifurcation processes of tube system from the field evidences and models.
  • Implications for vertical behaviors within lava flows.

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High-resolution signatures of oxygenation and microbiological activity in speleothem fluid inclusions
Nigel Blamey, Penelope J. Boston, and Laura Rosales-Lagarde

  • Speleothem inclusions contain gases that can reflect past chemical and biological processes.
  • Inclusion gas contents can be analyzed to high precision with quadrupole mass spectroscopy.
  • CFS (crush fast scan) methodology enables high resolution analysis (30mg) withlimits.
  • Each preliminary result has several possible explanations not yet distinguishable.
  • Further technique development can help unravel geo, bio, and climate influences on inclusion gases.

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The morphology and development of Kalahroud Cave, Iran
Shirin Bahadorinia, Sayed Hassan Hejazi, Alireza Nadimi, Derek C. Ford, and Karine Wainer

  • Sub-horizontal maze cave in a cuesta of dipping limestones.
  • Drains along the strike to an a-periodic river gorge in arid mountains.
  • Morphology and sediment analysis show hypogene origin, with paragenesis.
  • Corrosion notch rooms contain precipitate sequences, ending with calcite rafts of Holocene age

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Seasonal temperature variations controlling cave ventilation processes in Cueva Larga, Puerto Rico
Rolf Vieten, Amos Winter, Sophie Friederike Warken, Andrea Schrӧder-Ritzrau, Thomas E. Miller, and Denis Scholz

  • Seasonal temperature variations control cave ventilation processes in a tropical cave.
  • Cave air pCO2 in varies between 600 ppm in winter and 1800 ppm in summer.
  • The cave air exchange time is estimated to be 36 ± 5 days.
  • Minor pCO2 variations are related to atmospheric pressure changes.
  • Cave morphology is a key parameter of ventilation processes.

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Characterization of antimicrobial activity of culturable bacteria isolated from Krubera-Voronja Cave
Aiste Klusaite, Vida Vickackaite, Birute Vaitkeviciene, Rasa Karnickaite, Dominykas Bukelskis, Ieva Kieraite-Aleksandrova, and Nomeda Kuisiene

  • The first analysis of antimicrobial activity of bacteria isolated from Krubera-Voronja Cave.
  • The first report on chemical characterization of antimicrobial mixtures of Firmicutes isolated from caves.

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Hybrid Taguchi-Objective Function optimization approach for automatic cave bird detection from terrestrial laser scanning intensity image
Mohammed O. Idrees and Biswajeet Pradhan

  • Developed a hybrid optimization method to detect birds in cave.
  • Combined Taguchi's and spatial objective function for cave bird detection.
  • Proposed a new semi-automatic counting of birds in cave with greater efficiency.

Announcement