Cave Biodiversity: Speciation and Diversity of Subterranean Fauna (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781421444574)

A deep-dive into the evolutionary biology, biogeography, and conservation of the most elusive subterranean creatures in the world.

Far from the austere, sparsely populated ecosystems often conjured in the imagination, caves host some of the most mysterious and biodiverse natural systems in the world. Subterranean environments, however, are the least explored terrestrial habitats, contributing to misconceptions about their inhabitants. Edited by cave scientist and conservation ecologist Dr. J. Judson Wynne, Cave Biodiversity explores both the evolution and the conservation of subterrestrial-dwelling fauna.

Covering both vertebrates and invertebrates, including mollusks, fishes, amphibians, arthropods, and other troglobionts, this volume brings together ichthyologists, entomologists, ecologists, herpetologists, and conservationists to provide a nuanced picture of life beneath the earth's surface. Broad chapters covering biotic and abiotic factors that influence evolution and support biodiversity precede chapters dedicated to specific taxa, highlighting phylogenetics and morphology, and delving into zoogeography, habitat, ecology, and dispersal mechanisms for each. Considerations for conservation of these fascinating, often bizarre, and often highly sensitive subterranean creatures are emphasized throughout.

Cave Biodiversity aims to synthesize the principles of subterranean evolutionary biology and diversity through in-depth case studies of some of the most captivating and imperiled taxonomic groups in the world. Employing a multidisciplinary approach involving systematics, genetics, ecology, biogeography, evolutionary biology, and conservation science, Cave Biodiversity will be of keen interest to evolutionary biologists, ecologists, conservation biologists, and cave scientists, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Contributors: Maria E. Bichuette, Evin T. Carter, Prosanta Chakrabarty, Kenneth James Chapin, Danté B. Fenolio, Andrew G. Gluesenkamp, Jozef Grego, Francis G. Howarth, Leonardo Latella, Matthew L. Niemiller, Karen A. Ober, T. Keith Philips, John G. Phillips, Stuart Pimm, Daphne Soares, J. Judson Wynne, and Yahui Zhao.