1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910825375403321

Titolo

Microbial life of cave systems / / editor, Annette Summers Engel

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin, Germany ; ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : , : De Gruyter, , [2015]

©2015

ISBN

3-11-033988-9

3-11-038952-5

9783110389524 (EPUB)

9783110339888 (PDF)

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xv, 335 pages) : illustrations (chiefly colour)

Collana

Life in extreme environments ; ; volume 3

Disciplina

578.75/84

Soggetti

Biospeleology

Cave ecology

Microbiology

Cave animals

Cave plants

Underground ecology

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Preface -- Contents -- Contributing authors -- 1. Bringing Microbes into Focus for Speleology: An Introduction -- 2. Methods for Characterizing Microbial Communities in Caves and Karst: A Review -- 3. “A Grand, Gloomy, and Peculiar Place”: Microbiology in the Mammoth Cave Region -- 4. Starving Artists: Bacterial Oligotrophic Heterotrophy in Caves -- 5. Bacterial and Archaeal Diversity on Cave Speleothem and Rock Surfaces: A Carbonate Cave Case Study from Kartchner Caverns -- 6. Microbial Slime Curtain Communities of the Nullarbor Caves -- 7. Microbial Diversity and Manganese Cycling: A Review of Manganese-oxidizing Microbial Cave Communities -- 8. Microbial Diversity and Ecology of Lava Caves -- 9. Predicting bacterial diversity in caves associated with sulfuric acid speleogenesis -- 10. Microbial Life in Unusual Cave Ecosystems Sustained by



Chemosynthetic Primary Production -- 11. The Microbiology of Show Caves, Mines, Tunnels, and Tombs: Implications for Management and Conservation -- 12. The Diversity and Ecology of Microbes Associated with Lampenflora in Cave and Karst Settings -- 13. Lascaux Cave: An Example of Fragile Ecological Balance in Subterranean Environments -- 14. Scientific Data Suggest Altamira Cave Should Remain Closed -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The earth's subsurface contains abundant and active microbial biomass, living in water, occupying pore space, and colonizing mineral and rock surfaces. Caves are one type of subsurface habitat, being natural, solutionally- or collapse-enlarged openings in rock. Within the past 30 years, there has been an increase in the number of microbiology studies from cave environments to understand cave ecology, cave geology, and even the origins of life. By emphasizing the microbial life of caves, and the ecological processes and geological consequences attributed to microbes, this book provides the first authoritative and comprehensive account of the microbial life of caves for students, professionals, and general readers.