Título del libro: Mexican Fauna In The Anthropocene
Título del capítulo: Human Impacts on Mexican Caves
RODRIGO ANTONIO MEDELLIN LEGORRETA;
Autores externos:
Idioma:
Año de publicación:
2023
Palabras clave:
Bats; Cavefishes; Caves; Conservation; Degradation; Diversity; Invertebrates; Karst; Pollution; Stygobites; Troglobites
Resumen:
This chapter examines Mexican caves and their entire fauna. Caves are important in Mexican science, cultural history, and economy, since pre-Columbian times. They provide access to groundwater and support many species, including bats, which are important to ecosystem services and agriculture. Bats control insects, pollinate plants, and spread essential seeds for natural reforestation. Caves and karst are useful natural resources in México, as attested by thousands of scientific papers and books. Mexico has about 800 obligate cave species (troglobitic species), invertebrates, and cavefishes that are important in scientific research. Some of the cavefishes have become model systems in genetics and biomedical research. México is a major cave and karst country with at least 12, 000 known caves, 4000 of which have been mapped. Sistema Huautla, Oaxaca, is the deepest vertical cave in the Americas, and there are many world-class, long, submerged cave systems in Quintana Roo. We report on 64 caves (including three mines), 28 of which were impacted by humans through vandalism, trash, sewage, mining, or bat disturbance; two were gutted of life. We assigned a ?risk factor? to each cave, which means the likelihood of losing more species in the cave because of human activity; 1 is a natural cave, 2 had minor degradation, 3 and 4 are increasing levels of damage, 5 is severely impacted, and ?gutted? caves now lack life. Risk was based on several factors: known loss of species, reduced bat populations, loss of habitat, level of human visitation, degree of human alteration, and vandalism. High-risk factors should be prioritized for conservation actions. Most documented impacts involved bats. Groundwater pollution is a concern in karst, especially in the Yucatán Peninsula. Many caves have been damaged, but partial restoration of some has begun. Specific recommendations are made for the study, protection, and restricted use of caves. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
Entidades citadas de la UNAM:
ISBN:
9783031172779
Editorial:
Springer International Publishing Nombre de la publicación:
Human Impacts on Mexican Caves
Página inicial:
377
Página final:
414
