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Fern Cave: A Hotspot of Subterranean Biodiversity in the Interior Low Plateau Karst Region of Alabama in the Southeastern United States |
Fern Cave Preserve |
2023-05-06 |
Research Reports |
Abstract: The Fern Cave System, developed in the western escarpment of the Southern Cumberland
Plateau of the Interior Low Plateau karst region in Northeastern Alabama, USA, is a global hotspot
of cave-limited biodiversity as well as home to the largest winter hibernaculum for the federally
endangered Gray Bat (Myotis grisescens). We combined the existing literature, museum accessions,
and database occurrences with new observations from bioinventory efforts conducted in 2018–2022 to
generate an updated list of troglobiotic and stygobiotic species for the Fern Cave System. Our
list of cave-limited fauna totals twenty-seven species, including nineteen troglobionts and eight
stygobionts. Two pseudoscorpions are endemic to the Fern Cave System: Tyrannochthonius torodei
and Alabamocreagris mortis. The exceptional diversity at Fern Cave is likely associated with several
factors, such as the high dispersal potential of cave fauna associated with expansive karst exposures
along the Southern Cumberland Plateau, high surface productivity, organic input from a large bat
colony, favorable climate throughout the Pleistocene, and location within a larger regional hotspot of
subterranean biodiversity. Nine species are of conservation concern, including the recently discovered
Alabama cave shrimp Palaemonias alabamae, because of their small range sizes, few occurrences, and
several potential threats. |
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