%0 Journal Article
%T Duality of terrestrial subterranean fauna
%A Novak Tone
%A Perk Matjaz
%A Lipov£¿ek Sa£¿ka
%A Jan£¿ekovic Franc
%J International Journal of Speleology
%D 2012
%I Societ¨¤ Speleologica Italiana
%X Terrestrial animals in subterranean habitats are often classified according to their degree of morphological or ecological specialization to the subterranean environment. The commonly held view is that, as distance into a cave increases, the frequency of morphologically specialized, i.e., troglomorphic, species or ecological specialization will increase. We tested this hypothesis for the fauna in 54 caves in Slovenia¨Cthe classical land for subterranean biology. We found that there exist two ecologically well separated terrestrial subsurface faunas: one shallow and one deep. 1) The shallow subterranean fauna, adapted to the terrestrial shallow subterranean habitats (SSHs) in the upper 10 m of subsurface strata, is most diverse. It consists of randomly distributed non-troglobionts and a major group of troglobionts adapted to the soil root zone. 2) The deep subterranean fauna is represented by a minor group of troglobionts, adapted to caves. Troglobionts are strictly divided between the two faunas. There is strong evidence that in karstic ecosystems with deep-rooted vegetation this might be a global pattern, or that in these locations only the shallow subterranean fauna exist.
%K endemites
%K superficial subterranean habitats (SSHs)
%K trogloxenes
%K troglophiles
%K troglobionts
%U http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context=ijs