Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Subterranean ecosystems are among the most widespread environments on Earth, yet we still have poor knowledge of their biodiversity. To raise awareness of subterranean ecosystems, the essential services they provide, and their unique conservation challenges, and were designated International Years of Caves and Karst. This assessment allows researchers and practitioners to understand the progress made and research needs in subterranean ecology and management.
We selected publications from the years to that discussed, recommended, or implemented 1, conservation interventions in subterranean ecosystems. We noted a steep increase in the number of studies from the s while, surprisingly, the proportion of studies quantifying the impact of conservation interventions has steadily and significantly decreased in recent years.
Assessments of the effectiveness of conservation interventions were heavily biased towards indirect measures monitoring and risk assessment , a limited sample of organisms mostly arthropods and bats , and more accessible systems terrestrial caves. Our results indicate that most conservation science in the field of subterranean biology does not apply a rigorous quantitative approach, resulting in sparse evidence for the effectiveness of interventions.
We also provide a database summarising the available literature, which will help to build quantitative knowledge about interventions likely to yield the greatest impacts depending upon the subterranean species and habitats of interest.
Keywords: biospeleology, cave, climate change, conservation biology, ecosystem management, extinction risk, groundwater, legislation, pollution, subterranean biology. First, we are collectively building upon a quantitative understanding of what constitutes effective conservation interventions to ensure the protection and recovery of biodiversity and ecosystems Sutherland et al. Third, we have now identified how cognitive biases have permeated conservation investments and efforts in the past โ for example more attention given to charismatic organisms Mammola et al.
