The North American obligate cave fauna: regional patterns

摘要: The obligate cave faunas of nine regions the United States –Florida Lime Sinks, Appalachians, Interior Low Plateaus, Ozarks, Driftless Area,Edwards Aquifer/Balcones Escarpment, Guadalupe Mountains, Black Hills, andMother Lode – are described and compared. number aquatic(stygobitic) species ranged from zero (Black Hills) to 82 (Appalachians), andthe terrestrial (troglobitic) (Florida LimeSinks) 256 (Interior Plateau). Even at level genus, overlapbetween is low. Several predictor variables (karst area, ofcaves, long caves, deep distance Pleistoceneice margin, late Cretaceous Sea, vegetation type asurrogate for productivity) were assessed using rank order statistics,especially multiple regression with a backward elimination procedure.For both stygobites troglobites, only caves was significantpredictor. absence karst area effect suggested that degree karstdevelopment better by rather than ofkarst. There no evidence Pleistocene glacial boundaries wasimportant, but there some support importance sea margins, potential source aquatic subterranean colonists. Finally,there indication surface productivity had an on speciesrichness. Analysis complicated correlations among variables.