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Ice Caves

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Cave Ecology

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 235))

Abstract

Ice caves represent a unique type of oligotrophic subterranean habitats characterised by low temperature and low amounts of organic material. Ice accumulations may be found in different geological conditions, most often in karst caves and lava tubes. The global distribution of ice caves is limited to the Northern Hemisphere where their occurrence follows a general trend of decreasing altitude with increasing latitude. At mid-altitudes the presence of ice is restricted to downward sloping spaces with only one entrance in which the dense, cold winter air sinks and remains trapped. In spite of harsh conditions, biological communities in ice caves consist of a variety of organisms, although in a lower biomass than in other caves. Life conditions in ice caves are extreme for most living creatures, and colonisation of these habitats requires specific adaptations. Perennial ice accumulations in caves provide a wide range of palaeoenvironmental proxies, such as stable isotopes and radionuclide composition of ice and residuals of organic materials. There are about 20 show ice caves worldwide which require sensitive conservation management. Perennial ice masses are especially vulnerable to any warming trend, and caves hosting ice bodies suffer significant loss of ice mass over the past decades.

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Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Oana T. Moldovan and Stuart Halse for the very useful suggestions and comments that improved the quality of the manuscript. I am indebted to Jaroslav Stankovič (Slovakia) for the photographs of Silická ľadnica Ice Cave and Zuzana Višňovská (Slovakia) for the photograph of a hymenopteran insect on ice. The contribution was partly supported from the research grants APVV-17-0477 and VEGA 1/0346/18.

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  1. Faculty of Science, P. J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia

    Ľubomír Kováč

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  1. Ľubomír Kováč
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Correspondence to Ľubomír Kováč .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Emil Racovitza Institute of Speleology, Romanian Academy, Cluj Napoca, Romania

    Oana Teodora Moldovan

  2. Faculty of Science, P. J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia

    Ľubomír Kováč

  3. Bennelongia Environmental Consultants, Jolimont, Western Australia, Australia

    Stuart Halse

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Kováč, Ľ. (2018). Ice Caves. In: Moldovan, O., Kováč, Ľ., Halse, S. (eds) Cave Ecology. Ecological Studies, vol 235. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98852-8_15

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