Today I am taking a look at an underground cave ecosystem near Dobrogea, Romania, which is on Romania`s eastern coast with the Black Sea. It first came to the world`s attention around 1995 but there were new discoveries in 2007. I have been aware for several months that I had notes about it but I only came across it again a day or two ago whilst sorting out my files. It would be interesting to compare this ecosystem with the one discovered in Israel a few years ago, which I featured in my blog a few weeks ago.
The information in this blog can be found in more detail at `A Subterranean Chemoautotrophically Based Ecosystem in The NSS Bulletin,December 1995 pp 91-98 (1) and `Cycloprosopon Dobrogea: New 150 Million Year Old Crab Species Discovered at http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_account/cycloprosopon_dobrogea_new_150...(2) from which comes the following statement:
"Studying primitive and extant crabs helps determine various aspects of biodiversity and patterns of evolution,such as when arthropods diversified”, says Dr.Carrie Schweitzer, associate professor of geology at Kent State University. Arthropods, which include crabs,insects,lobsters, spiders, millipedes and ticks, are a large part of the earth`s ecosystem, and they also are important economically in many countries as a source of food. In addition, crabs have been remarkably resistant against extinction. “Our goal is to determine why they have been so resistant, so we might be able to better fight modern extinctions,” says Schweitzer. (2)
According to the NSS Bulletin report: “An unusual invertebrate fauna has recently been discovered in Dobrogea, southern Romania. This fauna inhabits the deep recesses of an extensive cave system that has been isolated from the surface for several million years…This appears to be the first known subterranean ecosystem that is completely chemoautotrophically based. In this regard it shares much in common with the deep sea vent communities discovered in the 1970s…How was such an ecosystem formed? How does it function? Is it a unique case, or were there certain peculiar conditions in the geological past that led to the formation of numerous such ecosystems that are yet to be discovered? The geological and biological investigations that have been performed for the last seven years provide answers for some of these questions. In order to better understand how such an ecosystem was formed, one needs to place the recently discovered cave in its geological context…numerous sulphide-rich springs are present in this region. Some springs are located a few kilometres inland, but most of them are located along the Black Sea shore. Following the 1986 Chernobyl accident, high amounts of artificial nuclides…were released in the atmosphere and spread by winds all over Europe.High concentrations of these nuclides were found throughout Romania, in the soil,inlakes, in the Black Sea and in sediments of other caves. Investigations performed by I. Oswath and F. Baciu (unpublished) showed that artificial nuclides were completely abscent in Movile Cave thus supporting the hypothesis that the cave is well isolated from the surface.
1. S M. Sarbu & T.C. Kane A Subterranean Chemoautotrophically Based Ecosystem NSS 57: 91-98 Dec. 10995
2. News Staff Cycloprosopon Dobrogea: New 150 Million Year Old Crab Species Discovered October 17th 2007
To be continued….
Rich
David Bowie 1984
Someday they won`t let you,now you must agree
The times the are a telling,and the changing isn`t free,
You`ve read it in the tea leaves, and the tracks are on tv
Bware the savage jaw of 1984
They`ll split your pretty cranium and fill it full of air
They`ll tell you that your eighty but brother you won`t care
You`ll be shooting up on anything like tomorrow`s wasn`t there
BEware the savage jaw of 1984.
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