Ecological Equilibrium Research Articles

The Resource Status of Plankton after Stocked Protosalanx chinensis Population Collapse in a Lake of Northeastern China

In order to understand the relative strength of top-down and bottom-up control in lakes of grazing alien fish, Protosalanx chinensis, investigations were designed in Lake Longhu (Lake L, P. chinensis introduced in 2013) and Lake Qijia (Lake Q, P. chinensis free). Plankton samples were collected bimonthly through the whole life cycle of P. chinensis (from February to December in 2018). A total of 133 phytoplankton and 68 zooplankton species were recorded in the two lakes. The total density and biomass of phytoplankton and zooplankton were 991.89 × 104 ind/L and 9.2418 mg/L as well as 5212 ind/L and 20.2646 mg/L, respectively. This study revealed that P. chinensis grazing did not deplete the zooplankton resources in the lake where it was stocked. Biodiversity in Lake L was not significantly different from that in Lake Q based on both phytoplankton and zooplankton. Overall, the over grazing of P. chinensis was not found in Lake L. Nevertheless, compared to Lake Q, the correlation between phytoplankton and zooplankton was weakened in Lake L, which meant there were still some effects of stocking P. chinensis on the ecological equilibrium of the plankton community, although no dramatic influences were found in Lake L yet. We also found that P. chinensis and Cladocera were significantly correlated, which should account for the top-down influences. Long-term successive investigations are suggested for sustainable resource utilization and maintaining biological balance.

Artificial Propagation of Indigenous Ornamental Fish Species via Nutritional Manipulation for Stock Enhancement and Conservation as a Step towards Environmental Sustainability: A Review

Indigenous flora and fauna of a particular habitat greatly impacts the environment in maintaining an ecological balance and equilibrium for the normal functioning of the ecosystem as a whole. Native fishes play a major role and holds a major niche in the ecosystem which needs attention at the moment for their conservation and protection, failure of which may prove to be detrimental to the environment. The rapid developmental activities and industrialization taking place currently are leaving a negative impact upon the natural ecosystem. These activities are a major reason for loss of habitat, deterioration, pollution, and degradation. The ornamental fish industry is a budding industry in India and the indigenous fish fauna of the country offers a good market but unfortunately, so far, the requirements and demand are fulfilled from the natural stock through manual collection. Rigorous exploitation of these species may result into loss of species diversity or reduction of stock, provided, anthropogenic causes necessitated by development and industrialization are already acting upon the ecosystem. Therefore, in this review we will discuss the implementation of captive breeding techniques through nutritional manipulation for fish species so that the wild stock is not made vulnerable and instead, the same shall be enhanced through ranching. Though this technique offers certain limitations such as genetical quality compromise, inferior breeding performance etc., nevertheless it still is a major tool in conservational biology. The review will provide insights to researchers on how to achieve captive breeding success by manipulating nutritional component in fishes and eventually with the information made available in this document certain practical implementations may be necessitated which will help us move closer to the broader aspect of biodiversity conservation and sustainability.

Potentially toxic elements in the environment- a review of sources, sinks, pathways and mitigation measures.

Pollution of ecosystems with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) has become a global problem with serious consequences for public health. The PTEs are hazardous to humans owing to their longevity, toxicity, and ability to accumulate in the biotic environment. As most PTEs cannot be degraded microbially or chemically, they can persist in soils for a long time. Besides posing a threat to landsphere, they may be transported to surrounding environmental spheres through movement of water, atmospheric circulation, and biological transmission. This can severely affect the ecological equilibrium. Accumulation of PTEs in soils pose serious health hazards to higher organisms leading to various diseases and disorders and significant relationships exist between the occurrence of PTEs and the toxic effects in humans. In natural soils, PTEs accumulate due to weathering of rocks and ores. Furthermore, locally or regionally significant accumulation of PTEs in soils may occur from industrial goods, pesticides and paints, municipal and industrial waste, fertilizer application, mining activities and atmospheric deposition. In response to the growing need to address PTE contamination, remediation methods have been developed employing mechanical, physico-chemical or biological based technologies. In this review, we discuss sources, sinks, pathways and mitigation measures related to natural and anthropogenic PTEs. We focus on As, Cd, Cr, Hg and Pb which are highly toxic and perform no physiological functions in biota. Further, these are the most widely studied PTEs.

REVIEW ON ADVANCEMENT OF BIOFILM BIOFERTILIZER AND ITS IMPACT ON STRESS RESISTANT PLANTS

Nutrients from plants are essential for the cultivation of crops and the production of healthy food to feed the worlds growing population. The impacts of global warming threaten nearly every economic sector, including agriculture. In order to maintain ecological equilibrium, microorganisms play an important role in the natural carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus cycles. Microbial biofilms are an intriguing issue because of their implications for ecology, economy, and human health. Advances in biochemical and molecular approaches have helped us gain a better grasp on how biofilms form and evolve. Growers are starting to take notice of biofilms because of their vast potential in agricultural productivity, security, and enhancement. Biofilms not only increase plant productivity, but they also play a critical role in the colonization of surfaces including soil, plant roots, and plant shoots. Utilizing bio-fertilizers allows plants to better absorb nutrients, thrive, and resist environmental stresses such as drought and pests. Potential biological fertilizers would be essential to the productivity and sustainability of soil, as well as to environmental conservation, because they are both environmentally beneficial and economical inputs for farmers.

Strategy and mechanisms of sulfamethoxazole removal from aqueous systems by single and combined Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 and nanoscale zero-valent iron-enriched biochar

Sulfamethoxazole (SMX, a sulfonamide antibiotic) is ubiquitously present in various aqueous systems, which can accelerate the spread of antibiotic resistance genes, induce genetic mutations, and even disrupt the ecological equilibrium. Considering the potential eco-environmental risk of SMX, this study explored an effective technology using Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 (MR-1) and nanoscale zero-valent iron-enriched biochar (nZVI-HBC) to remove SMX from aqueous systems with different pollution levels (1–30 mg·L−1). SMX removal by nZVI-HBC and nZVI-HBC + MR-1 (55–100 %) under optimal conditions (iron/HBC ratio of 1:5, 4 g·L−1 nZVI-HBC, and 10 % v/v MR-1) was more effective than its removal by MR-1 and biochar (HBC) (8–35 %). This was due to the catalytic degradation of SMX in the nZVI-HBC and nZVI-HBC + MR-1 reaction systems because of accelerated electron transfer during oxidation of nZVI and reduction of Fe(III) to Fe(II). When SMX concentration was lower than 10 mg·L−1, nZVI-HBC + MR-1 effectively removed SMX (removal rate of approximately 100 %) when compared to nZVI-HBC (removal rate of 56–79 %). In addition to oxidation degradation of SMX by nZVI in the nZVI-HBC + MR-1 reaction system, MR-1-driven dissimilatory iron reduction accelerated electron transfer to SMX, thereby enhancing reductive degradation of SMX. However, a considerable decline in SMX removal from the nZVI-HBC + MR-1 system (42 %) was observed when SMX concentrations ranged 15–30 mg·L−1, which was due to the toxicity of accumulated degradation products of SMX. A high interaction probability between SMX and nZVI-HBC promoted the catalytic degradation of SMX in the nZVI-HBC reaction system. The results of this study provide promising strategies and insights for enhancing antibiotic removal from aqueous systems with different pollution levels.

Research on Pure Modes I and II and Mixed-Mode (I/II) Fracture Toughness of Geopolymer Fiber-Reinforced Concrete

The unsustainable use of resources and the rising demand for traditional concrete have disrupted ecological equilibrium, necessitating the adoption of a more appropriate and long-lasting alternative. One such substitute for cement in concrete production is geopolymer concrete, although this material is prone to cracking and fracturing due to its low tensile strength, leading to costly repairs or even structural collapse. Fiber-reinforced concrete has recently been widely adopted as a construction material to counteract these issues. This research examined the crack proliferation and fracture toughness of geopolymer concrete comprising different fibers using a cracked Brazilian disc. Four different fibers were used, such as polypropylene and steel fiber (short and long), at a dosage of 1.5% by volume. Fracture toughness was computed for various modes (I, II, and I/II) of fractures, and crack propagation from cracked specimens was studied. A different angle of inclination (0, 15, 28, 83, 60, 75, and 90 degrees) was used to conduct the Brazilian disc test on the specimens with respect to the preexisting crack direction. The findings indicate that the increasing loading angle increased the load-carrying capacity. The fracture toughness values of specimens under all three modes ranged from 0.26 to 1.75 MPa.m1/2. Additionally, long polypropylene and steel fibers exhibit higher fracture toughness than short fibers.

Remote Sensing Grassland Productivity Attributes: A Systematic Review

A third of the land on the Earth is composed of grasslands, mainly used for forage. Much effort is being conducted to develop tools to estimate grassland productivity (GP) at different extents, concentrating on spatial and seasonal variability pertaining to climate change. GP is a reliable indicator of how well an ecosystem works because of its close connection to the ecological system equilibrium. The most commonly used proxies of GP in ecological studies are aboveground biomass (AGB), leaf area index (LAI), canopy storage capacity (CSC), and chlorophyll and nitrogen content. Grassland science gains much information from the capacity of remote sensing (RS) techniques to calculate GP proxies. An overview of the studies on RS-based GP prediction techniques and a discussion of current matters determining GP monitoring are critical for improving future GP prediction performance. A systematic review of articles published between 1970 and October 2021 (203 peer-reviewed articles from Web of Science, Scopus, and DirectScience databases) showed a trend in the choice of the sensors, and the approaches to use are largely dependent on the extent of monitoring and assessment. Notably, all the reviewed articles demonstrate the growing demand for high-resolution sensors, such as hyperspectral scanners and computationally efficient image-processing techniques for the high prediction accuracy of GP at various scales of application. Further research is required to attract the synthesis of optical and radar data, multi-sensor data, and the selection of appropriate techniques for GP prediction at different scales. Mastering and listing major uncertainties associated with different algorithms for the GP prediction and pledging to reduce these errors are critical.

Mapping Groundwater Prospective Areas Using Remote Sensing and GIS-Based Data Driven Frequency Ratio Techniques and Detecting Land Cover Changes in the Yellow River Basin, China

Groundwater is an essential resource that meets all of humanity’s daily water demands, supports industrial development, influences agricultural output, and maintains ecological equilibrium. Remote sensing data can predict the location of potential water resources. The current study was conducted in China’s Yellow River region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR). Through the use of a GIS-based frequency ratio machine learning technique, nine layers of evidence influenced by remote sensing data were generated and integrated. The layers used are soil characteristics, aspect, and roughness index of the terrain, drainage density, elevation, lineament density, depressions, rainfall, and distance to the river from the location. Six groundwater prospective zones (GWPZs) were found to have very low (13%), low (30%), moderate (25%), high (16%), very high (11%), and extreme potentiality (5.26%) values. According to well data used to validate the GWPZs map, approximately 40% of the wells are consistent to very high to excellent zones. Information about groundwater productivity was gathered from 150 well locations. Using well data that had not been used for model training, the resulting GWPZs maps were validated using area-under-the-curve (AUC) analysis. FR models have an accuracy rating of 0.759. Landsat data were used to characterize the study area’s changes in land cover. The spatiotemporal differences in land cover are detected and quantified using multi-temporal images which revealed changes in water, agricultural, and anthropogenic activities. Overall, combining different data sets through a GIS can reveal the promising areas of water resources that aid planners and managers.

Land-use change and sustainability in the south-eastern oases of Morocco

The study apprehends modern versus traditional land-use changes in the Moroccan oases. The traditional local knowledge and land-use that ensured ecological equilibrium for centuries is decreasing. Modern entrepreneuship practices are increasing and have risky environmental impacts. By using the spatial and factor analyses, we confirm the spatial disparities in the region and distinguish four different groups of communes (in high mountain communes, traditional agriculture favors resources’ conservation; downstream communes experience greater changes and ecological ruptures). The recommendations of the study include the need to rethink adopted development models and elaborate new actions that respect local specificities, consider environmental equilibrium and rehabilitate local ecosystems.

PH-activated antibiofilm strategies for controlling dental caries.

Dental biofilms are highly assembled microbial communities surrounded by an extracellular matrix, which protects the resident microbes. The microbes, including commensal bacteria and opportunistic pathogens, coexist with each other to maintain relative balance under healthy conditions. However, under hostile conditions such as sugar intake and poor oral care, biofilms can generate excessive acids. Prolonged low pH in biofilm increases proportions of acidogenic and aciduric microbes, which breaks the ecological equilibrium and finally causes dental caries. Given the complexity of oral microenvironment, controlling the acidic biofilms using antimicrobials that are activated at low pH could be a desirable approach to control dental caries. Therefore, recent researches have focused on designing novel kinds of pH-activated strategies, including pH-responsive antimicrobial agents and pH-sensitive drug delivery systems. These agents exert antibacterial properties only under low pH conditions, so they are able to disrupt acidic biofilms without breaking the neutral microenvironment and biodiversity in the mouth. The mechanisms of low pH activation are mainly based on protonation and deprotonation reactions, acids labile linkages, and H+-triggered reactive oxygen species production. This review summarized pH-activated antibiofilm strategies to control dental caries, concentrating on their effect, mechanisms of action, and biocompatibility, as well as the limitation of current research and the prospects for future study.

The Ecological Evolution Analysis of Heritage Sites Based on The Remote Sensing Ecological Index—A Case Study of Kalajun–Kuerdening World Natural Heritage Site

As very fragile natural ecological areas, the spatiotemporal ecological environment (EE) analysis of World Natural Heritage Sites (WNHSs) is particularly important for their conservation and sustainable development. Timely, objective and quantitative evaluation of the spatiotemporal EE change characteristics of WNHSs is of great significance for ecological, environmental protection and government policy formulation. This study quantitatively evaluates the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of the EE of the Kalajun–Kuerdening WNHS by selecting the Remote Sensing Ecological Environment Index (RSEI) for 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021. We studied the spatiotemporal differences of the EE in buffer zones and nominated sites in the heritage sites and their change patterns and trends. The EE changes and land use changes from 2006–2011, 2011–2016 and 2016–2021 were overlaid and analyzed to explore the relationship between EE evolution and land use changes in the heritage site. The results show that (1) the heritage site was in a state of ecological change equilibrium from 2006 to 2011, and a form of slight decline in EE quality from 2011 to 2016 under the influence of natural factors, but it maintained a stable state with a small degree of fluctuation, and a state of ecological change recovery from 2016 to 2021. The areas with better EE grades were located in the northwest region (Kalajun) and northeast region (Kuerdening) of the heritage site. (2) The EE grade change in the heritage site shows the characteristics of neighborhood change without a large number of leap changes. (3) From 2006 to 2021, the EE quality in the nominated site was better than that of the buffer zone, but from 2016 onward, the difference between the two gradually decreased until 2021. The average EE quality was basically the same until 2021, but, spatially, the EE quality of most areas in the buffer zone was better than that in the nominated area. (4) The types of land use transformation that caused EE enhancement in the heritage sites were barren–grassland, snow/ice–barren and barren–snow/ice, while the types of land use transformation that caused EE quality reduction were grassland–barren and barren–snow/ice. The results of this study help improve the knowledge of the EE background of the WNHS and its evolutionary process and provide scientific guidance for ecologically related decision making and management of global natural heritage sites. The change in snow and ice cover is an essential factor in the shift of the EE of the Kalajun–Kuerdening World Natural Heritage Site.

The Semantic Segmentation of Standing Tree Images Based on the Yolo V7 Deep Learning Algorithm

The existence of humans and the preservation of the natural ecological equilibrium depend greatly on trees. The semantic segmentation of trees is very important. It is crucial to learn how to properly and automatically extract a tree’s elements from photographic images. Problems with traditional tree image segmentation include low accuracy, a sluggish learning rate, and a large amount of manual intervention. This research suggests the use of a well-known network segmentation technique based on deep learning called Yolo v7 to successfully accomplish the accurate segmentation of tree images. Due to class imbalance in the dataset, we use the weighted loss function and apply various types of weights to each class to enhance the segmentation of the trees. Additionally, we use an attention method to efficiently gather feature data while reducing the production of irrelevant feature data. According to the experimental findings, the revised model algorithm’s evaluation index outperforms other widely used semantic segmentation techniques. In addition, the detection speed of the Yolo v7 model is much faster than other algorithms and performs well in tree segmentation in a variety of environments, demonstrating the effectiveness of this method in improving the segmentation performance of the model for trees in complex environments and providing a more effective solution to the tree segmentation issue.

Assessment of Heavy Metals Contamination on Soil Faunal Diversity in Selected Local Governments Areas of Jigawa State, Nigeria

Heavy metal pollution in soils constitutes a highly complex disruption of ecological equilibrium because some are essential trace elements that become toxic when present beyond a certain concentration. The aim of this research is to assess the level of heavy metals contamination on soil faunal diversity in Dutse and Hadejia Jigawa State-Nigeria. The study employed multistage sampling techniques using 20cm2 quadrants thrown at random. A modified Baermann’s funnel method of extraction was used to extract the soil fauna from the soil samples and the specimens were properly examined for identification under compound microscope. The collected soil samples were digested using concentrated HNO3 and HCl. The digested samples were analyzed for heavy metals using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The result revealed that a total of 275 individuals and 13 species, belonging to 5 classes and 4 phyla were identified from both study areas. Ants, termites, millipedes, earthworms and snails (Cornu aspersum) were found in both Dutse and Hadejia. However, Beetles, wax worms, roundworms, burrowing nematodes and snails (Achantina fulica) were found only in samples from Hadejia. There was no significant variation in abundance of most soil fauna (p> 0.05) extracted across the study sites, except for dung beetle, millipedes, earthworm and roundworm. It also suggested a positive relationship between heavy metals and soil fauna density (r≥0.76), that is, the mean density of soil fauna increased proportionally with increasing heavy metal concentration. Further study should be conducted to check whether the soil fauna possibly resisted or adapt to the effect of the heavy metal or the concentration in the soil or inside the organisms is insignificant to have a negative effect on their diversity.

Research on plant leaf recognition method based on multi-feature fusion in different partition blocks

As an indispensable organism in nature, plants play an essential role in the ecological equilibrium. Ecological plant protection is also receiving increasing attention. In today's digital era, one of the important research topics is recognizing plants by using imaging equipment. In this study, we propose a multi-feature fusion approach based on the Local Binary Pattern (LBP) feature for plant leaf recognition by using the partition block strategy. By comparing the original LBP and Multiscale Block Local Binary Pattern (MB-LBP), we present an improved LBP feature descriptor. It extends the range of feature extraction, considering the effect that the multi-neighbourhood pixels have on the central pixels during the LBP encoding process and the central pixels are represented by double coding values. Therefore, it can extract more detailed information about plant leaves. Moreover, considering the leaf boundary and shape information extraction and the illumination variations, the Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG) feature and the colour feature are fused with the improved LBP feature descriptor. After dimensionality reduction by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), a mixed feature vector of plant leaves is used as input to an Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) for identifying plant leaves in two publicly available datasets, the Flavia dataset and the Swedish dataset. Experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms the conventional algorithms, with the recognition accuracy of 99.30% on the Flavia dataset where 4 × 4 partition blocks are used for the improved LBP feature and 2 × 2 partition blocks for the colour feature, 99.52% on the Swedish dataset where 4 × 4 partition blocks are used for the improved LBP feature and 2 × 2 partition blocks for the colour feature, respectively.

Adaptive Evolution Analysis of a Predator-Prey Model With Group Defense

Based on the theoretical framework of adaptive dynamics, the evolution of predator-prey model with functional response of group defense effect on predator handing time was investigated. Firstly, considering the interaction of predator populations with interspecific competition, the evolutionary conditions for a single predator population to split into two populations with different strategies through evolutionary branching were given. Secondly, when the ecological equilibrium of the model is unstable and the system exists a limit cycle, the population could have strong coexistence under large mutation, but this coexistence is evolutionarily unstable. Finally, the conclusions for the model with Holling-Ⅱ type functional response were compared. The results indicate that, with a sufficiently large prey carrying capacity, group defense effects can evolutionarily lead to the extinction of predators.

ЗНАЧЕНИЕ КРИТЕРИЕВ "УДЕЛЬНАЯ ЗЕМЛЕЕМКОСТЬ" И "ЗЕМЛЕВАНИЕ" В ОБОРОТЕ ЗЕМЕЛЬНЫХ РЕСУРСОВ ПРИ РАЗРАБОТКЕ МЕСТОРОЖДЕНИЙ

The questions of evaluation of land resources used by quarries during the mining of fields of solid minerals by the continuous system are considered. In order to preserve the fertility of soils stored in temporary warehouses, the front of land and the front of mining operations should provide a balance of ecological equilibrium in the soil layer. The difference between the front of excavation and the front of mining operations on the lower mining ledge should be minimal.

Dynamics of a Stoichiometric Regrowth-Consumer Model

The relationship between the producer and the consumer is important in grassland ecosystems. Most producer-consumer models only consider food quantity and focus on the above ground part of producers in producer-consumer interactions, while food quality and the below ground part of the producer can be an important factor in these models. We developed a stoichiometric producer-consumer model, where the producer represents a primary production in terrestrial plant with above ground and below ground parts subject to stoichiometric constraints of carbon and phosphorus. The analysis shows that the dynamic behavior of the model is richer than that of the traditional producer-consumer models. The solution curves of the model can be used to explain the paradox of enrichment and reflect the rapid growth of the vegetation. Our findings help understand and interpret the relationship between the producer and the consumer in grassland ecosystems and provide guidance for ecosystem management on maintaining ecological equilibrium.

Cropland-grassland use conversions in the agro-pastoral areas of the Tibetan Plateau: Spatiotemporal pattern and driving mechanisms

Cropland-grassland use conversion analysis constitutes crucial research on regional land and global change science, having important implications for regional ecology, food security and the well-being of farmers and herders. However, relevant research is rare, and limited attention has been given to the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, based on land use raster data, this study utilized the land use conversion matrix method to investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of cropland-grassland conversions during 1990–2020 in the agro-pastoral areas of the Tibetan Plateau.Then this research further identified the key natural geographical and socioeconomic driving forces of cropland-grassland conversions, and examined the mechanisms and spatial heterogeneity of their driving effects by using the geographically weighted regression model. The results showed that cropland-grassland conversions temporally presented the “slow-slow-rapid” changes in 1990–2020 and were spatially clustered in the eastern semipastoral areas. Through mechanisms of ecological equilibrium, resource carrying, population mobility, interest-driven and macroregulation, natural geographical and socioeconomic factors within the cropland-grassland conversion system interacted differently in direction and extent with obvious spatial heterogeneity. Regional increasing rainfall, temperature and topographic relief expanded the extent of cropland use, coupled with the effects of distance to transportation and water sources and increased rural employment, causing widespread and profound land reclamation of grassland-to-cropland, further encouraged by cropland balance policy, while climate change and distance from inhabited settlement and transportation promoted cropland-to-grassland conversion, exacerbated by policies on nature reserve designation and cropland balance, and the fact that rapidly increasing urbanisation in the east accelerated cropland abandonment by diversifying nonfarm employment livelihood strategies. Value added in agriculture and livestock and agricultural machinery inputs tended to restrict cropland-grassland conversions by promoting their internal tapping into intensive and potential use. “Key place-based” and differentiated management policies were proposed to promote sustainable cropland-grassland use conversions and regional development.

Construction Land Expansion of Resource-Based Cities in China: Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Driving Factors

Studying construction land expansion (CLE) characteristics and driving factors in resource-based cities (RBCs) is important to promote efficient land use and maintain ecological equilibrium in RBCs. This study explores the CLE and its driving factors in RBCs. The results indicated that (1) the CLE in RBCs became increasingly obvious, and the number of cities with expansion areas exceeding 20 km2 increased from 29 to 86. In RBCs in different regions, CLE in eastern, central, and western regions was obvious, while CLE in the northeast region decelerated. The order of CLE degree at different stages of RBCs was mature, growing, regenerative, and declining. (2) Single factors such as gross domestic product, fixed-asset investment, and secondary industry added value, playing a major role. This differs from the dominant role of population and urbanization in existing research. This occurred because population growth is slow, the urbanization rate is low, population contraction prominently occurs, and economic development exhibits notable path dependence in RBCs. (3) Interaction-factor detection demonstrated that the force of two-factor interaction was greater than that of a single factor, and the interactions of total population with fixed-asset investment and economic development level strongly drove CLE in RBCs.

Dripping and underground river waters shed light on the ecohydrology of a show cave

AbstractWater and air flows connect underground ecosystems to the surface, affecting the cave chemical and physical properties. Together with the visitor's fluxes in show caves and occasional presence of cavers in wild caves—excluding the large amounts of organic supply by bat or bird colonies or large sinking rivers bringing vegetal debris—fluid flows are the main means of transport of nutrients into the normally oligotrophic cave environment. The aim of this work was to investigate the chemical characteristics of waters in the Pertosa‐Auletta Cave (Italy), focusing on drip water and on the underground Negro river, seasonally and in different areas of the cave. In particular, three trails with different environmental characteristics and tourism pressure were investigated in order to shed light on the processes affecting the ecological equilibrium of the hypogean ecosystem. Dripping and flowing river waters, both rich in Ca because of their interaction with carbonate rocks, show distinct chemical signatures regarding the other chemical elements (especially K and Mg) due to lithological and hydro‐dynamical differences. Moreover, water chemistry is affected by the seasonality in the pluviometric regime owing to the subsequent variability in the dilution effect. Bat colonies, dwelling mainly along the fossil trail, enrich dripping waters with P and N. Their concentrations have also been found at fairly high values across the whole trail network, suggesting an additional potential role of leaching from agricultural and forested soils above the Pertosa‐Auletta Cave in defining dripwater chemistry.