Mammoth Cave Research Articles

Prey Size and Dietary Niche of Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat (Corynorhinus rafinesquii)

Abstract Bats in the genus Corynorhinus possess a suite of morphological characters that permit them to effectively use both gleaning and aerial-hawking foraging strategies to capture Lepidoptera. Consequently, they occupy a specialized feeding niche within North American bat assemblages and are of particular interest for dietary studies. We collected fecal pellets from a colony of C. rafinesquii (Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat) at Mammoth Cave National Park during August–October 2011 and amplified cytochrome-c oxidase subunit 1 fragments of prey from these pellets. We used the Barcode of Life Database to identify prey, and evaluated the size of prey species based on published values. The mean wingspan of prey we recorded from our samples was smaller than average values reported for Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat using traditional methods (P ≤ 0.01), suggesting that surveys of culled insect parts beneath roosting sites may lead to biased estimates of the size and breadth of prey species eaten by gleaning bats. Me...

Paleontology and paleoecology of guano deposits in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, USA

Bat guano deposits are common in the Mammoth Cave system (Kentucky, USA). Paleontological remains associated with these deposits are important records of local landscape changes. Recent excavations in the cave suggest that vertebrate remains in most of these deposits are dominated by Chiroptera. Although no extinct fauna were identified, the presence of a large roost of Tadarida brasiliensis in the Chief City section is beyond the northern extent of its current range suggesting that this deposit dates to an undetermined interglacial period. Stable isotope analyses of Tadarida-associated guano indicate a C3 prey signature characteristic of forested habitat. This was unexpected since this species is typically associated with open environments. Further ecomorphological analysis of wing shape trends in interglacial, Holocene, and historic-aged assemblages indicate that interglacial faunas are dominated by fast-flying, open-space taxa (T. brasiliensis) while late Holocene and Historic assemblages contain more taxa that utilized closed forest or forest gaps.

Nitrates in karst systems: a comparison of a relatively unimpacted system to impacted systems

Karst aquifers are highly susceptible to contamination because of the connection with surface water. Nitrate contamination is common; with most karst aquifers exhibiting some degree of impact. Horn Hollow Valley (HHV) in Carter County Kentucky is a karst aquifer system that appears to be minimally impacted by nitrate and chloride contamination. Sampling of the HHV area was conducted from June 2005 to November 2006. Nitrate as nitrogen (NO3-N) concentrations were between 0.13 to 1.54 mg/L; chloride concentrations ranged from 1.43 to 66.3 mg/L. Impact from anthropogenic sources are observed at 1 mg/L for NO3-N and 13 mg/L for chloride. Sources of nitrate are primarily soil organic matter and mineralized fertilizers. In addition to mineralized fertilizers, chloride appears to be contributed from road salts. Compared to waters from three other systems: the Mammoth Cave area, the southwestern Illinois sinkhole plain, and the Missouri Ozarks-Salem Plateau; waters from HHV exhibited lower concentrations of both NO3-Nand chloride. Waters from Mammoth Cave and the Missouri Ozarks tended to have higher NO3-N concentrations and similar chloride concentrations. Waters from southwestern Illinois had higher NO3-N concentrations and chloride concentrations. Overall, the karst aquifer of HHV appears to be a relatively pristine system, with minor human impacts.

The source of gypsum in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky

Mammoth Cave (Kentucky, USA) is the world9s longest human-navigable cave system. Gypsum (CaSO 4 ∙2H 2 O) crystals line many dry passages of the limestone cave and the source of sulfur for the gypsum remains uncertain. Previous workers have suggested sulfate from pyrite oxidation, Mississippian-aged sulfate evaporites, and Pleistocene soil sulfate as possible sulfur sources. We use sulfur isotopes (δ 34 S) to constrain the gypsum sulfur source by comparing the δ 34 S values of different possible sources to that of gypsum throughout the cave. δ 34 S gypsum values (n = 106) from 12 different locations within the Mammoth Cave system are along a continuum of δ 34 S values from –12.0‰ to +12.8‰, with little variability along the crystal growth axis or between samples within the same cave chamber. Neither sulfur from coeval sedimentary evaporites (i.e., gypsum, anhydrite) nor from formations overlying the cave is required to explain the δ 34 S gypsum data. Rather, the range of pyrite δ 34 S in strata immediately surrounding the cave is sufficient to generate the spectrum of observed δ 34 S gypsum . Modern water δ 34 S SO 4 values are similar to the host formation δ 34 S pyrite , suggesting that oxidized pyrite from the host formation continues to be a major sulfur source to this day. Together, these observations strongly suggest a significant local source of sulfur for Mammoth Cave gypsum, the majority (66%–100%) of which is derived from the oxidation of pyrite in strata adjacent to the cave.

Temporal Changes in Body Mass and Body Condition of Cave-Hibernating Bats During Staging and Swarming

Abstract The rapid colonization of the Pseudogymnoascus destructans fungus across cave systems in eastern North America and the associated bat mortalities (white-nose syndrome; WNS), necessitates studies of cave-hibernating bats that remain unaffected by, or in close proximity to, the leading edge of the fungal distribution to provide baseline predisturbance data from which to assess changes due to fungal effects. Studies of the physiological ecology of cave-hibernating bats during the spring staging and autumn swarming seasons are few, and an understanding of patterns in body condition of bats associated with entry into and emergence from hibernation is incomplete. We sampled bats at the entrance to a cave in Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, during swarming and staging, prior to (2011 and 2012), concurrent with (2013), and following (2014) the arrival of the WNS fungus. We evaluated seasonal and annual changes in body mass and body condition of bats entering and leaving the cave. We captured 1,232 bats of eight species. Sex ratios of all species were male-biased. Capture success was substantially reduced in 2014, following the second winter after arrival of the WNS fungus. Significant temporal variation in body mass and body mass index was observed for little brown bats Myotis lucifugus, northern long-eared bats M. septentrionalis, and tri-colored bats Perimyotis subflavus, but not Indiana bats M. sodalis. Little brown bats and northern long-eared bats demonstrated significant increases in mean body mass index in 2014; this pattern likely reflected a relatively better body condition in bats that survived exposure to the WNS fungus. Most species demonstrated highest body mass and body mass index values in late swarming compared with other sampling periods, with tri-colored bats showing the greatest percent increase in body mass (42.5%) and body mass index (42.9%) prior to entering hibernation. These data indicate significant intraspecific variation in body condition of cave-hibernating bat species, both among years and between the seasons of autumn swarming and spring staging. We suggest this variation is likely to have implications for the relative vulnerability of species to WNS infection across the distribution of the Pseudogymnoascus fungus.

In vitro Studies of the Antibody Response: Antibodies of Different Specificity are Made in Different Populations of Cells.

In vitro Studies of the Antibody Response: Antibodies of Different Specificity are Made in Different Populations of Cells.

Geophysical characterization of karst landscapes in Kentucky as modern analogs for paleokarst reservoirs

Subsurface interpretation of paleokarst reservoirs is greatly aided by 3D seismic and other modern modeling tools and the inherent complexity of productive reservoirs requires an understanding of reservoir heterogeneities and compartmentalization. Such complexity also requires a review of karst processes and development, which can be beneficially captured via geophysical characterization of near-surface karst landscape features that certainly equate to our better understanding of high-side oil productive areas. Both electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and refraction microtremor (ReMi) geophysical surveys at the Green River Preserve adjacent to Mammoth Cave National Park in the Mississippian Ste. Genevieve and Girkin Limestones are providing details of karst features, including horizontal passages, uvulas or karst valleys, sinkholes (dolines), vertical pits or dome caves, and associated karst system infill. Geophysical anomalies include reversals of shear-wave velocities in a domal (pit) cave, and an inferred bedding-plane controlled conduit system associated with a drained sinkhole basin. Other anomalies detected in the shallow subsurface include large contrasts in geoelectrical measurements near the sinkhole basin interpreted also as a cave or conduit system. In contrast to anomalies, a mappable continuity of ERT and ReMi transects along the Green River suggests bedrock joints controlling the linear nature of bedrock highs and lows, similar to a series of grikes and clints that typify the south-central Kentucky karst.

Where Have All Our Naps Gone? Or Nathaniel Kleitman, the Consolidation of Sleep, and the Historiography of Emergence

In this article, I focus on two moments of Nathaniel Kleitman's career, specifically that of his Mammoth Cave experiment in the 1930s and his consultation with the United States military in the 1940s–1950s. My interests in bringing these two moments of Kleitman's career together are to examine the role of nature and the social in his understanding of human sleep and the legacies these have engendered for sleep science and medicine in the present; more specifically, I am interested in Kleitman's disallowance of napping in his scientific protocols, which may seem incidental until one apprehends the lack of napping as therapeutic treatment in modern sleep medicine. By forwarding a conception of historiography building on Raymond Williams’ “structures of feeling” and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's philosophy of immanence, I show how the work of William Dement in the 1970s to found a medicine of sleep and the eclipse of biphasic sleeping patterns as a biological and social possibility is indebted to Kleitman's scientific work. The modification of sleep is also the modification of society itself; and, as Kleitman argued, the harnessing of nature can lead to the finer entrenchments of human nature and society.

Approaching Cave Level Identification with GIS: A Case Study of Carter Caves

Cave passages that are found at similar elevations are grouped together and called levels. The current understanding is that passages within a level are speleogenetically linked to a common static baselevel or stratigraphic control. Cave levels have provided an interpretive framework for deciphering cave development, landscape evolution, and climatic changes. Cosmogenic dating has been successfully used to interpret levels in Mammoth Cave and the Cumberland Plateau; however, this technique is expensive and there are limited funding resources available. Geographic information systems may be used as preliminary procedures to identify cave levels and constrain the timing of level development. A GIS method is applied to the Carter Cave system in northeastern Kentucky. Cave entrance elevations along stream valleys were found by extracting elevation values from a m digital elevation model. Using a histogram generated from the frequency of cave elevations and a natural breaks classifier, four cave levels were identified in the Carter Cave system. This work improves the understanding of the Carter Cave system evolution and contributes toa methodology that can be used to ascertain an erosion history of karst systems.

Underground Tourists/Tourists Underground: African American Tourism to Mammoth Cave

This paper uses structuration theory and the methods of historical geography to explore the conditions in which a Jim Crow-era hotel run by and for American Americans flourished at the edge of one of the nineteenth century's most popular tourist destinations, Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. It identifies structures, legal and customary, that hindered African American travel, but also, in this particular region, other structures linked to early twentieth-century capitalism that allowed room for agency on the part of the hotel's proprietors. It demonstrates the importance of understanding networks of social relations when undertaking micro-scale structuration analysis and contributes to our understanding of a little-studied aspect of Jim Crow-era tourism, the use of temporal and spatial strategies to create separate places within white tourist destinations for African American tourists.

Seasonal Occurrence and Habitat Affiliations of Lampyridae at Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

Seasonal Occurrence and Habitat Affiliations of Lampyridae at Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

Enhanced Surveillance for White-Nose Syndrome in Bats

Enhanced Surveillance for White-Nose Syndrome in Bats

The pattern of caves: controls of epigenic speleogenesis

Cave development is related to the geomorphic evolution. Their morphology, preserved far longer than correlative surface features allows reconstructing the regional history of the surrounding landscape. Modeling shows that initial cave development occurs along the water table with loops in the phreatic zone along fractures. Consequently, cave profiles and levels reflect the local base level and its changes. Cave profile is controlled by timing, geological structure, and recharge. In first exposed rocks, juvenile pattern displays steep vadose passages. In perched aquifers, vadose erosion produces large passage along aquiclude. In dammed aquifers, the main drain is established at the water table when recharge is fairly regular. But when irregular recharge causes backflooding, looping profiles develop throughout the epiphreatic zone. Interconnected cave levels correspond to some of the largest cave systems in the world. The oldest abandoned highest levels have been dated beyond 3.5 Ma (Mammoth Cave). However, when base level rises, the deepest parts of the karst are flooded; the flow rises along phreatic lifts, and discharges at vauclusian springs. In the epiphreatic zone, floodwater produces looping tubes above the low-flow water table. In such a case of baselevel rise, per ascensum speleogenesis can produce higher-elevation passages that are younger than passages at lower elevations. Base-level rises occur after tectonic subsidence, filling of valleys, or sea-level rise, as for instance around the Mediterranean in response to the Messinian Crisis. Deep-phreatic karst, if not hypogenic, can generally be attributed to flooding by a base-level rise.

Phototransduction and clock gene expression in the troglobiont beetlePtomaphagus hirtusof Mammoth cave

Obligatory cave species exhibit dramatic trait modifications such as eye reduction, loss of pigmentation and an increase in touch receptors. As molecular studies of cave adaptation have largely concentrated on vertebrate models, it is not yet possible to probe for genetic universalities underlying cave adaptation. We have therefore begun to study the strongly cave-adapted small carrion beetle Ptomaphagus hirtus. For over 100 years, this flightless signature inhabitant of Mammoth Cave, the world's largest known cave system, has been considered blind despite the presence of residual lens structures. By deep sequencing of the adult head transcriptome, we discovered the transcripts of all core members of the phototransduction protein machinery. Combined with the absence of transcripts of select structural photoreceptor and eye pigmentation genes, these data suggest a reduced but functional visual system in P. hirtus. This conclusion was corroborated by a negative phototactic response of P. hirtus in light/dark choice tests. We further detected the expression of the complete circadian clock gene network in P. hirtus, raising the possibility of a role of light sensation in the regulation of oscillating processes. We speculate that P. hirtus is representative of a large number of animal species with highly reduced but persisting visual capacities in the twilight zone of the subterranean realm. These can now be studied on a broad comparative scale given the efficiency of transcript discovery by next-generation sequencing.

Historical GIS as a Platform for Public Memory at Mammoth Cave National Park

The Mammoth Cave Historical GIS (MCHGIS) fosters new understandings of a national park landscape as a historic farming community and offers a web-based platform for public memory of pre-park inhabitants. It maps the 1920 manuscript census at the household level over a streaming topographic map and georeferences Civilian Conservation Corps photographs of dwellings for visualization and analysis of the area’s population on the eve of creation of Mammoth Cave National Park. A web interface to the MCHGIS permits broader dissemination of archival holdings. Public participation GIS techniques are adapted to initiate a virtual site of public memory to supplement the history presented by institutionally-held materials with those donated from private holdings.

Development of a Specific Quantitative Real-Time PCR Assay to Monitor Chlorella DNA: A Case Study from Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, USA

Estimates of phytoplankton abundance are important parameters watched by stewards of water quality and freshwater ecology in rivers, streams, and reservoirs. A targeted phytoplankton assay for Chlorella DNA was developed to estimate the abundance of the predominant species of green algae in surface waters of Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA) in Kentucky, USA. The phytoplankton community in the Green River in MACA has been shown to consist of 95% Chlorella sp. (Wullschlegger et al. , 2003). Chlorella 18S rRNA gene sequences were amplified and quantified using Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qPCR) with primers specific for the family Chlorellaceae in the class Trebouxiophyceae, order Chlorellales. Concentrations of Chlorella DNA in river water samples were measured by comparison to a standard curve generated by DNA extracted from a live laboratory culture of C. vulgaris . DNA isolated from other sources including bacteria, amoebae, fungi, decapods, insects, cave sediment, and a different green alga, Chlamydomonas , produced no PCR products and thus did not interfere with the detection and quantification of Chlorella DNA. The assay proved quantitative over more than four orders of magnitude with a method detection limit (MDL) of approximately 2.3 x10 4 cells/L. Presence or absence of Chlorella DNA could be demonstrated at concentrations ten to 100 times lower than the calculated MDL. Chlorella was detected in lampenflora samples from three tourist trails, and Chlorella was absent from sediment samples off tourist trails that were known to contain high concentrations of bacterial DNA. Demonstration of the utility of the technique was illustrated by a case study in Mammoth Cave National Park to determine Chlorella concentrations at various sampling sites of karst surface streams where invasive zebra mussels are a threat to native species.

A Call to Enhance the Resiliency of the Nation’s Water Management

A little more than a decade ago, a small band of engineers and ecologists came together along the banks of the Green River of Kentucky to discuss a simple idea. The Green River—“where Paradise lay” in the words of John Prine—is in fact a magical place. Although Prine’s song “Paradise” laments the region’s environmental degradation and associated social decline—including the literal disappearance of the riverside town of Paradise—a large segment of the Green River remains a natural wonderland. Today, it is one of the most ecologically rich rivers in the nation, supporting more than 150 species of fish, 70 species of mussels, and a host of species endemic to the hydrologically connected Mammoth Cave complex. However, the environmental health of an extended reach of the Green has been diminished by changes in natural river flows caused by the Green River Dam, built as a multipurpose project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). It was this nexus of engineering infrastructure and ecological richness that spurred the group of engineers and ecologists to ask whether reservoir operations could be changed to restore the health of a significant reach of the Green River below the dam and meet— or even enhance—other project purposes. Their solution offers lessons on how water and floodplain management can be changed to better meet the nation’s current and future needs for more sustainable flood protection, water supply, hydropower, recreation, and environmental health. On a much larger scale, the current flooding in the Mississippi Basin—and the effectiveness of the flood-management system designed in the aftermath of the disastrous 1927 Mississippi flood—emphasizes the importance of using floodplains to help manage floods and the great value in learning from past events and responding with comprehensive water-management systems. As we describe subsequently, it is time to explore more sustainable approaches to floodplain management and to examine opportunities for reallocation of reservoir storage coupled with tighter integration of reservoir and floodplain management. These two components of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) will help to alleviate current stresses on water resources and enhance both social and ecological resiliency. Growing Stresses on Water Management

A Descriptive Study of Guided Tours at Mammoth Cave National Park

For most visitors, guided tours are the only way to experience a cave. Since few studies have been conducted in these settings, there is no explanation for a recent decline in attendance at many well-known caves and caverns across the United States. A mail-back survey was administered to 660 visitors at Mammoth Cave National Park to learn more about the social aspects of visitation, focusing on those who took at least one guided tour. Results showed a low level of crowding, along with high approvals and value for the fee paid. Some possible strategies were mentioned to reverse the decline in cave tour attendance.

Observations on the biology of the endangered stygobiotic shrimp Palaemonias alabamae, with notes on P. ganteri (Decapoda: Atyidae)

Palaemonias alabamae is endemic to subterranean waters in northern Alabama. Its type locality is Shelta Cave, Madison County, and ostensibly conspecifi c shrimps have been found in Bobcat and two other caves. Pollution and other factors may have extirpated the shrimp from the type locality. In Shelta Cave the species is smaller than the shrimp in Bobcat Cave and P. ganteri in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Adult female P. alabamae (s.s.) and P. ganteri are larger than males. Female P. alabamae with visible oocytes or, rarely, attached ova, were observed from July through January in Shelta Cave. Each female there produces 8 to 12 large ova, whereas females of the population in Bobcat Cave produce 20 to 24 ova, and P. ganteri produces 14 to 33 ova. Plankton samples taken in Shelta and Mammoth caves yielded nothing identifi able as zoea or postlarvae. Palaemonias alabamae and P. ganteri usually feed by fi ltering bottom sediments through their mouthparts, but both sometimes feed upside down at the water’s surface. Although there is some overlap, the compositions of the aquatic communities in Shelta and Mammoth caves differ, and there are some major differences among the Alabama shrimp caves. The stygobiotic fi sh, Typhlichthys subterraneus, is a known predator on P. alabamae in Shelta Cave.

Trying the Dark: Mammoth Cave and the Racial Imagination, 1839–1869

Trying the Dark: Mammoth Cave and the Racial Imagination, 1839–1869