Science

Cavern Formation

It all began with a drop of water. A shallow inland sea covered this area 330 million years ago, depositing layers of sediment that eventually hardened into limestone. Millions of years later this Escabrosa limestone along with other rock layers uplifted to form the Whetstone Mountains. The Escabrosa limestone, due to a type of tremor or fault, down-dropped thousands of feet relative to the mountains above.

Rainwater, made slightly acidic by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and soil, penetrated cracks in the down-dropped limestone block and slowly dissolved passages in it. Later, lowering groundwater levels left behind vast, air-filled rooms.

Kartchner Caverns' wide variety of decorations, called “speleothems,” began forming drop by drop over the next 200,000 years.

Water seeping from the surface dissolves minerals on its trip through the limestone. Once it reaches the cave, the trapped carbon dioxide escapes from the water. No longer able to hold the dissolved calcite, the drop deposits its tiny mineral load. Over time, these minerals have created the beautiful speleothems and variety of colors found in the cave. Kartchner Caverns is a “living” cave; the formations are still growing!

Bats and other Cave Creatures

Notice: White-Nose Syndrome Confirmed in Oklahoma

In May 2010, a bat collected from a cave in western Oklahoma has tested 100% positive for the fungus associated with white-nose syndrome (WNS). White-nose syndrome has already caused the death of over 1 million bats in the eastern United States. This latest finding in Oklahoma puts WNS approximately 600 miles from AZ. WNS is expected to continue to move westward. The Arizona Game & Fish Department is currently beginning to outline a response plan and looking at where to target surveillance activities for winter 2011. Because of the scarcity of hibernacula records in AZ, there are plans to begin collecting temperature/humidity data from a number of caves/mines to help prioritize areas for monitoring. In addition, the agency is keeping abreast of the latest WNS news and engaging dialogue with neighboring states through a variety of avenues. For more information on Arizona's response, contact Angie McIntire, Bat Specialist, Arizona Game & Fish Department at (623) 236-7574.

During the summer months, the cave's Big Room serves as a nursery roost for over 1,000 female cave myotis bats. The pregnant females return to Kartchner Caverns around the end of April, where they give birth to a single pup in late June. The babies remain in the roost each evening while their mothers forage for insects in the surrounding countryside. During the summer the colony consumes about half a ton of insects, consisting of moths, flying ants, beetles, mosquitoes and termites. Mothers and their offspring will leave mid-September, to begin their migration for their winter hibernation roost. These bats provide the only link between the ecosystem of the cave and the surface.

After returning to the bat roost from their nightly forays, the bats excrete waste, forming large guano piles. Most of the other life forms found in the cave depend on these guano piles for their food. Fungi and bacteria consume the guano first. These are in turn eaten by nematodes, mites, isopods, amphipods, and book lice. These are then eaten by spiders, scorpions, mites, millipedes, and centipedes. Scavengers, like crickets and beetle larvae, clean up the leftovers. The bats' guano provides the energy needed to run this complex food chain. For more information, read the Feature Story about Bats

Mycology Science & Research Brief

Joe Vaughan samples a sizeable guano deposit in the Big Room. This pile, covered with a fungal-rich layer, was deposited last summer by cave Myotis (Myotis velifer)

Some of you may know that mycology is the study of fungi. However, did you also know that even though all molds are fungi, not all fungi are molds! So, we invite you to stay tuned on this project and others taking place at Kartchner Caverns State Park that support the park’s mission for continuing discovery, promoting science-informed and adaptive cave management, building advocacy for conservation and education, and showcasing only a portion of a more extensive and beautiful cavern system that is so worth protecting.

This recent mycology program is in partnership with graduate student, Joseph Vaughan, who is working under the direction of Dr. Barry Pryor from the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona. Although micro-fungi make up an essential portion of the microbial population in many ecosystems, yet not enough is known about the different types, distributions, life cycles, and intricate linkages that fungi play in caves and their supporting surface environments. Kartchner Caverns, having been developed and maintained in order to protect a range of biological communities, provides an excellent laboratory venue to examine microscopic caveinhabiting microbes and fungi in a nearly pristine environment. This project proposes to investigate fungal communities living in association with bat guano, an essential nutrient source for many cave ecosystems. In addition to exploring the species richness of fungi living on or near the guano, this project will examine fungal community diversity and life cycle changes across a gradient from the Sink Hole entrance of the Big Room complex, where our bats raise their young during the summer months. The project will address questions about the source of various fungi in Kartchner Caverns and how these fungi are distributed through the cave. The idea is to learn if types and locations of different fungi in the cave are constrained to only bats as vectors, to learn if and why fungal types vary in their distribution on the piles and throughout the cave, and if locations and growth vary in time and space. Download research to read more.

Download Mycology Science & Research Brief ( 1.2 MB PDF)

Paleontology of the cave

While exploring the cave, paleontologists, those who study prehistoric life, uncovered an 86,000 year record of the local faunal community. The finds included the following: skeletons of an 86,000 year old Shasta ground sloth, a 34,000 year old horse, and an 11,000 year old bear, as well as terrestrial snails, a clam, a toad, lizards, rabbits, snakes, a coyote, a ringtail, and many species of rodents. These discoveries have lead paleontologists to declare Kartchner Caverns a treasure house of information on the local fossil history of the uplands around the San Pedro River Valley.

Hydrology

The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, SAHRA, and Arizona State Parks jointly created an interactive website about the key role of water in the history and evolution of Kartchner Caverns and the San Pedro River Basin. The online program introduces the hydrology of the caverns: how water created the cave spaces and formations; how it continues to shape the caverns today; and the water cycle of the Upper San Pedro Basin. Visit the website. (Flash Plug-in required).

Kartchner Caverns Microbial Observatory

In 2006, Kartchner Caverns was added to the National Science Foundatio's worldwide network of Microbial Observatories. The goal of the Microbial Observatories program is to study and describe the phylogenetic (who is there) and functional (what do they do) diversity of microbial communities on the beautiful formations found in the cave. Kartchner Caverns is the only cave in the network. The Kartchner Caverns Microbial Observatory is a collaboration between the laboratories of four investigators at the University of Arizona: Dr. Raina Maier, Dr. Leland S. Pierson III, Dr. Barry M. Prior, and Dr. Rod Wing. Microbial Observatory Website

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