Caves are fascinating and interesting from many perspectives. They are unique biological and geological environments, and they often provide clues to past climates and life forms. They come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, and can be formed by a variety of geological processes. They harbor many unique life forms, most of which have no eyes or pigment. They have also played an important role in human history as habitations, as sources of minerals and as religious sites. Caves continue to be important because of their connection to ground water; finally, they are well-known recreational resources.
Encyclopedia of Caves brings together these disparate topics with scientifically uncompromising and yet accessibly written essays by the world's leading scholars of caves.
Front Cover.
Half Title Page.
Title Page.
Copyright Page.
Contents.
Contents by Subject Area.
Contributors.
Guide to the Encyclopedia.
Foreword.
Preface.
1: Adaptation to Darkness.
2: Adaptation to Low Food.
3: Adaptation to Low Oxygen.
4: Adaptive Shifts.
5: Anchialine Caves, Biodiversity in.
6: Anchialine Caves.
7: Bats.
8: Beetles.
9: Behavioral Adaptations.
10: Breakdown.
11: Burnsville Cove, Virginia.
12: Camps.
13: Castleguard Cave, Canada.
14: Cave, Definition of.
15: Cave Dwellers in the Middle East.
16: Chemoautotrophy.
17: Clastic Sediments in Caves.
18: Closed Depressions.
19: Coastal Caves.
20: Contamination of Cave Waters by Heavy Metals.
21: Contamination of Cave Waters by Nonaqueous Phase Liquids.