Mapping subterranean resources: The cave invertebrates distribution as indicator of food availability

Abstract

The trophic dynamic in cave ecosystems is poorly known, even being essential for understanding the
structure and function of an entire cave ecosystem. The determination of sites of resource availability in caves is the
first step to understand its trophic dynamic. We propose here methods to indicate resource accumulation sites in
caves. The overlap of distribution of a pair of invertebrate scavenger species can indicate the sites of resource
accumulation. It was assumed that sites where these organisms are more abundant are probably those with higher
resource availability. To be good indicators, these species should not exclude one another competitively. In addition,
species populations must be generalist, abundant, wide distributed into the cave and easily sampled by pitfall traps.
The distribution of invertebrates as a method we propose is very important, since the structure of cave communities are
strongly resource dependent. Hence, the detection of sites with greater resource availability is fundamental to understand
the trophic dynamics of cave communities.