Cave Aquatic Biota in CUPN Parks

National Park Service

Cave aquatic ecosystems were selected for monitoring at three CUPN parks, Cumberland Gap National Historic Park (CUGA), Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA), and Russell Cave National Monument (RUCA), because subsurface waters in these parks support unique communities of aquatic organisms including the federally listed endangered Kentucky cave shrimp (Palaemonias ganten) at MACA. Indeed, the counties in which RUCA, CUGA, and MACA are located rank first, fifth, and sixth, respectively, among the ten counties in the contiguous United States that account for >25% of endemic cave obligate fauna. The water in cave aquatic ecosystems is ultimately derived from surface water. Because watersheds within CUPN's cave parks are recharged by land outside their boundaries how the land is used can contribute to the degradation of subsurface water in CUPN cave parks. Agricultural pollutants (e.g., animal waste) and some urban pollutants (e.g., parking lot and road runoff) can accumulate on the surface in "virtual storage" until rainfall events wash them into watersheds or directly into cave streams. Springs can also act as conduits from surface waters when they back flood into cave streams. Finally, the predicted rise in the frequency of extreme climate events (e.g., heavy precipitation) across the Southeast region may, through increasingly intense flooding, affect the diversity and distribution of organisms in cave aquatic ecosystems.