New paper: The challenges of conducting research belowground

by | May 3, 2021

Shortly after I first became interested in the web-building behaviour of cave spiders, I began a collaboration with two early career Italian scientists, Dr Enrique Lunghi and Dr Stefano Mammola focussing not only on spiders, but also on the wider aspect of conducting behavioural studies in caves and other subterranean habitats. This led us to work on a review paper on the current (very sparse) body of research on subterranean ethology including some of the methodological reasons for the lack of research. While we are still working on the first part, the latter part was split out, expanded both in scope and in collaborators, and have now been published in Ecology and Evolution. In the paper, we identify two main challenges: habitat impediments (the obstacles to conducting field work under dark, humid and spatially constrained conditions) and biological impediments (low population densities and high sensitivity to disturbances). We suggest a number of ways to overcome these obstacles including future options such as using biorobotics, computer models and making use of extended phenotypes as well as reviewing the different ways to study these organisms; in-situ (field work in caves), ex-situ (in the laboratory), quasi in-situ (labs in caves) and in silico (computer models). It is our hope that this paper will further stimulate research on the behaviour and ecology of cave organisms (which we know very little about for the vast majority of cave-dwelling species) and establish this ecosystem as model systems for answering questions in ecology and evolution.

Mammola, S., Lunghi, E., Bilandzija, H., Cardoso, P. Grimm V., Schmidt, S. I., Hesselberg, T. and Martínez, A. (2021). Collecting eco-evolutionary data in the dark: Impediments to subterranean research and how to overcome them. Ecology and Evolution, Early View.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.7556

Abstract

  1. Caves and other subterranean habitats fulfill the requirements of experimental model systems to address general questions in ecology and evolution. Yet, the harsh working conditions of these environments and the uniqueness of the subterranean organisms have challenged most attempts to pursuit standardized research.
  2. Two main obstacles have synergistically hampered previous attempts. First, there is a habitat impediment related to the objective difficulties of exploring subterranean habitats and our inability to access the network of fissures that represents the elective habitat for the so‐called “cave species.” Second, there is a biological impediment illustrated by the rarity of most subterranean species and their low physiological tolerance, often limiting sample size and complicating laboratory experiments.
  3. We explore the advantages and disadvantages of four general experimental setups (in situ, quasi in situ, ex situ, and in silico) in the light of habitat and biological impediments. We also discuss the potential of indirect approaches to research. Furthermore, using bibliometric data, we provide a quantitative overview of the model organisms that scientists have exploited in the study of subterranean life.
  4. Our over‐arching goal is to promote caves as model systems where one can perform standardized scientific research. This is important not only to achieve an in‐depth understanding of the functioning of subterranean ecosystems but also to fully exploit their long‐discussed potential in addressing general scientific questions with implications beyond the boundaries of this discipline.