January, 2013, on the website of Fauna & Flora international，Dr. Tony Whitten (Fauna & Flora International’s Asia-Pacific regional director) posted a story about his experience of attending the symposium regarding karst and cave biodiversity of southern China. In his story, Dr. Whitten not only described how successful this cave diversity project was, but also expressed his concern of environment protection of Asia’s karst landscapes.
By collaborating with Dr. Whitten, on a letter to Science (April 19th, 2013), Dr. SHU Shusen (Kunming Institute of Zoology, the CAS) and his colleagues pointed out that under threat from drought and human activities, the karst region of Guangxi, China and other areas of Asia are endangered. It is said that “We do not want to see a newly revealed global biodiversity hotspot lost before it is known”.
Karst is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks including limestone, dolomite and gypsum. It is characterized by sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage systems. Those caves are habitats of large varieties of animals and plants. To adapt to a cave’s total darkness, constant temperature and high humidity, cave species usually lack of pigmentation, have reduced eyes and low reproductive rates, but develop increased sensory structures. For example, cave cricket has no eyes, but compensates for this with its incredibly long antennae. Also, because of the adaptations, many species are incapable of living outside of the caves, and some are even restricted to a single hill or cave system as they unable to cross the non-limestone habitat in between,
Guangxi Autonomous Region, southern China is of special meaning in cave biodiversity as 40% of its surface covered in karst limestone towers and cones. From 2005 to 2012, the cave diversity project, supported by the World Bank/Global Environment Facility, allowed Chinese and international scientists to survey the fauna of 117 caves in 32 parts of Guangxi. Nearly 10,000 cave specimens and over 500 species were collected, and 150 of these were unknown to science. Most species are limited to a single cave.
Southern China have been experiencing drought since 2009, meanwhile, people are keep searching for and extracting underground water. Climate change and poor environmental management have combined and created a disaster to the entire region but the impact on cave biodiversity has been overlooked. Dr. SHU said “by writing this letter, we hope more attention could be raised in favor of saving Asia’s karst landscapes with their incredible biodiversity from drought”.
To read more details about the full text, please click the following link: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6130/272.1.full.
(By Su-Qing Liu)
