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In the underground rivers and flooded caves of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where Mayan lore described a fantastical underworld, scientists have found a cryptic world in its own right.
Here, methane and the bacteria that feed off it form the lynchpin of an ecosystem that is similar to what has been found in deep ocean cold seeps and some lakes, according to recent research by Texas AM University at Galveston, the U.S. Geological Survey and a team of collaborators from Mexico, The Netherlands, Switzerland and other U.S. institutions.
The research, conducted by scientists who are trained in cave diving in addition to their other expertise, is the most detailed ecological study ever for a coastal cave ecosystem that is always underwater. In fact, the scientists had to use techniques that had previously been used by deep-sea submergence vehicles to be able to study the environment.
“The opportunity to work with an international team of experts has been a remarkable experience for me,” said David Brankovits, who is the paper’s lead author and conducted the research during his Ph.D. studies at TAMUG. “Finding that methane and other forms of mostly invisible dissolved organic matter are the foundation of the food web in these caves explains why cave-adapted animals are able to thrive in the water column in a habitat without visible evidence of food.”
Read more at US Geological Survey
Image: Ox Bel Ha Cave Project Field Team Members (left to right) David Brankovits (TAMUG), Jake Emmert (Moody Gardens), John Pohlman (USGS), and Francisco Bautista De La Cruz (Speleotech). (Credit: Jacob Pohlman. Public domain.)
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