Another thing about subterranean habitats, that make them so different, is that they *usually* have very little energy flowing through them with regard to biological food webs. For example, surface habitats have plants -- powered by the sun through photosynthesis – and lots of energy moves through these food webs. Surface habitats typically have a lot of plants growing in them, serving as the foundation of most surface food webs. In the dark, photosynthesis doesn’t work. In fact, most subterranean food webs are powered by the decomposition of organics that originated outside the subterranean habitat (allochthonous inputs) – which somehow found their way into said habitats -- and then break down. Relatively little energy flows through decomposition based food webs. In as much, less energy means fewer species and fewer individuals of the species that are present relative to surface systems. This image depicts a cave crayfish feeding on a dead Pickerel Frog. Pickerel Frogs in the Ozarks inhabit caves when it is really hot or really cold outside (caves serve as thermal refugia). During their transits into and out of Ozark caves, some frogs die... and their bodies are not uncommon encounters. The image depicts an example of an allochthonous input into a subterranean food web. This is an imperiled Delaware County Cave Crayfish (Cambarus subterraneus) feeding on the corpse of a Pickerel Frog (Lithobates palustris) in the Ozarks of Oklahoma.
Posted 3 years ago
''Cambarus subterraneus'', the Delaware County cave crayfish, is a species of crayfish in the family Cambaridae. It has been found only in three caves in Delaware County, Oklahoma.
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