Conservation, monitoring and restoration assessment of the world-class cave biodiversity hotspot in Portugal Subterranean Ecology

A single cave in the karst area of the Algarve (Barrocal) has been identified as world hotspot for subterranean biodiversity, due to its incomparable richness in endemic species, many of those only known from this location. A geosite in the UNESCO Geopark Algarvensis that faces several acute threats, such as urbanization and degradation of surface influence areas. We present the Barrocal-Cave project, which lays the foundations for the conservation of this world-class cave biodiversity hotspot. Our results show that the invertebrate biodiversity, composed by >20 species of cave-adapted arthropods, has several biological relicts endangered of extinction and with high conservationist value. The cave-adapted biodiversity, and its atmosphere with low O2, and high CO2 and Radon values, shows pronounced seasonal variation, stratified with depth. Ongoing work established the first Long-Term Ecological Research in a cave in Western Europe. Information generated allowed the creation of the first Protected Area for troglobionts in Portugal – a recently achieved legal classification that will ensure the protection of this unique natural heritage and paves the way for the national protection strategy for subterranean ecosystems.

This work is supported by Prémio Belmiro de Azevedo-FCT (2023.10009.PRIZE), and by the Chair in Sustainability of Subterranean Ecosystems – Loulé.
 

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