Caribbean Cave Biodiversity Project

Caribbean Cave Biodiversity Project
Name	Caribbean Cave Biodiversity Project
Established	2010
Region	Caribbean
Focus	Speleobiology, Conservation, Biodiversity Inventory
Partners	International Union for Conservation of Nature, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Caribbean Cave Biodiversity Project The Caribbean Cave Biodiversity Project is a multi-institutional initiative that inventories subterranean biota across the Greater and Lesser Antilles, assessing endemic taxa, karst habitats, and anthropogenic threats. The project integrates expertise from organizations including the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and numerous universities to inform protected area planning and species assessments. Field campaigns link geoscience, taxonomy, and conservation policy with regional agencies to generate baseline data for IUCN Red List evaluations and national biodiversity strategies.

Overview

The project operates across island systems such as Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Anguilla, Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, Saint Barthélemy, and British Virgin Islands. Collaborating academic partners include University of the West Indies, University of Puerto Rico, University of Havana, University of Miami, Florida International University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Leeds, Cornell University, University of California, Berkeley, Smithsonian Institution, Natural History Museum, London, American Museum of Natural History, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, National Autonomous University of Mexico, University of Florida, Yale University, Colby College, Duke University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Oklahoma State University, University of Glasgow, University of Copenhagen, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of British Columbia, Monash University, University of Adelaide, Australian National University, Max Planck Society, and CNRS.

Objectives and Scope

Primary objectives align with directives from Convention on Biological Diversity and assessment priorities of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, aiming to document troglobiont and stygobiont diversity, map karst features, and evaluate vulnerability to land-use change driven by tourism, mining, and agriculture. The scope spans taxonomy, phylogenetics, biogeography, and policy uptake, linking outputs to instruments such as the Nagoya Protocol, Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, and regional accords like the Caribbean Community environmental frameworks. Additional goals include capacity building with institutions such as Caribbean Development Bank and training initiatives co-designed with United Nations Environment Programme field offices and national ministries of Environment (country-level) in participating states.

Methods and Fieldwork

Fieldwork protocols synthesize speleological standards from bodies like the National Speleological Society and molecular workflows from institutes including Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Teams conduct systematic surveys using techniques refined at Biospeleology laboratories and deploy equipment supplied by partners such as Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and United States Geological Survey. Methods include baited traps, directed hand-collecting, eDNA sampling following protocols from European Molecular Biology Laboratory, water chemistry analyses with instrumentation from Roche Diagnostics and Thermo Fisher Scientific, and micro-CT imaging at facilities like European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and Argonne National Laboratory. Phylogenetic analyses use pipelines established at Broad Institute and Wellcome Sanger Institute while digital specimen curation leverages collections management systems at Global Biodiversity Information Facility and barcode data deposited in Barcode of Life Data System.

Key Findings and Species Discoveries

Surveys documented new species across multiple phyla, including novel Crustacea, Arachnida, Insecta, Gastropoda, Annelida, Porifera, and Cnidaria records within subterranean networks. Notable taxonomic contributions were published with partners such as Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Journal of Biogeography, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, PLOS ONE, and Systematic Biology. Discoveries included undescribed amphipods resembling taxa from Family Crangonyctidae, blind spider lineages allied to genera reported from Family Pholcidae, and endemic isopods comparable to genera in Asellidae. Genetic data revealed cryptic lineages with divergence patterns consistent with vicariance events tied to Paleogene and Neogene tectonics documented by researchers at Geological Society of America and US Geological Survey. Biogeographic analyses referenced island colonization models developed in studies from Alfred Russel Wallace-inspired frameworks and comparative work involving Charles Darwin-era faunal synthesis.

Conservation and Management Implications

Findings informed protected-area designation processes overseen by agencies including Protected Planet, Ramsar Convention, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and national conservation authorities in Bahamas National Trust, Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust, and Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. Recommendations addressed threats from quarrying with regulatory links to International Finance Corporation performance standards, groundwater contamination modeled using approaches from World Bank environmental safeguards, and land-use planning coordinated with Inter-American Development Bank projects. Results contributed to IUCN Red List assessments and to national biodiversity strategies prepared for Convention on Biological Diversity reporting cycles.

Collaboration and Funding

The project received funding and logistical support from entities including National Science Foundation, European Commission, National Geographic Society, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Nature Conservancy, Biodiversity Foundation for the Americas, USAID, Global Environment Facility, Ford Foundation, and regional agencies such as Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. Collaborative networks involved specialist societies like International Society for Microbial Ecology, Society for Conservation Biology, Entomological Society of America, British Cave Research Association, and museum collaborations with Field Museum of Natural History and Royal Ontario Museum.

Outreach and Publications

Outreach programs partnered with Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Caribbean Public Health Agency, Caribbean Examinations Council for STEM curricula, and regional NGOs including Blue Ventures and Rare. Peer-reviewed outputs appeared in journals such as Nature Communications, Science Advances, Conservation Biology, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, and monographs produced with publishers like Springer Nature and Cambridge University Press. Data repositories and open-access resources were made available via Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Dryad (repository), and institutional repositories at Smithsonian Institution and Natural History Museum, London.

Category:Caves of the Caribbean Category:Biological surveys