Spiders in caves: the CAWEB project
2017
Mammola, Stefano | Gasparo, Fulvio | Komenov, Marjan | Růžička, Vlastimil | Déjean, Sylvain | Danflous, Samuel | Brustel, Hervé | Vargovitsh, Robert S. | Rozwałka, Robert | Moldovan, Oana | Pavlek, Martina | Deltshev, Christo | Petrov, Boyan | Naumova, Maria | Mock, Andrej | Kovac, Lubomir | Cardoso, Pedro | Dányi, László | Angyal, Dorottya | Balázs, Gergely | Ribera, Carles | Prieto, Carlos E. | Fernández, Jon | Komposch, Christian | Carter, Julian | Isaia, Marco | Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology [University of Turin] ; Università degli studi di Torino = University of Turin (UNITO) | Società Alpina delle Giulie | Blwd Kuzman Josifovski Pitu ; Independent | Institute of Entomology | Conservatoire Régional des Espaces Naturels Midi-Pyrénées (CREN Midi-Pyrénées) | Dynamiques Forestières dans l'Espace Rural (DYNAFOR) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-École nationale supérieure agronomique de Toulouse (ENSAT) ; Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT) | Dynamiques et écologie des paysages agriforestiers (DYNAFOR) ; École nationale supérieure agronomique de Toulouse (ENSAT) ; Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Ecole d'Ingénieurs de Purpan (INP - PURPAN) ; Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE) | National Academy of Sciences ; 2101 Constitution Ave. NW | Zakład Zoologii (UMCS) | Institute of Speleology | Croatian Biospelological Society ; Rudjer Boskovic Institute [Zagreb] | National Museum of Natural History | Institut Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research | University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik | Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki | Hungarian Natural History Museum (Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum) | Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology ; Institute of Biology [Budapest] ; Faculty of Sciences [Budapest] ; Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE)-Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE)-Faculty of Sciences [Budapest] ; Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE)-Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) | Animal Cell Biology ; Universidad del País Vasco [Espainia] / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea [España] = University of the Basque Country [Spain] = Université du pays basque [Espagne] (UPV / EHU) | University of Barcelona | Institut für Tierökologie und Naturbildung | National Museum of Wales
session 01 - Diversity and faunistics <br/>session 01 - Diversity and faunistics<br/>session 01 - Diversity and faunistics
Show more [+] Less [-]English. World experts of different disciplines, from molecular biology to macroecology, recognize the value of cave ecosystems as ideal ecological and evolutionary laboratories. Among other subterranean taxa, spiders stand out as intriguing model organisms for their ecological role of top-predators, their unique adaptations to the hypogean medium and their sensitivity to anthropogenic disturbance. Here, we provide a general overview of the spider families recorded in hypogean habitats in Europe–20 families including nearly 500 species, most of them with restricted distributions. We also review the different adaptations of hypogean spiders to subterranean life and summarize the information gathered so far about their origin, population structure, ecology and conservation status. Taxonomic knowledge on subterranean spiders in Europe appears to be well, but not exhaustively documented. The origin of the European assemblages is mostly explained by past climate dynamics, although other factors are likely to be involved. Most of the macroecological issues related to spiders in European caves are based on qualitative assessments or have been quantified only at a sub-regional scale. In order to shed light on cave spiders’ biogeography and the macroecological patterns driving the diversity of European subterranean spiders we created the CAWEB network, a spontaneous collaboration between subterranean arachnologists from 30 different European countries. We here present the team and provide some preliminary results, which highlight Southern Europe as an important hot-spot for the European subterranean spider diversity.
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