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Cave Structure and Cave Faunal Diversity in Kenting Area

For the purpose to understand the diversity, distribution and abundance of faunas, and to determine the variables that would influence the faunal diversity in caves and tunnels, observations and records had been made during September 1999 to June 2000 in Kenting area, the southern tip of Taiwan. A total number of 19 caves and 2 tunnels were studied. Among them, 4 caves are located in the forest recreation area, 15 caves in the natural preserved area, 1 tunnel in Guanshan village and another tunnel in Mt. Dayuan area.
All the faunal species included 3 species of Malacostraca, 2 species of Arachnida, 2 species of Chilopoda, 3 species of Insecta, 3 species of Amphibia, 3 species of Reptilia and 7 species of Mammalia. Among these fauna species, the crickets (Ceuthophilus maculatus), the spiders (Heteropoda venatoria) and the ants (Polyrhachis sp.) had a widely distribution and are the most common species in caves and tunnels.
Among all the continuous structural variables of caves and tunnels, the entrance height (r=-0.47) and the entrance area (r=-0.48) had a negative correlation with Shannon-Wiener¡¦s diversity (p<0.05). On the other hand, the total length (r=0.48) and the length of dark zone (r=0.52) had a positive correlation with diversity (p<0.05). In addition, the height of the dark zone had a negative correlation (r=-0.53, p<0.05) with evenness.
Among the categorical descriptive variables, human disturbance and multiple chambers had a significant difference with Shannon-Wiener¡¦s diversity (P<0.05). The caves or tunnels visited by people from 2 to 4 times per month had the highest values of diversity, and the caves or tunnels visited by people more than 4 times per month had the lowest values of diversity. In addition, the values of diversity in caves and tunnels with multiple chambers were higher than the ones in caves and tunnels without multiple chambers.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0801100-144044
Date01 August 2000
CreatorsHuang, Chih-Yuan
ContributorsG. Agoramoorthy, Minna J. Hsu, Bao-Sen Shieh
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0801100-144044
Rightsoff_campus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive

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