The effects of human visitation on terrestrial cavernicolous arthropods

The effects of human visitation on arthropods present in the terrestrial cave environment was investigated. Five cave sites (2 heavy visitation and 3 light visitation) in the Organ Cave system were sampled for arthropods using two methods, bait trapping and quadrat sampling by mouth aspiration. Samples were taken from three zones at each cave site; the surface zone, the entrance zone, and the deep cave zone. Jackknifed values indicated that there was a slight decrease in the species evenness of entrance bait trap and deep cave aspiration samples in cave sites associated with increased human visitation. A small decrease in diversity and evenness was also noted in heavy traffic entrance bait trap samples when viewing troglobitic and troglophilic arthropod species. Overall, results indicated that high levels of human visitation have a slightly negative effect on terrestrial cavernicolous arthropod communities.