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June 20, 2009

Exploring nature

Ohio students researching ecology in Carter Caves

By MIKE JAMES - The Independent

OLIVE HILL — The stream was knee-deep and cold, very cold.

The stone roof was shoulder-high and hard, very hard.

Helmets guarded against concussion but nothing stopped the frigid water from penetrating shoes and socks and turning toes into icicles.

The 14 high school students slogging through Horn Hollow Cave may have been wet but they were not miserable — far from it. They were having the time of their lives.

They were looking for spiders.

The cool limestone caves that pepper this part of Kentucky are home to an arachnid species called “meta ovalis.” The spiders cling to the rocky roofs and walls of the caves, weaving webs and chowing down on other invertebrates.

What’s interesting about them, from a scientist’s perspective, is that, while they live in the cave, they’re not adapted to the environment. They can see and their bodies are pigmented, unlike, say, the ghostly white blind cave fish that swim sightlessly in the pitch-black waters of Mammoth Cave. And they live in all parts of the caves, from the well-lit entrances to the inky depths where no light penetrates.

The scientific term is “troglophile,” according to Meghan Rector, an Ohio State University graduate student who is studying them. The students helping with her study all this week were sophomores and juniors enrolled at science-intensive schools in Columbus and Cleveland.

The 14 students spent the week at the Carter Caves State Resort Park, camping and exploring the caves. The field school was organized by the PAST — Partnering Anthropology with Science and Technology — Foundation, which specializes in projects that bring together experts from multiple disciplines.

In this case, there were cavers, an entomologist, an archaeologist and a documentary filmmaker, all of them sharing their expertise with the students.

For instance, the filmmaker was documenting the school, and he recruited the students as assistants.

“It’s a multidisciplinary approach that brings them insight into careers,” said program coordinator Ann Corscadden.

In Horn Hollow Cave, groups of students teamed off to observe the spiders in three cave environments Rector labeled the entrance, twilight and dark zones. A cave ecologist, Rector was largely interested in documenting the proportion of spiders to other small animals — their potential prey. She also wanted data on temperature, humidity, cave size and so on.

Whether the students pursue cave ecology following the school is less important than the scientific mindset they’re learning. “It’s an introduction to enquiry-based learning they will tend to use in other areas,” Corscadden said.

Trishaunna Blackwood, for instance, didn’t know much about caves and didn’t know anything about spiders before the school. The high school sophomore wants to be a meteorologist.

But it’s all science. “The more experience you get, the more opportunities you will have,” she said.

Carter Caves is a common site for research and education, said park naturalist Coy Ainsley. Scientists at Wittenburg University, in particular, have been doing cave ecology studies there for years.

A side benefit for the park is the extensive mapping of the cave system that researchers have done, he said.

Also, the park gets copies of research theses and keeps them in an archive, he said.

Ainsley has a park to run so he doesn’t have much time for research. That’s why the park depends on academics to build on the body of knowledge about the caves, he said.

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.

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