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Finding karstic caves and rockshelters in the Inner Asian mountain corridor using predictive modelling and field survey.

ABSTRACT: The area of the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC) follows the foothills and piedmont zones around the northern limits of Asia's interior mountains, connecting two important areas for human evolution: the Fergana valley and the Siberian Altai. Prior research has suggested the IAMC may have provided an area of connected refugia from harsh climates during the Pleistocene. To date, this region contains very few secure, dateable Pleistocene sites, but its widely available carbonate units present an opportunity for discovering cave sites, which generally preserve longer sequences and organic remains. Here we present two models for predicting karstic cave and rockshelter features in the Kazakh portion of the IAMC. The 2018 model used a combination of lithological data and unsupervised landform classification, while the 2019 model used feature locations from the results of our 2017-2018 field surveys in a supervised classification using a minimum-distance classifier and morphometric features derived from the ASTER digital elevation model (DEM). We present the results of two seasons of survey using two iterations of the karstic cave models (2018 and 2019), and evaluate their performance during survey. In total, we identified 105 cave and rockshelter features from 2017-2019. We conclude that this model-led approach significantly reduces the target area for foot survey.

SUBMITTER: Cuthbertson P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7816991 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundThermal gradients along changes in elevation in mountainous environments are reflected by different biotas. Although there have been studies of elevation variation in bat assemblages in summer, winter changes in the same gradients remain unknown.Methodology/principal findingsThe objective of this study was to document changes in the species composition of bats hibernating in caves along a temperate elevational gradient. We studied 70 caves between from 300 m to 1,930 m altitude along a slope of the Carpathian Mountains in southern Poland. We recorded changes in bats, including species richness, abundance, altitudinal distribution and dominance during consecutive winters between 2003 and 2009. Similarity of dominance of faunal structure was assessed by using the Bray-Curtis similarity index. We used the generalised additive model and rarefaction to study the variation in species richness, and generalized additive mixed models to examine the effect of abiotic factors on the qualitative and quantitative structure of bat assemblages. During 351 surveys we recorded 13,856 hibernating bats from 15 species. Species richness peaked around mid-elevation (1,100-1,400 m a.s.l.) with richness declining at both higher and lower elevations. Based on the results of a cluster analysis, we could distinguish among four altitudinal zones that differed in species richness and dominance structure.Conclusions/significanceThis is the first study documenting changes in species richness and variation of structure of bats hibernating in caves along an elevational gradient. The most surprising and key finding is the fact that changes in the structure of assemblages of hibernating bats along the altitudinal gradient occurred in jumps, forming zones similar to those observed in the vegetation zones. Moreover, species richness and dominance structure of assemblages of hibernating bats in the mountains depended not only on location above sea level, but also on local geomorphologic conditions which strongly affected the microclimate of the caves.

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Finding karstic caves and rockshelters in the Inner Asian mountain corridor using predictive modelling and field survey.

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