The Philip M. Smith Graduate Research
Grant for Cave and Karst Research
2016 Grants
Oana-Alexandra Dumitru ($2,800)
Ph.D. Candidate
School of Geosciences
University of South Florida
Five-million years of sea-level variability in the Western Mediterranean using cave deposits from Mallorca
Abstract - How quickly sea
level rises ranks as a top priority in the Earth sciences. Because over
one-third of the world’s population live along coastlines, even a
slight rise of sea-level would have a substantial economic and societal
impact. For this reason, there is a critical need to precisely predict
how quick the sea-level will rise in the next decades and centuries.
Past sea-level changes provide considerable insight into Earth’s
tectonic and climatic history, and is of great importance to predict
possible scenarios of rising seas. Of particular interest are the
intervals of warmer-than-today climate, like the Last Interglacial and
mid-Pliocene Warm Period (3.3 to 2.9 Ma). Over the past 5 million years
repeated flooding events caused by sea-level rise in caves along
Mallorca Island’s coasts left distinct carbonate encrustations called
phreatic overgrowths on speleothems (POS). Preliminary data show that
POS are suitable for absolute dating by using U-Th-Pb methods and they
proved to be a valid and precise sea-level marker. All POS located 15 m
or more above present sea-level returned preliminary U/Pb ages between
1 and 5 Myr, suggesting warmer-than-today climate, when sea-level rose
due to significantly shrinking of northern and southern hemisphere ice
sheets. Our aim is to precisely establish the timing, position, and
duration of sea level high stands in western Mediterranean over the
past 5 million years, using (POSs) from caves of Mallorca.
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Jorge Luis Pérez-Moreno ($2,600)
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Biological Sciences
Florida International University
Evolution in the underworld: Molecular insights from subterranean waters
Abstract- The unique
characteristics of aquatic caves and of their predominantly crustacean
biodiversity nominate them as particularly interesting study subjects
for evolutionary biology. Cave animals usually undergo various distinct
physiological, morphological, and behavioral changes, which together
are commonly referred to as “troglomorphy.” Troglomorphic modifications
can be classified in either progressive (enlarged sensory and
ambulatory appendages, increased numbers of chemoreceptor setae, or
enhancement of spatial orientation) or regressive (reduced
pigmentation, reduction or loss of visual functions, or decreased
metabolism) phenotypes, with cave fauna typically presenting a
combination of both. The use of current and emerging molecular
techniques, e.g. next-generation DNA sequencing, bestows an exceptional
opportunity to answer a variety of long-standing questions pertaining
to the realms of biogeography, population genetics, speciation, and
evolution. I propose to use modern molecular methodologies to examine
colonization patterns of caves, phylogeography, evolution, and
functional adaptations within a variety of species within the
sub-phylum Crustacea. For these purposes, phylogeographic and
transcriptomic studies will be undertaken to investigate adaptations of
troglomorphic cave life. With these, the present study will result in
the discovery of evolutionarily significant patterns among cave fauna,
and the underlying mechanisms that permit the survival and evolution of
life in extreme environments such as caves.
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last updated or validated on January 24, 2019