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Ophel: a groundwater biome based on chemoautotrophic resources. The global significance of the Ayyalon cave finds, Israel

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Abstract

The discovery, in the inner coastal plain of Israel, of a deep, secluded subterranean ecosystem, supported by chemosynthetis producing by sulfide-oxidizing bacteria, suggests the existence of a new biome, “Ophel”, with an autonomous energy basis. This biome could provide an ecological and historical basis for explaining the high taxonomic diversity of subterranean faunas, especially of crustaceans. A continuum with the anchialine ecosystems, in which chemoautotrophy is also encountered, as well as with marine hot vents and cold seeps, implies the existence of a second, parallel chemosynthesis-based eukaryotic biosphere.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Prof. D.L. Danielopol for his considerate encouragement, Dr. W.F. Humphreys for the many precious bibliographic indications, Prof. B. Sket for his suggestions and Dr. L. Botoşăneanu for his friendly criticism. My thanks are due also to my colleagues from the Hebrew University, to Prof. A. Frumkin and the Masters student I. Naaman, the discoverers of the Ayyalon Cave, to the arachnologist Dr. G. Levy as well as to the microbiologist Prof. A. Oren, and finally I thank my collaborators for many years Drs. Ch. Dimentman, M. Tsurnamal and H.J. Bromley.

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  1. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Francis Dov Por

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  1. Francis Dov Por
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Correspondence to Francis Dov Por.

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Dedicated to my teacher, the active nonagerian Acad. Prof. Nicolaie Botnariuc, Bucharest.

Handling editor: K. Martens

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Por, F.D. Ophel: a groundwater biome based on chemoautotrophic resources. The global significance of the Ayyalon cave finds, Israel. Hydrobiologia 592, 1–10 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-0795-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-0795-2

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