the Big rock fall to make The cave is located in Romania will be sealed Its inner part was completely isolated from the outside world 5.5 million years ago. In theory, the place was uninhabitable, not only because of the lack of light, but also because of the toxic air that remained inside. but, Life broke out And a curious ecosystem was created with various forms of life completely unknown to humans. Only a few decades ago, humans discovered this cave and revealed a new, unknown world.
It is located a few miles west of the Black Sea in Romania, Movile Cave was first discovered by humans in 1986 When a group of workers were looking for land to build a nuclear power plant. Today, access to the site is prohibited by the authorities and can only be accessed with special permission, although the central caves are naturally protected by a series of vertical shafts and narrow limestone tunnels.
Once in the depths of the cave, The air contains less than half as much oxygen as outdoors and is filled with high levels of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. Furthermore, the interior is completely dark and it hasn’t seen a ray of sunlight for millions of years.
Thanks to this combination of extreme conditions, the site has proven to be a gold mine for biologists. One of the first attempts to document this strange ecosystem can be found in an article written in 1996 by three biologists from the University of Cincinnati (USA) and published in the journal. Sciences. Subsequently, new studies have confirmed the extraordinary nature of this ecosystem, which seems literally from another world.
Scorpions, spiders, snails and other species never seen before
And it is that in this hostile environment life seems to be thriving. Already in a 1996 study, The three scientists identified 48 species, 33 of which were completely unique to this cave. Apart from spider species, false scorpion, mealybug, centipede, later studies also found leeches, snails, and many other species.
Most of the microorganisms in the cave lack vision and lack pigment. But really, who needs to see in complete darkness? They are also generally a slender looking bunch, with very long limbs and antennae that help them navigate in the dark.
According to microbiologist J Colin Morrell of the University of East Anglia, the most natural thing is that the bacteria in the cave actually lived inside it long before the cave was isolated. The rest of the insects must have fallen and become trapped when the limestone floor collapsed, sealing off the cave. The invertebrates then reproduced and adapted to this underground habitat without sunlight until today.. The cave spreads over an area of about 100 square kilometres, most of which are inaccessible.
As if this cave wasn’t weird enough, It was the first discovered terrestrial ecosystem based on chemically synthesized bacteria. Most ecosystems require photosynthesis to harness energy from sunlight. However, since there is no natural light in the cave, the bacteria need to obtain their energy and carbon directly from chemical reactions, such as sulfide oxidation or ammonium oxidation.
Where did the food come from?
Lake water analysis showed no visible food particles. “So the big question was, where does the food come from to feed all these creatures? The food comes from a foamy film found on top of the lake water and on the cave walls. This film looks like toilet paper, and it can even be torn like a piece of toilet paper. It’s filled with billions of autotrophic bacteria, said microbiologist Rich Bowden, who at the time of its discovery was working at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK.
The cave ecosystem was completely dependent on these chemically synthesized bacteria. They can extract carbon without the need for sunlight, the most numerous bacteria use carbon dioxide, while others get their carbon from methane. The bacterial layer on lake water and cave walls is where all nutrients enter the cave ecosystem and is the only known example of such a system. The life cycle can continue as the smaller creatures eat the slime and the larger creatures eat the smaller ones.
“These bacteria get their carbon from carbon dioxide just as plants do,” says Bowden. “The level of carbon dioxide in the cave is about 100 times higher than in normal air. But unlike plants, they obviously cannot use photosynthesis since there is no light.”
An open window into the past
Perhaps it is the unique ecosystem and creatures of Movile Cave It can help us understand what life was like in the planet’s primitive past, as well as giving us some clues to fighting greenhouse gases. In our world’s early years, sunlight was blocked by an atmospheric soup of carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia. It is possible that the first living cells were similar to those found in the cave.
additional Impressive is the ability of the bacteria in the cave to oxidize methane and break down carbon dioxide, both greenhouse gases. important in the current process of climate change. The researchers believe that it would be really interesting to discover how these bacteria can oxidize or decompose these two gases in order to develop a technology capable of decomposing the two gases in our atmosphere to more acceptable levels than the current ones.
There are still many mysteries that lurk in the depths of the Mobile Cave. Even after decades of knowing their existence, researchers believe there are still many undiscovered populations out there, some of whom may have insights into evolutionary biology and even the nature of life itself.
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