Table of Contents
What are extreme environmental conditions?
An extreme environment is a habitat that is considered very hard to survive in due to its considerably extreme conditions such as temperature, accessibility to different energy sources or under high pressure.
How do caves affect climate?
In the past, caves have suffered climate changes that affected their temperature. An increase in cave temperature is associated with a higher relative content of water vapor required to reach saturation (i.e. 100% relative humidity).
How do caves help the environment?
Because the amount of water making its way into caves determines the amount speleothems grow, their layers can indicate times of both heavy precipitation and drought in the area.
How are caves connected to the environment?
Subterranean cave systems may store and transmit groundwater through the void spaces created through the interaction of carbonate rocks and water over time. Groundwater in these subterranean cave systems may support plant and/or animal communities, ecological processes and delivery of ecosystem services.
Which desert is the harshest?
The Sahara Desert is the world’s largest hot desert and the third largest desert behind Antarctica and the Arctic.
What are the harshest environments?
The 7 Harshest Environments on Earth
- Intro. Australian Outback. (
- Greenland.
- Sistan Basin, Afghanistan.
- The Changtang region of the Tibetan Plateau.
- Siberia.
- The Australian Outback.
- The Sahara Desert.
- Antarctica.
How is the environment in a dry cave?
Dry cave habitats have environmental conditions that are fairly stable year round despite seasonal fluctuations in the weather. The further one moves away from the cave entrance, the more stable the environment becomes.
What happens to the air in a cave?
Air trapped in caves can easily be bad air, which can cause impairing physical symptoms, blood acidosis, and death in extreme cases. Bad air is usually created by an increase of carbon dioxide and/or a decrease of oxygen, and the effects of bad air can worsen depending on the air pressure in the cave.
Is it dangerous to take a breath in a cave?
In a cave, air pockets may seem tempting to take a break and take a breath. This is an absolutely inadvisable decision to take as a freediver. Air trapped in caves can easily be bad air, which can cause impairing physical symptoms, blood acidosis, and death in extreme cases.
What causes a cave to become a cave?
The passages widen as more water seeps down, allowing even more water to flow through them. Eventually, some of the passages become large enough to earn the distinction of “cave”.