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Divers discover new-to-science species in one of the deepest flooded caves in the world In a recent diving expedition, Australian cave divers found three new-to-science species – a transparent amphipod, a worm, and a small snail – down in one of the world’s deepest underwater caves, near Nelson.
“It’s not easy to get inside the caves, and we want to know about the very specific life in them,” says NIWA expert Dr Graham Fenwick.
The discoveries were made in the Pearse Resurgence, a cave in the Mt Arthur Range, close to Nelson, where the divers were exploring underwater cave systems.
They were collecting samples of stygofauna, which literally means animals from the River Styx, the mythical river that leads to the underworld.
There are 16 diveable caves in the world deeper than the Pearse Resurgence. Only ten of these have been dived to depths greater than the current depth explored in the Pearse (194 metres freshwater).
The divers were on site for 13 days, performing a total of 74 dives in the 6.5ºC water.
The dives took place between 27 December 2010 and12 January 2011. Worldwide, these aquifer studies are yielding rich troves of biodiversity.
The importance of such stygofauna is twofold: they contribute to the health of the aquifer by biofiltration and, in turn, they may represent an important marker of the health of the water.
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