Microbiology of Movile Cave—A Chemolithoautotrophic Ecosystem

Abstract

Discovered in 1986, Movile Cave is an unusual cave ecosystem sustained by in situ chemoautotrophic primary production. The cave is completely isolated from the surface and the primary energy sources are hydrogen sulfide and methane released from hydrothermal fluids. Both condensation and acid corrosion processes contribute to the formation of Movile Cave. Invertebrates, many of which are endemic to Movile Cave, are isotopically lighter in both carbon and nitrogen than surface organisms, indicating that they derive nutrition from chemoautotrophic primary producers within the cave. Here we review work on the microbiology of the Movile Cave ecosystem, with particular emphasis on the functional diversity of microbes involved in sulfur, carbon and nitrogen cycling, and discuss their role in chemosynthetic primary production.

Keywords:

• chemoautotrophs
• methanotrophs
• Movile Cave
• nitrifiers
• sulfur oxidizers

Acknowledgments

We thank Serban Sarbu and Rich Boden for valuable discussions, Vlad Voiculescu and Mihai Baciu for sampling and Andrew Crombie for critical comments on the manuscript.