David Brankovits

Italian National Research Council | CNR · Institute of Water Research IRSA

Seasonal precipitation affects carbon turnover and methane accumulation in karst subterranean estuaries, the region of coastal carbonate aquifers where hydrologic and biogeochemical processes regulate material exchange between the land and ocean. However, the impact that tropical cyclones exert on subsurface carbon cycling within karst landscapes i...

The Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico is a carbonate platform well-known for extensive karst networks of densely stratified aquifer ecosystems. This aquifer supports diverse anchialine fauna, including species of the globally distributed anchialine shrimp genus Typhlatya (Atyidae). Four species (T. campecheae, T. pearsei, T. dzilamensis and T. mitchelli) a...

The Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico is a carbonate platform well-known for extensive karst networks of densely stratified aquifer ecosystems. This aquifer supports diverse anchialine fauna, including species of the globally distributed atyid shrimp genus Typhlatya. Four species (T. campecheae, T. pearsei, T. dzilamensis and T. mitchelli) are endemic to t...

Subsurface mixing of seawater and terrestrial-borne meteoric waters on carbonate landscapes creates karst subterranean estuaries, an area of the coastal aquifer with poorly understood carbon cycling, ecosystem functioning, and impact on submarine groundwater discharge. Caves in karst platforms facilitate water and material exchange between the mari...

Subsurface mixing of seawater and terrestrial-borne meteoric waters on carbonate landscapes creates karst subterranean estuaries, an area of the coastal aquifer with poorly understood carbon cycling, ecosystem functioning, and impact on submarine groundwater discharge. Caves in karst platforms facilitate water and material exchange between the mari...

ECOLOGICAL TRAITS: Anchialine caves contain bodies of saline or brackish waters with subterranean connections to the sea. Since virtually all anchialine biota is marine in origin, these caves have a larger and more diverse species pool than underground freshwaters. The trophic network is truncated and dominated by heterotrophs (scavenging and filte...

Biogeochemical processing of dissolved organic matter, including methane, along sharp salinity gradients in subterranean estuaries greatly alters the composition of submarine groundwater discharge into the marine environment. Along the margins of coastal carbonate (karst) platforms, which account for~25% of all coastlines, subterranean estuaries ex...

Chemical gradients between fresh, brackish and saline waters shape biogeochemical reactions and organic matter transformation within subterranean estuaries. In the Yucatán Peninsula’s karst subterranean estuary (KSE), methane and dissolved organic matter generated during the anaerobic decomposition of tropical forest vegetation are transported into...

Chemical gradients between fresh, brackish and saline waters shape biogeochemical reactions and organic matter transformation within subterranean estuaries. In the Yucatán Peninsula's karst subterranean estuary (KSE), methane and dissolved organic matter generated during the anaerobic decomposition of tropical forest vegetation are transported into...

Brankovits, D., Pohlman, J.W., Mann, A.G., and Lapham, L.L., 2018, Temporal hydrologic and chemical records from the Ox Bel Ha cave network within the coastal aquifer of the Yucatan Peninsula, from January 2015 to January 2016: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9U0KRVM.

Karst subterranean estuaries (KSEs) extend into carbonate platforms along 12% of all coastlines. A recent study has shown that microbial methane (CH4) consumption is an important component of the carbon cycle and food web dynamics within flooded caves that permeate KSEs. In this study, we obtained high-resolution (~2.5-day) temporal records of diss...

The potential of subterranean environments as models to address major evolutionary and ecological questions has been highlighted in the literature. They represent partially isolated, discrete units offering several replicates of the same evolutionary processes. Species occurrence data of these environments is abundant, although sparse in the litera...

Subterranean estuaries extend inland into density-stratified coastal carbonate aquifers containing a surprising diversity of endemic animals (mostly crustaceans) within a highly oli-gotrophic habitat. How complex ecosystems (termed anchialine) thrive in this globally distributed, cryptic environment is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that a...

Pohlman, J.W., and Brankovits, David, 2017, Water column physical and chemical properties of Cenote Bang, a component of the Ox Bel Ha cave network within the subterranean estuary coastal aquifer of the Yucatan Peninsula, from December 2013 to January 2016: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7DJ5DJW.

New records for 17 species of crustaceans from anchialine systems in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, are presented. The records come from explorations in Dzilam de Bravo, Yucatan, and from Puerto Aventuras and the Nohoch Nah Chich and Ox Bel Ha cave systems near Tulum in Quintana Roo, Mexico. For five of the 17 species dealt with here, the records p...

Anchialine caves within coastal karst terrains of the tropics contain distinct mixtures of fresh and marine water separated by a sharp pycnocline. The Caribbean coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula contains over 1000 km of mapped cave passages, the densest known accumulation of anchialine caves in the world. Deep within the caves and beyond where ve...

A Rákosivipera-védelmi Program (LIFE04NAT/HU/000116) szerves részét alkotja a rákosi vipera (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis MÉHELY, 1893) Kiskunsági Nemzeti Parkban található élőhe-lyeinek monitorozása és tanulmányozása. A tanulmány célkitűzései a következők: (1) a térinformatikai adatbázisban összegyűjtött monitorozási adatok elemzésével bizonyos élőh...

A rákosi vipera (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis Méhely, 1893) hazánk legveszélyeztetettebb gerincese. A faj megőrzéséért 2004-ben indult meg egy az EU által támogatott LIFE-Nature program. A kutatások egyik fontos része a rákosi vipera aktuális és potenciális élőhelyeinek minősítése és a veszélyeztető tényezők értékelése. A vipera túlélése szempontjábó...