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Exploring the impact of tourists on cave air temperatures: a Covid-19 case study from Poole’s Cavern, Derbyshire, UK
Abstract
In 2018 a “British Cave Science Centre” (BCSC) was established in Poole’s Cavern, a show cave near Buxton in the English Peak District. Data are open access and scientists are invited to use them to investigate the cave climate. This paper is a short case study of how the data may be used. Air temperature is measured at fourteen locations, two outside the cave and twelve inside, at each of which there is a thermistor linked to a radio data logger. The in-cave stations are at increasing distance from the entrance and most are within 3m of the tourist path. In 2020, following Government advice in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic, the cavern closed on 18 March and reopened on 20 July, giving an ideal opportunity to study the impact that normal operation of the show cave has on cave temperature dynamics. Temperature data at 10-minute intervals for this period, and for the same dates in 2019 when the cave was open, were extracted from the BCSC database. Seven measurement points were chosen: outside the cave; at the cave entrance; at about 10m, 75m, 125m and 150m from the entrance along the tourist path; and at SEP, a station about 25m from the tourist path in a side passage. Outside the cave the average air temperatures in 2019 and 2020 differed by <0.1ºC and the maxima and minima differed by <1ºC. In 2019 there were clear short-term variations in air temperature at the 75m, 125m and 150m sites that were caused by visitors during the passage of tours. However, absence of tourists during lockdown did not result in a significant change in the overall cave temperature.
... Two chambers above the partially cemented boulder choke are close enough to the surface to be penetrated by roots. However, their stable temperatures suggest there is almost no air transfer between these chambers and the outer atmosphere (Gunn et al., 2021). ...
... Observations from each logger are recorded every ten minutes and uploaded to the project website in near real time. In addition, standalone instruments monitor wind speed and direction, carbon dioxide concentration, and radon concentration (Gunn et al., 2021). Buxton,Derbyshire (53°14′57″N,1°55′37″W). ...
... Regarding the latter, the BCSC website already hosts in excess of one million data points and any increase in sampling frequency has the potential to cause significant data transmission and storage problems. Nonetheless, both this study and that of Gunn et al. (2021) have demonstrated that observations recorded in the cave are suitable for statistical analysis. Taking these points into consideration it is unlikely that any changes will be made in the near future. ...
A catastrophic eruption destroyed the Tongan island of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai at 04:14 UTC on 15 January 2022. This event triggered a series of enormous ripples that spread out across the Earth. Atmospheric pressure observations recorded outside and inside the British Cave Science Centre at Poole’s Cavern, Derbyshire, present evidence for two phases of anomalous behaviour between c. 18:30 and 20:30 UTC on 15 January and c. 01:30 and 02:30 UTC on 16 January. These are thought to have been initiated by a Lamb wave circling the Earth. Visual inspection also identified a series of smaller perturbations repeating approximately every six hours until 17 January and renewed instability culminating on 19 January. In contrast, automated anomaly detection only pinpointed the larger anomalies on 17 and 19 January. Further research is needed in order confirm the existence of these later anomalies and to better understand their relationship with the volcanism in the southern Pacific.
Natural and Anthropogenic Impacts on Cave Climates: Postojna and Predjama Show Caves (Slovenia) presents an analysis of continuous time-series data for show caves in Slovenia and their significance in understanding global cave microclimates. The book presents detailed guidelines and procedures for conducting temperature and CO2 measurements in caves and uses Slovenian caves as a detailed case study to demonstrate their application. Critical interpretations of these temporal series provide the reader with specific indicators of the conditions for water condensation to occur and CO2 thresholds and how to apply them to different cave systems.
Direct comparisons are made between microclimate data from caves with varying levels of tourism, and the linkage between the number of visitors and microclimate changes is discussed in detail. This book is a unique reference on cave meteorology for Climate Scientists, Meteorologists, Geologists, Microbiologists, Environmental and Conservation Scientists, and Cave Managers.
(1) Background: Show caves are unique natural attractions and touristic traffic can trigger their degradation within a short time. There are no universal solutions to counter the effects of the touristic impact upon the cave environment and both protection protocols and management plans have to be established on a case-by-case basis. (2) Methods: The study includes four show caves from the Romanian Carpathians, where monitoring of the number of visitors, paralleled by the monitoring of the main physicochemical parameters of the air and water (CO2, temperature, humidity, drip rate, conductivity, and pH) was implemented. (3) Results and Conclusions: The results of the study have: established a set of basic principles to be enforced by the management of show caves and issued a set of preventive measures and instructions to be followed by the personnel and stakeholders of the caves.
Fracture displacement monitoring in caves helps to identify potential dangers to human safety and has significant implications for their environmental protection. Such monitoring is also undertaken to study the preparatory factors that trigger breakdown or the kinematic behaviour of active tectonic faults and deep-seated gravitational slope deformations. Recently the authors designed and fabricated a novel positioning system for fracture displacement monitoring, and the system has been installed for testing in the British Cave Science Centre at Poole's Cavern, Buxton, Derbyshire. The positioning system records changes in an artificially generated electromagnetic field. Magnetic field data are immediately transformed into three-dimensional displacement data and the outputs are presented online in real time. Here, the first six months of monitoring results are presented. Two of the three displacement components, x and z, are characterized by conspicuous periods of pulsed instability in October 2019 and January 2020, whereas the third component, y, is characterized by a generally progressive displacement trend. Testing in the British Cave Science Centre has helped to demonstrate the feasibility of using the positioning system for fracture displacement monitoring in caves. Ongoing research focuses on reducing the physical size and energy requirements of the monitoring equipment so that it will be possible to deploy large sensor meshes in less accessible parts of the cave environment.
Cave air temperature was measured at six locations in Lehman Caves (USA) for one year at hourly intervals. Lehman is a show cave in a national park, treasured for its geological and biological resources. The two monitoring locations that are off of the tour route and, also, relatively distant from the cave’s entrances displayed nearly constant air temperature during the year. The other four sites, along the tour route, show daily temperature variation as well as annual fluctuation. After visitation levels decreased in the autumn, cave temperatures lagged but eventually reached an equilibrium which demonstrates recovery in the quiet winter. The mean annual air temperature inside the Lehman Caves is significantly higher than outside (1.9 °C; 20%) which points to an anthropogenic impact. A first-order analysis indicates that anthropogenic energy consumption in the Lehman Caves—which contributes to temperature rise—is about evenly divided between lighting and human presence. The study demonstrates that cave lighting and visitation levels have important implications for responsible management of this geoheritage site.
Giovanni Badino: Underground meteorology - "What's the weather underground?" The aim of this work is to provide a synthetic outline of some of the processes of transient nature occurring in caves, focusing on poorly studied general aspects of underground physics and mainly making use of original experimental data. In the first part, the average climatic conditions of a caves, their connection to the external climate, and the general role played by rock, water, air and external morphology are discussed. The variation of the internal temperature with the altitude is a key parameter for the cave physics: the related energetic consequences are briefly discussed. In the second part, transient processes are considered, and a general overview of main meteorological phenomena occurring underground is given. The physics of thermal sedimentation, of underground temperature ranges, of infrasonic oscillations of cave atmospheres and, above all, of water vapour condensation in caves is synthetically described. The experimental study of these processes is extremely difficult, because they are time dependent and have very small amplitude; the first measurements show, however, that their variability from one cave to another, and from point to point inside a cave, is surprisingly high. To provide a more correct interpretation of underground climatic measurements, for their speleogenetic role and importance in cave environment protection, a better understanding of the processes described here is essential.
The mechanisms and controls of calcite precipitation from normal pH waters are relatively well researched and understood. However, more recently, hyperalkaline waters (pH > 10) have been seen to give rise to calcite deposits forming through a completely different mechanism, with abnormal properties. Poole's Cavern is host to some of these unusual calcite deposits, formed as a result of lime waste altering the chemistry of some of the water flowing into the cave. Their occurrence within a natural cave system, alongside normal speleothems, makes it an excellent natural laboratory in which they can be studied. Here, calcite samples were collected from selected normal pH and hyperalkaline drips, and calcite precipitation rates determined. Drip rates and dripwater pH values were measured, as well as partial pressure of cave air CO2 (pCO2). δ18O and δ13C values of selected samples were also analysed. A clear difference in calcite precipitation rates from normal or high pH waters is demonstrated; the latter being significantly greater, by a factor of 25-30. Isotopic signatures of these fast-growing speleothems show strong depletions in 180 and 13C compared to those formed from normal pH dripwaters, as a result of kinetic fractionation. Changes in cave air pCO2 are observed to have a clear control where drip rates are stable, on a seasonal timescale. For a hyperalkaline drip, this means greater precipitation rates where cave air pCO2 is high, whilst the opposite is true for a normal pH drip. Where drip rate is slow and variable, it becomes an important control on precipitation rate, in addition to pCO2 The rapid growth rate allowed the opportunity for precipitation rates to be analysed on a diurnal timescale for the first time.
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