Theoretical Sciences

Study of the occurrence, distribution, and circulation of water into, over, and through karst landscape/aquifer systems provides the most fundamental common element among the various aspects of cave and karst science. Ecosystems in karst regions are influenced by the distribution of water in the surface and subsurface, in turn resulting from the details of local hydrogeology and geomorphology. In many cave environments, for example, aquatic environments can support the most well developed ecosystems and richest diversity of organisms, and surface karst ecosystems are commonly influenced by scarcity of water in that environment.

The fundamental nature of karst systems, and each of the environmental issues that are characteristic of them, are associated with the dissolution of soluble bedrock, primarily limestone, in the carbonic acid solutions of natural waters. Important questions are yet to be fully answered with regard to the behavior, descriptions, and rates of these processes. These include both fundamental and applied questions that address the quantitative, thermodynamics and kinetics-based relationships that describe the processes that create karst landscapes in the first place, as well as, for example, applied problems addressing how water/rock interactions in carbonate rock regions are impacting the global carbon cycle. We also include study of the speleogenesis of deep-seated karst systems.

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