Efeitos do uso turístico sobre cavidades subterrâneas artificiais: subsídios para o uso antrópico de sistemas subterrâneos

Abstract

Tourism has shown to be a viable alternative for the maintenance of the natural patrimony. However, in some ecosystems such as the subterranean environments, many studies are still necessary studies to make this a low impact activity. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the biological community (richness, diversity, evenness equitabilidade, similarity and ecological complexity), and the alterations that can occur in the environmental conditions (temperature and humidity) stemming from tourism inside artificial subterranean cavities. The electric illumination of the incandescent type determined alterations in the temperature and humidity of tourist mines. However, the communities did not present significant changes in the structure, because those present in tourist cavities are shown very similar to those present in nontourist mines. Although these studies are still incipient in the country, they already demonstrate the urgent need for the creation of models for tourist use that cause the least possible impact to the subterranean environments when given over to the installation of tourist use.