Westcave Cave Research
Insights to Central Texas’ Climate and Water Resources History Found At Westcave
Westcave has a unique cave for studying water flow and climate change in our region. With its small size, above-ground location, and its many openings to the outside, this drives the air in the cave to be well-circulated and exchange air with the outside. This phenomenon is also referred to as the cave being ‘well-ventilated’. As a result, the internal temperature of our cave is very similar to the ambient temperature outside of the cave. In contrast, the temperature in most Texas caves is a relatively constant 21oC year-round, regardless of the outside air temperature. Since temperature affects the chemical composition of the cave’s formations (“stalagmites”), historical and current temperature information can be gleaned from studying stalagmites at caves that are structured like Westcave.
Professor Jay Banner and his research collaborators – students Peter E. Carlson, Alex Janelle, Richard Casteel, Barbara Wortham, Josiah Sanada, Will Eagle, Vivian Yale, and Dr. Weimin Feng, Dr. Dan Breecker, and Dr. Jose Abella – in the Jackson School of Geosciences and the Environmental Science Institute at the University of Texas have been conducting research at Westcave for a number of years. Their research here provides a proving ground for the prospect for such shallow and well-ventilated caves to record changes in temperature, water flow, and the movement of carbon in organic matter from the surface through the limestone and into the cave. To learn more, please visit https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/banner/.
In addition to climate and water research, Westcave has also become a valuable site for biological surveying. The last survey of cave life prior to recent efforts was conducted in the 1960s or 70s and identified only one species. In 2019, in conjunction with Travis County and Natural Resources, we began a biannual survey of the cave’s invertebrates and any other species we see. Since then, we have recorded over 50 different species living in our cave system from 2019 to 2024. Some of these include Texella, Ceuthophilus Nymph, and members of the moth family Tineidae. On some of our most active days, counts have included 250 Myrmecodesmus sp., 150 Oxidus gracilis, 125 Leiobunum townsendi, and 51 Psocoptera. These observations continue to contribute to a growing understanding of the rich biodiversity that resides within shallow cave systems like Westcave’s.
Scientific articles about cave-air circulation, the potential for stalagmites to record past climate change, water flow, and carbon transport from studies at Westcave and associated locations:
Feng, W., Casteel, R.C., Banner, J.L., Heinz Fry, A., 2014, Oxygen isotopes of precipitation, cave drip water and speleothem calcite from a well-ventilated cave in Texas, USA: Assessing a new speleothem temperature proxy. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 127, 233-250. DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2013.11.039. (Article)
Carlson, P.E., Miller, N.R., Banner, J.L., Breecker, D.O. and Casteel, R.C., 2018, The potential of near-entrance stalagmites as high-resolution terrestrial paleoclimate proxies: Application of isotope and trace-element geochemistry to seasonally-resolved chronology. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 235, 55–75. (Article)
Carlson, P.E., Banner, J.L., Johnson, K.R., Casteel, R.C., and Breecker, D.O., 2019, Carbon Cycling of Subsurface Organic Matter Recorded in Speleothem 14C Records: Maximizing Bomb-Peak Model Fidelity. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 246, 436-449. (Article)
Casteel, R. and Banner, J.L., 2014, Temperature-driven seasonal calcite growth and drip water trace
element variations in a well-ventilated Texas cave: Implications for speleothem paleoclimate studies. Chemical Geology 392, 43-8. (Article)
Wortham, B.E., Banner, J.L., James, E.W., Edwards, R. L., and Loewy, S., 2022, Application of cave monitoring to constrain the value and source of detrital 230Th/232Th in speleothem calcite: Implications for U-series geochronology of speleothems. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 596, 110978. (Article)
Cleaveland, M. K., Votteler, T. H., Stahle, D. K., Casteel, R. C. and Banner, J. L., 2011, Extended chronology of drought in South Central, Southeastern and West Texas. Texas Water Journal 2, 54-96. (Article)