Topics, Themes and Areas of Interest

As noted by E. Reed in 2025, speleological science is multi-disciplined so a consideration of ‘themes’ or ‘areas of interest’ aligns better with how science is done today. Core themes can have sub-sections and particular highlights, with each theme containing perhaps several core scientific disciplines. This makes the theme more integrated, demonstrating the significant breadth of modern speleological science.

Current areas of interest

Australian speleology is usually based on particular interests by individuals who fund their own studies, and it is rare to see cave or karst studies with external funding sources.

The following current cave-related topics have external funding (more information will be available soon):

  • Groundwater studies
  • Bat studies

Based on recent publications in Helictite and elsewhere, speleologists in Australia are currently looking at the following areas of interest, mainly using their own funds:

  • Conservation of the Nullarbor karst area, a multi-disciplinary study covering geomophology, hydrology, mineralogy, palaeontology, social history and land usage.

  • Geomorphology of particular caves or karst areas is a more focussed study of an area, and may cover several aspects within the area:

    • Hydrology
    • Local structural geology
    • Cave deposits and what they can tell us about the past
    • Mapping of a particular cave and its contents

  • Cave mineralogy is the study of speleothems and their myriad shapes, as well as different minerals that can occur in caves.

    • How particular speleothems form
    • How speleogens form

  • Palaeontology in caves

  • History

  • Cave survey equipment

    • new, reviews, techniques

  • Sandstone cave geomorphology

  • and of course mapping caves of all types

Topics - UIS list

This is based on a subset of the UIS Commissions.

Most of our Commission’s focus is on Australasia in the most general sense, with some speleologists contributing to these areas internationally. The list below may help those who want to present at one of the international conferences, as their topic may align with one of the UIS commission areas. The list shows who (in Australia) has particular interests in the relevant UIS commission.

  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology and paleontology in caves
  • Artificial cavities
  • Biology
    • (UIS: Cathie Plowman)
    • includes life sciences
  • Cave mineralogy
  • Education
  • Glacier, firn and ice Caves
    • Australasia includes NZ
  • History of Speleology
    • Sociology
  • Karst Hydrology & Speleogenesis
    • includes geology and geomorphology of particular karst areas
  • Materials & Techniques
    • works with Survey & Mapping Standards Commission
    • includes surveying and cartography
  • Physical Chemistry & Hydrogeology of Karst
    • includes airflow within caves and its effect on the cave environment
    • includes cave climate studies
  • Pseudokarst
    • (UIS: Jill Rowling)
  • Volcanic Caves
    • (UIS: John Brush)

Other Commissions

The following UIS commission topics have their own specialist commissions and organisations within the ASF and elsewhere:

  • Arts and Letters (part of Library & Archive Commission)
  • Bibliography (Bibliography Commission)
  • Cave Diving (Cave Diving Commission)
  • Cave Rescue (Australian Cave Rescue Commission)
  • Informatics (Cave & Karst Numbering Commission and others) (UIS VPs: Mike Lake, Peter Matthews)
  • Karst & Cave Protection (Conservation Commission)
  • Long, Deep & Large Caves (part of the Karst Index Database)
  • Speleotherapy (not a feature in Australia)
  • Management of Show Caves are generally the realm of ACKMA and the International Commission on Show Caves, and there is plenty of scope for collaboration.