Original piece for Wild Art 2021

Watercolour and gouache on paper
180mm x 180mm, signed, unframed

Movile Cave is located in south-eastern Romania, discovered by accident in 1986. The cave has no natural entrance and was sealed off from the outside world roughly 5.5 million years ago. The air inside is humid and poisonous - containing much lower levels of oxygen and high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and methane. Despite these conditions, a flourishing ecosystem has evolved over time. 

In the total absence of light, the ecosystem inside Movile is based on chemosynthesis, rather than photosynthesis. Frothy microbial mats grow on the surface of the water, made up of autotrophic bacteria that derive energy from the oxidation of sulfur and methane (rather than using sunlight as plants would). These mats are a food source for the 48 species of spiders, centipedes, isopods, waterscorpions, shrimp, leeches, snails that call the cave home (33 of which are endemic to the cave system).