Shallow Subterranean Habitats. Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation. Culver, D. C. and T. Pipan. 2014. Oxford University Press, NY, U.S.A. 258 pp. $99.95 (hardcover). ISBN 978-0-19-964617-3.

David Culver and Tania Pipan introduce readers to a unique ecological interface, the shallow subterranean domain (SSH), which connects the hypogean realm of the biosphere with the surface or epigean realm. It is well known that the science of subterranean life or speleobiology, usually identified with life in caves, found its beginnings in the Karst areas of Slovenia. Nevertheless, few biologists are aware of the tremendous complexity of the subterranean domain. Culver and Pipan provide a very useful book in which the SSH has been defined as: “subterranean habitats within 10 m of the surface, characterized by spaces larger than the organisms, and organisms adapted to darkness.”