When a recent visitor to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico dropped a bag of Cheetos inside one of the caves, park officials stressed that the food can be a 'world changing' force.
Cave crickets, mites, spiders and flies soon organize into a temporary food web, dispersing the Cheetos' nutrients to the surrounding cave and formations. Molds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die and stink. And the cycle continues.
At the scale of human perspective, a spilled snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave it can be world changing.
Caves are quite extreme places to survive. There's no light. Water can be limited. Nutrients are in short supply. Adding food can disrupt the balance of the cave ecosystem.
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