In 1990, the Congress also directed the Interior Department, acting through the National Park Service, to establish and administer a program on cave research and to examine the feasibility of a centralized national cave and karst research institute. Based on the results of the study, a bill was introduced in the105th Congress to establish the National Cave and Karst Research Institute in New Mexico. Caves and karst features occur in about 60 units of the National Park System System. Many more caves are protected and managed by state and local governments, as well as private individuals and companies. Caves are also repositories of information on natural resources, human history and evolution, containing anthropologic, archaeologic, geologic, paleontologic and mineralogic resources.
Many caves act as natural traps for flora and fauna, and species of now-extinct animals.
Cave-dwelling organisms have specialized adaptations such as extreme longevity and enhanced sensory perceptions. The recently discovered Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns is providing insight into global warming from analysis of materials found there. Other climate information has been acquired from pack rat middens in Grand Canyon caves that yielded pollen 4,000 years old. Regional paleoclimate records were derived from samples of travertine deposits in a submerged cave system in Death Valley National Park, California. And coring selected speleothems in Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico provided data on paleomagnetics and paleoclimate conditions.