Marius Vlaicu

The relationships between land cover, climate and cave copepod spatial distribution and suitability along the Carpathians

The distribution of subterranean copepods may reflect the persistence of cave assemblages in relation to the environmental health of the overlying landscape. Areas supporting groundwater fauna were established by modelling the persistence of seven copepod species using a geographical information system (GIS). Environmental drivers were found to influence subterranean copepod distribution in the caves of the Romanian Carpathians. Habitat-based modelling, using ordinary least squares regression and geographically-weighted regression to identify the significant predictors explaining copepod habitat suitability, predicted suitable areas for the selected taxa. The most constant predictor was land cover, a measure of human impact and climate change, followed by precipitation and altitude. The model performed well for the majority of analysed taxa, and the areas predicted as suitable for narrowly distributed taxa overlapped with observed distributions. GIS facilitated the prediction of suitable habitat, and also enabled spatial autocorrelation to be tested. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of sustainable management of the terrestrial surface in limestone areas in conserving copepod biodiversity.

Mehedinti Mountains: The Cave from Mohilii Creek (Ascunsă Cave)

Ascunsă Cave is situated in the Mehedinţi Mountains and is part of the Isverna cave system. The cave was discovered in the late 1970s by members of the Focul Viu Caving Club, who surveyed the first 13.5 m of it. Since 2008, the “Emil Racoviţă” Institute of Speleology and the Underwater and Cave Exploration Group explored and surveyed 691 m of passages totaling 185 m of vertical development. Studies based on stalagmites from this cave revealed the climate evolutions during the last glacial cycle.