Biodiversity is an important factor in maintaining
existing karst landscapes and nowadays provides
the important indicator of degraded karst
ecosystems.
The Biodiversity and conservation of karst
ecosytems is a synthesis of knowledge about
geological and geomorphological and biological
aspects, which clarifies the required conditions
for maintaining biodiversity on the karst and Karst
edge, a broad region located along the border of
Italy and Slovenia.
In this book we provide brief scientific summaries
of the research work conducted in BioDiNet project
– a network for biodiversity and cultural landscape
conservation. Funding was provided by the
European program of cross-border collaboration
(Slovenia-Italy 2007-2013).
Four major areas were identified as key to the
management of this landscape and require further
investigation.
ΔΔResearch related to genetic variation, species
and ecosystems needs to be integrated
and strengthened in order to provide better
conservation management of endemic
species, ecotypes and habitats.
ΔΔThere is a need to nominate and research bioindicator
species involved in habitat maintenance
to serve as the basis of landscape
scale monitoring programs.
ΔΔA more directed effort is required to estimate
the impact of different pollutants upon cave
ecosystems.
ΔΔDesign and implementation of an effective
conservation monitoring system based on
standardize surveys to aid with the prediction
of future landscape changes and biodiversity
patterns.
The book provides an annex named Guidelines for
the biodiversity conservation of karst ecosystems.
These guidelines are designed for stakeholders
and local public administration and are written in
Slovenian and Italian.
We express our sincere gratitude to the students
and volunteers who have helped researchers during
numerous field trips and with laboratory analyses.
We acknowledge and praise the dedication and
expertise of our co-authors, without their input and
insights this book would not have been possible
