Monitoring of biota is pivotal for the assessment and conservation of ecosystems.
Environments worldwide are being continuously and increasingly exposed to multiple …

Caves have been an item of amateur and professional exploration for many years. Research
on the karst caves has revealed great diversity of bacteria, algae, and fungi living on stone …

Climate change has a massive impact on the global water cycle. Subsurface ecosystems,
the earth largest reservoir of liquid freshwater, currently experience a significant increase in …

Animals living in caves have attracted the interest of naturalists and biologists since the
beginning of modern science (Poulson & White, 1969; Vandel, 1964). Caves and other …

Rock art is a widespread cultural heritage, representing an immovable element of the
material culture created on natural rocky supports. Paintings and petroglyphs can be found …

Diplura is the sister group to insects and one of the three basal hexapod groups with unique
entognathan mouthparts. The order is divided into 10 families, which include 1008 species …

The mesovoid shallow substratum (MSS) can act as a climatic refuge for invertebrates, as a
biogeographic corridor to deeper substrates or as a permanent habitat for some species …

Throughout most of the kingdom Animalia, evolutionary transitions from surface life to a life
permanently bound to caves and other subterranean habitats have occurred innumerous …

Subterranean habitats around the world can shelter diversified and threatened faunal
communities. However, issues related to alterations in the landscape and structure of …

Border habitats such as interfaces and ecotones are promising research targets being likely
areas of high species richness and genetic and phenotypic diversity. Springs are intriguing …