Preface

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