Cave fauna survey & monitoring
During the summer several trips has been performed in the three caves selected for monitoring, Closani Cave located in the southern Carpathians and two other caves located in the Apuseni Mountains (northwest Romania), Pestera cu Apa din Valea Lesului & Pestera din Poiana Varasoaia (V11). We are aiming to understand the biodiversity within each cave, to detect species preferences for a certain type of habitat along the cave, to find potential new species and evaluate the potential threats that may affect their survival on long term. We explored the cave fauna in one of the most emblematic karst area of the Apuseni, under the Padis plateau, Varasoaia cave systems. New species has been found in all three caves, either new for science or new for Romania, enlarging our ongoing database for cave fauna of the country.
Sub-BioMon Workshop, Trnje, Slovenia, 14-16 June 2025
The first SubBioMon workshop took place in Slovenia, being established the protocol for monitoring cave and springs fauna. We test distinct methods to sample the cave fauna, terrestrial and aquatic and enjoy the Slovenian karst.
2024
Karst Science Days Symposium (KSD), Bucharest, Romania, 15 November 2024
The Sub-BioMon project has been presented in Romania during the 2nd edition of Karst Science Days Symposium (KSD) that took place in November 15th, 2024 in Bucharest at the Institute of Speleology Emil Racovita. KSD is a scientific event created to support young researchers on site and in hybrid format (https://www.ksd.iser.ro). The symposium is designed to showcase the scientific contributions of outstanding young researchers in the fields of biospeleology and geology of karst landscapes. KSD aims to provide the opportunity to share information about current studies of young researcher’s, to discuss and exchange ideas, to debate theoretical and practical topics related to their scientific work, and to analyze perspectives and experiences in their research field. The first results on karst springs monitoring have been presented by Alexandra Olaru, a MSc Student at the University Babes Bolyai, Cluj Napoca.
A role for everyone, 14 October 2024
Volunteers are an integral part of the research team supporting every aspect of our work. They play an active role in cave fauna field monitoring and in the laboratory work. To young students joined the Romanian team of Sub-BioMon, both undergraduate students at the University Babes Bolyai Cluj Napoca (Romania), Dragos Coada that will be trained in cave aquatic fauna monitoring and harpacticoids taxonomy and Stefan Puiu in cave terrestrial fauna monitoring and Aranea taxonomy.
26th International Conference of Subterranean Biology, 13 September 2024, Cagliari, Sardinia
During the 26th International Conference of Subterranean Biology held in Cagliari, Sardinia between 9-14 September 2024 the youngest member of the team presented data on cave ostracods from Movile Cave (Romania) Life’s Toxic Sanctuary in Movile Cave (Dobrogea, Romania): insights into ostracod shell chemical composition, ultrastructure and epibionts. The symposium was a good opportunity for meaningful discussions, learning from experts, and building networks.
Kick-off-meeting Biodiversa+ projects, Thalin, Estonia, 17 April 2024
Dr. Maja Zagmajster, from the University of Ljubljana (Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Biology), presented the Sub-BioMon project to the kick-off-meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, 17 April 2024.
