Activities

Scientific and expert activity in the field of biospeleology is an important part of the work of the Croatian Biospeleological Society (CBSS). The members of CBSS publish scientific papers and technical reports, and organize or participate in congresses, symposiums, seminars, and different kinds of project.

CBSS members include more than 30 academic biologist. Among them, there are 12 experts for different taxonomic groups, which publish scientific papers every year in globally recognized journals like Biodiversity Data Journal, European Journal of Taxonomy, Evolution & Development, Frontiers in Zoology, PlosONE, ZooKeys, Zootaxa and others. Furthermore, we also regularly publishin domestic journals, such as Natura Croatica or Subterrranea Croatica.

The main part of our scientific research are general descriptions of new species, but it also the analysis of biodiversity, research of the distribution of subterranean animals and the importance of protection of subterranean habitats and species. Among our technical reports, we would like to point out the protocols for monitoring target species inside ecological network Natura 2000: protocol for the beetle Leptodirus hochenwartii Schmidt, 1832, and two species of bivalves Congeria kusceri Bole, 1962 and Congeria jalzici Morton & Bilandžija, 2013.

From our projects, we would like to emphasise the research of the cave type localities of Croatia – our longest project that has been active since the year 2000. This project yielded several important results, including the “Catalogue of cave type localities od Croatian fauna” that was published as a special issue of the scientific journal Natura Croatica, as well as two volumes of scientific and popular book “The Cave Type Localities Atlas of Croatian Fauna”. Another important project, which was conducted in 2011 and funded by Whitley Fund for Nature, was aimed at investigating other cave type localities in Dinarides and creating the Biospeologica Dinarica database.

Some of our projects that received more media attention in 2017 are „ The development of monitoring methodology for protected species of cave invertebrates and their habitats, and its implementation” and „Development of monitoring methodology through research of subterranean invertebrates of Šibenik-Knin County“ whose results attracted the attention of BBC. The complete list of our project can be found here.

The CBSS was the main organizer or co-organizer of four scientific symposiums: The 14th International Symposium of Biospeleology (1999.), 2nd International Symposium on Anchialine Ecosystems (2012.), 13th European Bat Research Symposium (2014.) and 1st Dinaric Symposium on Subterranean Biology (2016.). Besides that, CBSS’ scientific results are regularly presented on national and international congresses, conferences and seminars, such as the International Conference on Subterranean Biology, which is held every two years.