engleski

Water and research of underground habitats in protected areas - example of protozoa research in Veternica cave (Medvednica Nature park, Croatia)

The research results which are presented in this paper are based on data gathered from October 2011 to April 2012 during the protozoan biodiversity research in Veternica Cave (Medvednica Nature Park, Croatia). One of the research goals was to determine the influences of hydrological status on biodiversity on micro-scale, as well as influences of external hydrological conditions. The research results were analysed using the Shannon-Wiener diversity index, as well as a machine learning model of regression tree with M5Base classifier. A significant impact of hydrologic conditions on protozoa biodiversity in particular sites has been identified. The impact is not the same in all micro-habitats and varies depending on their specifics in terms of the dynamics of their communication with water on the surface as well as on conditions in the cave itself.

epikarst; hygropetric; biotransformation; modeling; sinter pools

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