Once again the effort to develop comprehensive karstology that uses select approaches for getting to know and understand the uniform, three-dimensional karst landscape, has proved to be the best choice. Under specific research conditions we have been able to get a good image of the karst across which the railway will run. It is true that we could not precisely determine the locations of caves that will be opened up during construction and all the paths of the waters that shape and connect the karst, but we could clearly predict what is to be expected during construction and what this construction should be like. This will make construction more successful; it will be possible to protect more of the newly-discovered karst phenomena, which are an important part of our natural heritage; moreover, the waters that are also important for supply will be protected more efficiently.
COBISS.SI-ID: 56041570
A critical overview of current protection legislation in Slovenia has been prepared, with particular reference to karst areas (surface, caves, groundwater). The major problem is a lack of harmonised multi-sector policies regulating land use and planning throughout the karst region, the absence of detailed guidelines and insufficient pursuance of karst in all its complexity and vulnerability. A comprehensive management approach for karst areas has been proposed and could subsequently be adopted by other karst-rich countries.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2658243
Natural biofilms can play an important role in aquatic systems in dissolution of underlying stone substrate on which they are attached. Dissolution is evident despite chemically saturated water regarding to calcite. We found out that illumination of submerged limestone in a freshwater has a principal effect on biological dissolution rate and as such on geobiogenic flux of carbon on karst. Light intensity can thus be a rough means of estimating overall dissolution rates enhanced by phototrophs in a riverbed.
COBISS.SI-ID: 37780269
In cave Snežna jama we used different methods like paleomagnetism, paleontology, Th/U and radionuclids for datation of fluvial alogenic cave sediments. With them we reconstructed paleoenvironment of the sinking river that flow through the cave. Reconstruction of the catchment area of the area and dating of the sediments showed that the tectonic uplift of the whole area for 1000 m occurred in the past 1.5 Ma.
COBISS.SI-ID: 38033197
Models of bedrock channel evolution typically assume that chemical erosion is negligible in comparison to mechanical erosion. While this assumption is reasonable for channels in silicate rocks, it is questionable within highly soluble strata such as carbonates. The magnitude and variability of calcite dissolution rates in streams has remained as a critical unknown for models of bedrock incision and karst conduit formation. Here we use U.S. Geological Survey data to estimate calcite dissolution rates from 77 different streams located in a wide range of settings. The calculated rates are commonly on the order of ∼1 mmyr−1, which is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude larger than previous estimates. Typically, dissolution rates vary within a relatively narrow range, which has important implications for the relative importance of chemical and mechanical erosion.
COBISS.SI-ID: 38585901