This research provides bihourly temperature and relative humidity data from ten measuring locations in eight caves from one of the largest contiguous arid karst areas in the world, the Nullarbor ...Plain in south Australia. The current data span the period from November 2019 to March 2021, and represent the first continuous published monitoring of the subterranean features in this area. The data were recorded using ten TGP-4500 Tinytag Plus 2 self-contained temperature (resolution ±0.01 °C or better with a reading range from −25 °C to +85 °C) and relative humidity (resolution ±3.0% or better with a reading range from 0% to 100%) data loggers and are available in the form of a spreadsheet. The text also describes reported (but only occasional) visits to the caves, so that the data for those particular days and/or hours can be treated as anthropogenically influenced. The data have great potential to provide insight into underground karst processes, air mass movements, hydrogeology, speleothems and (palaeo)climate, current climatic changes, and biology.
The Slovenian climate has undergone significant fluctuations, and an understanding of the past climate is necessary to improve models and recognise long-term patterns. The cryosphere environment, ...such as ice core samples, provides valuable palaeoclimate data. Palynology and dendroclimatology are also effective ways to study long-term changes in vegetation and reconstruct past climates using pollen and tree proxies. Sediment cores from various locations in Slovenia have been studied to understand past environmental changes. Borehole temperature profiles as well as historical records were also used to reconstruct past climate conditions. Studies have shown specific periods when climatic changes likely played a major role, but a complete timeline of the Slovenian climate throughout the Holocene has not yet been fully developed.
Large deep caves with little relation to surface topography are distinctive karst features on the Nullarbor Plain of Australia. The presence of gypsum deposits and chemoautotrophic bacteria within ...the caves have been suggested as evidence for cave formation and (or) enlargement via sulfuric acid speleogenesis. To test this hypothesis, the stable sulfur isotope compositions (634S) of both cave gypsum and surface gypsum were measured. Analyses yielded relatively high, positive 634S values from both cave gypsum and surface gypsum, arguing against gypsum genesis via microbial chemoautotrophy, and more broadly, sulfuric acid speleogenesis. Instead, the gypsum is interpreted as forming via evaporation of seawater during the Quaternary.
One of the methods of water resource management is to construct small retention ponds. Within the framework of the “Possible ecological control of flood hazard in the hilly regions of Hungary and ...Slovenia“ project the management of small ponds and their impact on flood prevention were studied in selected catchments. Data on pond management were gathered from interviews with pond owners. In a pilot study, we conducted an inventarisation and classification of all retention ponds. Primarily they were constructed for more specific use: fishing, irrigation, watering livestock. These functions have been gradually replaced by leisure-time activities, aesthetics, and tourism. Spring, stream and rainfall-fed ponds prevail in the pilot area and reduce the flood risk. Due to the increased variability of precipitation patterns ponds are also becoming an important measure to limit drought consequences at a local level.
In several European countries, land use changes can be analysed on the basis of the Franciscan Cadastre. Present land use data is defined on the basis of orthophotos, but the historical data is ...available only at a parcel level. Therefore, a question arose as to how reliable results about land use changes can be. The main aim of the paper was to analyse land use dynamics with the Franciscan Cadastre and to test the compatibility of detailed and parcel level of modern data. The study was carried out by calculating land use structure and landscape metrics for a part of the Pannonian low-hills area in Slovenia. We have observed that the calculation of the land use type structure mostly provided similar results regardless of the level of detail. On the other hand, the results of landscape metrics analysis were highly affected by the level of detail. The analysis at the parcel level showed that the forest area expanded, and fields and vineyards areas diminished. In general, today’s landscape is made of less patches, but they are larger and of more irregular shapes. We can conclude that a comparison of modern data and historical data based on Franciscan Cadastre must include generalisation to a parcel level.
Increasingly severe weather extremes are predicted as one of the consequences of climate change. According to climatic models, weather extremities induce higher risks for both flood and drought in ...the Carpathian Basin. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, flood control relied on cost-intensive engineering structures, but recently ecological solutions have come to the fore. Flood hazard on major rivers could be mitigated if multiple and cumulative water retention opportunities are exploited on the upper sections of tributary catchments. Appropriate land use and landscape pattern changes can shift the infiltration to run-off ratio to the benefit of the former. In the Transdanubian Hills of Southwest Hungary three study areas with different agricultural land use types had been selected and investigated for the impact of landscape micro-features on soil moisture retention capacity with the purpose of conserving water from wet periods for the times of drought. Marked differences in moisture dynamics have been detected between arable land, grasslands and orchards. This fact underlines the need for integrated soil and water conservation. Drought risk was found to be the highest on ploughland. Favourable soil water budgets have been observed in the fields as a function of land use: less intensive types, like grazing land and orchards (particularly tree rows), were identified as places of high water retention capacity. Although serious water stress conditions were also reached in the orchard, it markedly mitigated drought conditions compared to the ploughland.
The development of the tourist trail in the side passage Rov Novih Podpisov of Postojna Cave in 2001 exposed an over four metres thick sedimentary succession characterised by horizontal flowstone ...layers intercalated between fine-grained fluvial sediments, and gravel deposits that record past environmental changes. The time of the flowstone deposition was determined by radiocarbon and uranium-thorium dating techniques. The results yielded three distinctive age groups of flowstone facies of 33 ka, 103 ka and 153 ka. These results also indicate that flowstone deposition has not been limited solely to periods of warm climate, which suggests that environmental conditions during glacial periods in south-western Slovenia supported flowstone deposition.
Raziskava korozijskih uravnav v Sloveniji podaja sistematično klasifikacijo korozijskih uravnav na podlagi njihovih geoloških in morfoloških značilnosti. Klasifikacija jih združuje v štiri ...kategorije: kraški ravnik, suho kraško polje, robna uravnava kontaktnega krasa in robna uravnava fluviokrasa. Kraški ravniki so največji in nastanejo z denudacijo v stabilnih tektonskih in hidrogeoloških razmerah. Suha kraška polja so zaprte živoskalne kotanje le mestoma prekrite s sedimenti. Robne uravnave kontaktnega krasa so nastale na stiku kraških in nekraških kamnin. Robne uravnave fluviokrasa so nastale z večfaznim razvojem kraških polj zaradi tektonske dejavnosti. Ta raziskava prispeva k boljšemu razumevanju korozijskih uravnav in lahko pomaga pri njihovi identifikaciji in upravljanju v kraških območij.
Udin Boršt is an isolated conglomerate terrace in Gorenjska region, Slovenia. A number of surface karst features and caves developed here due to the predominance of carbonate gravel. It is one of the ...last contiguous areas of lowland forest in Gorenjska region, and a popular recreation location for the people living nearby. Due to its karst surface and the forest it offered shelter to the locals in turbulent times. Its role during the period when bandits (rokovnjači) was common and during the Second World War is still preserved in folk memory. Due to its natural and cultural heritage, the area was protected as a Memorial park in 1985, but the legislation has become outdated and needs to be amended and updated. This article presents new findings on the geomorphological and intangible cultural heritage that need to be incorporated in the amended legislation.
The city of Ljubljana lies at the intersection of various geomorphological regions that have strongly influenced its spatial organization. Prehistoric settlements were built on marshland, a Roman ...town was built on the first river terrace of the Ljubljanica River, and in the Middle Ages a town was built in a strategic position between the Ljubljanica River and Castle Hill. The modern city absorbed all usable space between the nearby hills. This paper reviews some relief features in Ljubljana, their influence on the city’s spatial development, and urban geoheritage. The results indicate new possibilities for urban geoheritage tourism in the Slovenian capital and its surroundings.
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