After providing a historical overview, this book highlights the current state of knowledge, gaps in our knowledge, recent findings and future prospects with regard to the biological, chemical, geological, and geographical specificities of the Plitvice lakes in Croatia. The Plitvice lakes are a unique environment and home to tufa - a type of calcium carbonate deposit that provides a substrate for living organisms. Its formation process has resulted in a vastly diverse environment of lakes, streams and riparian habitats. The Plitvice lakes have, therefore, historically been both an inspiration and a challenge for scientists, nature enthusiasts, artists, etc. Today, the lakes continue to offer an in-situ laboratory for new discoveries in all aspects of freshwater science. As in most habitats, global changes have become an important issue. Since the Plitvice lakes have remained largely untouched by direct human impacts and have a long historical tradition in research, they represent an ideal subject for assessing the effects of global changes in a temperate freshwater system. This book provides an ecological overview of the biogeochemical processes at work in a unique and virtually pristine European freshwater tufa-forming environment.

Autorentext

Associate Professor, Dr. Marko MiliSa, Doctor of biology-ecology, is a renowned expert in freshwater research in karst environments with 20 years of experience in particular with Plitvice lakes environment. He is a full-time associate professor at University of Zagreb, the founder and the first president of the Croatian association of freshwater ecologists, the chair of the 11th European Symposium for Freshwater Sciences (SEFS11)-the most influential European symposium in the field, and the author of 40+ papers and 2 university textbooks. Associate Professor, Dr. Marija Ivkovic, Doctor of biology-zoology, is a specialist in ecology, taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography of aquatic flies (Insecta, Diptera) with 17 years of experience in biodiversity research and ecology of freshwater habitats, with special interest in biodiversity hotspots in karstic habitats and effect of climate change on it. She is a subject editor in ZooKeys and associate editor in EcologicalEntomology and an author of 55 peer-reviewed papers of which most of them deal with ecology and biodiversity of aquatic insects of Plitvice Lakes.