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Editors

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The International Journal of Speleology is the official journal of the Union Internationale de Spéléologie since 1978 and was founded in 1964. It is a double-blind, peer-reviewed, international scientific journal that publishes research and review articles concerning all sciences involved in karst and caves, such as geology, geomorphology, hydrology, archeology, paleontology, (paleo)climatology, cave meteorology, (geo)microbiology, environmental sciences, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, etc. IJS is published three times per year.

Articles are open access at http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/ijs. The journal is abstracted and indexed in the following services: Directory of Open Access Journals, ISI Thomson Services (Science Citation Index-Expanded including the Web of Science, ISI Alerting Service, Current Contents/Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences), Bibliography & Index of Geology (GeoRef, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, EarthScienceWISE (Oxmill Publishing), EBSCO publishing, Geobase, Speleological Abstracts (UIS), Ulrich’s Periodical Directory ™, BIOSIS Zoological record, SCOPUS (Elsevier), and SCImago Journal and Country Rank.

LATEST IMPACT FACTOR 2023: 1.3
In Journal of Citation Reports®, Thomson Reuters 2023

Current Issue: Volume 53, Issue 3 (2024)

Articles

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Populations of the stygobiotic amphipod Palearcticarellus pusillus (Martynov, 1930) maintain genetic connectivity between the mountain springs and the deep bottom habitats of Lake Teletskoye (Altai Mountains, Russia)
Ivan Marin, Liubov Yanygina, Svetlana Ostroukhova, and Dmitry Palatov

  • A relationship is observed between amphipod populations in mountain springs and deep-sea lakes, possibly due to deep tectonic faults
  • A new version of tiny body size of stygobiotic amphipod is suggested
  • A time calibration for amphipod evolution process in Altai mountain is presented
  • A rare stygobiotic amphipod is re-described
  • A new data on ecology of rare amphipods in Altai Mountains are presented

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Time-transgressive microbial diversity in a tropical bat guano accumulation, Deer Cave, Mulu, Borneo
Joyce Lundberg and Donald A. McFarlane

  • Distinctive changes observed in microbiome throughout 120-year old bat guano sequence
  • Diversity is highest in the ecologically-complex surface layer of fresh guano
  • Diversity correlates with acidity, temperature, and depth.
  • In the oldest, most decomposed section of the profile, Actinomycetota dominate
  • Anaerobic H2S-generating surface guano has twice the diversity of aerobic

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New ichnofossil discovery in Mallorcan caves: Linking ancient and moden bat-ectoparasites coporolites.
Antonio Merino Juncadella, Joan J. Fornós, Antoni Mulet, and Joaquin Gines

  • Rod-shaped morphologies discovered in Cova des Pas de Vallgornera are described
  • These deposits are interpreted as fossils micro-coprolites of bat ectoparasites
  • The paper is a contribution to the ichnotaxonomy of invertebrate coprolites
  • These morphologies’ abundance could reveal infestation levels in an ancient bat colony

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Degradation of cyanobacteria and microalgae using ultraviolet radiation at 222 nm and its application in the bleaching of lampenflora on cave rock surfaces
Keisuke Naito, Shuji Watanabe, Masuo Komukai, Takehiro Kazama, Masayuki Itoh, and Masahiro Kawasaki

  • We successfully bleached green-blue biofilms on cave rocks, using an excimer lamp at 222 nm
  • 222 nm light may be used in tourist areas to protect cultural assets from bacterial damage
  • UV light at 222 nm was more effective than that at 254 nm in degrading cells via cytoclasis
  • Photosynthetic damage was higher at 222 nm than at 254 nm
  • The 222 nm radiation decomposed the harmful microcystins more efficiently than the 254 nm

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Chiropterophagy by the Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica): the first record in the Russian Far East
Valeriya E. Omelko and Mikhail P. Tiunov

  • Chiropterophagy by the Siberian weasel in the Russia Far East
  • Siberian weasels do not rely on caves for chiropterophagy every winter
  • Siberian weasels enter caves due to food shortages
  • Weather conditions do not influence Siberian weasel cave entry
  • Chiropterocapy refers to predators feeding on resting bats

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The affordable DIY Mandeye LiDAR system for surveying caves, and how to convert 3D clouds into traditional cave ground plans and extended profiles
Loris Redovniković, Antun Jakopec, Janusz Będkowski, and Jurica Jagetić

  • Low-cost LiDAR enables precise, accessible cave mapping
  • Open-source tools streamline cave surveying workflows
  • Mobile mapping provides detailed, reproducible cave models
  • Automation simplifies generating cave ground plans and profiles
  • Community-driven innovation advances speleological research

Technical Note

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Charlotte: A modern tool for cave surveying
Luca Tringali Mr., Giacomo Canciani Dr., Alexander Debenjak, and Tecla Tripari

  • We developed Charlotte, a new tool for 2.5D cave surveying using modern hardware
  • Charlotte uses LiDAR to measure cave walls, useful for realistic representation
  • We also developed the software to build 3D DXF models from survey data
  • Both Charlotte's hardware and software have been published as open source
  • Charlotte is easy to assemble and cheaper than most commercially available tools