 | Ice Caves Ice Caves synthesizes the latest research on ice caves from around the world, bringing to light important information that was heretofore buried in various reports, journals, and archives largely outside the public view. Ice caves have become an increasingly important target for the scientific community in the past decade, as the paleoclimatic information they host offers invaluable information about both present-day and past climate conditions. Ice caves are caves that host perennial ice accumulations and are the least studied members of the cryosphere. They occur in places where peculiar cave morphology and climatic conditions combine to allow for ice to form and persist in otherwise adverse parts of the planet. The book is an informative reference for scientists interested in ice cave studies, climate scientists, geographers, glaciologists, microbiologists, and permafrost and karst scientists. Aurel Persoiu has 16 years of experience working in ice caves related topics, acquired while working for his MSc (2002) and PhD (2011) studies, as well as during his professional career with the University of Freiburg (2002-2003), Emil Racovita Institute of Spelology (2003-2006, 2015 - onwards) and University of Suceava (2011-2014). During this time, he co-authored one book and one book chapter, 13 articles in peer-reviewed journals (including Quaternary Science Reviews, The Holocene, Journal of Geophysical Research) on various topics related to ice caves and delivered more than 50 conference talks at meeting throughout the world. He organized the First International Workshop on Ice Caves (Cluj Napoca, Romania, 2004) and co-organized some of the succeeding ones (2012, 2014), as well as a dedicated session at the EGU General Assembly in 2011. Between 2007 and 2009 he served as president of the Working Group on Ice Caves within the International Speleological Union (UIS), and since 2013 is the vice-president of the Glacier, Firn and Ice Caves Commission of the same organization. He has to date published some 110 papers and chapters in peer-refereed journals and books. Another 53 papers are published in conference proceedings. He has contributed to two papers in Nature in the fields of geochronology, archaeology and paleoclimate i.e. Barkal et al. 2003 & Moberg et. al. 2005) and one in Science (Henshilwood et al 2011). He has made 4 regional karst maps, and have written 23 technical reports and compendia. 8 different computer programs for specialized data processing in structural geology, geochronology, geochemistry and cave survey techniques. These programs are used in current research and graduate teaching. > 94 printed short abstracts of conference and poster presentations. With respect to popularizing science, he has published 40 articles in caving club and tourist organization periodicals, plus an (unknown) number of newspaper interviews and feature articles, made 4 museum exhibits and had the main role cast in a 52 min. documentary video on climatic research from caves. A second video documentary was shot in February 2008 with National Geographic concerning the formation of giant gypsum crystals at the Naica mines, Mexico. |
