Please join CSEEES and Slovene Research Initiative Faculty Fellow Dr. Jure Tičar for a talk on "Karst and Caves of Slovenia: A Landscape of Rugged Nature, Cultural Adaptation, and Scientific Curiosity".
Abstract: Slovenia is a land where stone and water shape one of the most remarkable karst landscapes on Earth—and where the very term karst originated. From the limestone plateaus of the Classical Karst to the vast subterranean worlds of Postojna and Škocjan, the country hosts an exceptional diversity of surface and underground phenomena. In this lecture, Tičar explores the evolution of karst and cave research in Slovenia, the natural processes sculpting these environments, and their role as living laboratories for studying geomorphology, climate, water, and biodiversity. Beyond science, karst is also a cultural landscape where people have long adapted to rugged terrain, scarce water, and mysterious depths. The talk reveals how Slovenia’s karst unites natural wonder, human resilience, and scientific curiosity in a uniquely intertwined story.
Speaker Biography: Jure Tičar works at the Anton Melik Geographical Institute, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), which has been cooperating with the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at The Ohio State University for several years. This cooperation started as a result of the Slovene Research Initiative. Tičar is the project leader and principal investigator in Slovenia of the "Supporting Holocene Climate Reconstruction with High-Resolution Cryospheric Proxies from the Karst Ice Caves of Slovenia", a collaboration between the two institutions.
This talk is free and open to all. If you have questions about accessibility or wish to request accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate in these events, please contact Emma Pratt at pratt.124@osu.edu. Typically, two weeks' notice will allow us to provide access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
