HR: 0800h
AN: ED11C-0628    [Abstracts]
TI: The C6 Program: Monitoring Climatic Changes in Canyons and Caves Involving Scientific Istitutions, Environmental NGOs and Mountain Sport Associations
AU: Di Pietro, R
EM: r.dipietro@legambienteriserve.it
AF: Legambiente Comitato Regionale Siciliano - Gestione Riserve Naturali, Via Agrigento, 67, Palermo, 90141, Italy
AU: Casamento, G
EM: giuliacasamento@tiscali.it
AF: Legambiente Comitato Regionale Siciliano - Gestione Riserve Naturali, Via Agrigento, 67, Palermo, 90141, Italy
AU: Interlandi, M
EM: m.interlandi@aliceposta.it
AF: Legambiente Comitato Regionale Siciliano - Gestione Riserve Naturali, Via Agrigento, 67, Palermo, 90141, Italy
AU: * Madonia, P
EM: commissione.scientifica@canyoning.it
AF: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Palermo, Via Ugo La Malfa, 153, Palermo, 90146, Italy
AU: * Madonia, P
EM: commissione.scientifica@canyoning.it
AF: Associazione Italiana Canyoning, Commissione Scientifica, Piazza della Libertà, 1, Stroncone, TR 05039, Italy
AB: The acronym "C6" means "Climatic Changes and Carbon Cycle in Canyons and Caves". The project was born in 2005, joining under the scientific supervision of the Palermo branch of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia two different programs both active since 1999; the first was due to the initiative of the Italian Canyoning Association, a no-profit association aimed to the diffusion of the canyoning sport practise in Italy, the second one, developed by the NGO Legambiente Sicilia and funded by the Regione Siciliana-Assessorato Territorio e Ambiente (Sicilian Regional Government, Territorial and Environmental Department), managing the natural reserves of Santa Ninfa, Carburangeli and Sant'Angelo Muxaro caves (Sicily), was focused to verify the existence of a possible environmental negative feedback of human fruition. In 2005 the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature of Jordan joined the program, and a new site was established inside the Shagher Daghleh Canyon in the Wadi Dana Reserve. In October 2006 the Caver Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina joined the C6 program and another observational site was instituted into a cave close to Sarajevo. Preliminary data acquired indicate how canyons play a very important role in biodiversity preservation in arid and semi-arid environments, whereas caves are extraordinary natural laboratories for the study of carbon dioxide partition between atmosphere and lithosphere, of the effect of rain dynamic on the underground aquifer recharge and, last but not least, of the monitoring of climatic changes. The success of the initiative is based on the very different nature of the co-participants. Caver and canyoning associations guarantee the safe accessibility to difficult environments, like canyons and caves. The selection as measuring sites of natural reserves managed by NGOs, whose activity is essentially based on volunteers, ensure on one hand their environmental stability on a long term perspective, on the other hand very low costs for the personnel involved in the operations. Both the factors are very important for long-term ecological researches, where continuity of data acquisition is fundamental. Finally, the huge numbers of non-scientific personnel involved in the program ensures a wide diffusion of a correct scientific approach to the themes of the climatic changes, very often presented to the public under a wrong dramatic and spectacular light.
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
DE: 0855 Diversity
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting