Balkan Biodiversity: Pattern and Process in the European Hotspot
Author: Huw I. Griffiths, Boris Kryštufek, Jane M. Reed
Published by Springer Netherlands
ISBN: 978-90-481-6732-6
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-2854-0

Table of Contents:

Pattern and Process in Balkan Biodiversity — An Overview
The Physical Geography of The Balkans and Nomenclature of Place Names
East Mediterranean Vegetation and Climate Change
The Balkans as Prime Glacial Refugial Territory of European Temperate Trees
Quaternary Biotic Interactions in Slovenia and Adjacent Regions: the Vegetation
A Quantitative Assessment of Balkan Mammal Diversity
Karyotypic Variation in Mammals of the Balkan Peninsula
Late Pleistocene Rodent Dispersal in The Balkans
Early Hominids in the Balkans
The Biodiversity of Amphibians and Reptiles in the Balkan Peninsula
A Zoogeographical Review of the Spiders (Araneae) of the Balkan Peninsula
Distribution Pattern of the Aquatic Fauna of the Balkan Peninsula
The Bivalve Mollusc Fauna of Ancient Lakes in the Context of the Historical Biogeography of the Balkan Region
A Faunistic Review of the Modern and Fossil Molluscan Fauna from Lake Pamvotis, Ioannina, an Ancient Lake in Nw Greece: Implications for Endemism in the Balkans
Fossil Ostracods, Faunistics and the Evolution of Regional Biodiversity
The Potential of Diatoms as Biodiversity Indicators in the Balkans
The Current Status of Adriatic Fish Biodiversity
A Census of the Obligate Subterranean Fauna of the Balkan Peninsula
Diversity of Copepoda (Crustacea) in the Unsaturated Zone of Karstic Caves of Slovenia

From the contents: List of Contributors -- Part 1: Terrestrial -- Part 2: Aquatic -- Part 3: Subterranean -- Subject Index
Balkan Biodiversity is the first attempt to synthesise our current understanding of biodiversity in the great European hot spot. The conservation of biodiversity is one of today's great ecological challenges but Balkan biodiversity is still poorly understood, in a region with complex physical geography and a long history of political conflict. The Balkans exhibit outstanding levels of endemism, particularly in caves and ancient lakes such as Ohrid; lying at the crossroads of Europe and Asia they are also renowned as a focus of Pleistocene glacial refugia. This volume unites a diverse group of international researchers for the first time. Its interdisciplinary approach gives a broad perspective on biodiversity at the level of the gene, species and ecosystem, including contributions on temporal change. Biological groups include plants, mammals, spiders and humans, cave-dwelling organisms, fish, aquatic invertebrates and algae. The book should be read by zoologists, botanists, speleobiologists, palaeoecologists, palaeolimnologists and environmental scientists