Preliminary assessment of Stracoş Cave and its surface delineated protection area for a sustainable tourism development

Abstract

Tășad protected area includes geological, archaeological and speleological reserves with scientific, educational and tourism values. In the context of recently touristic development of Stracoș Cave, our study aims to complete the existing data. Following objectives were established: (1) geological re-mapping on surface and underground, (2) assessment of the environmental features of cave and surface area, (3) biological mapping of Stracoş Cave, (4) delineation of the surface protection area of the cave. We have continuously registered temperature and relative humidity in the cave, seasonally measured the physical-chemical parameters of springs and cave waters and quantified the microbial indicators. We also assessed the plant communities from the surface, the aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, bats and other vertebrates from the cave. Our results include a new and detailed geological map of the Stracoș-Tășad area and revealed a good status of the forest ecosystems with a moderate anthropogenic impact. Springs showed a physical-chemical profile typical for karstic areas, with trace minerals originating in the volcanic tuff intercalation from the sedimentary rocks, and low pollution with ammonia and phosphates, while the cave waters indicated nitrate presence, a high turbidity and high microbial content. The aquatic invertebrates were represented by 12 supraspecific taxa, of which copepods, amphipods and oligochaetes, were most frequent. Terrestrial cave fauna was represented by trogloxene, troglophile, guanophile, and parasitic species of Isopoda, Opiliones, Acari, Araneae, and Coleoptera. Bat colonies of Rhinolophus spp. were observed in the cave, in the swarming and transitional time, with R. euryale as the most numerous species. On the basis of the overall assessment of the cave and surface, we delineated the surface protection area for Stracoș Cave. These findings represent a base point for the management that need to be addressed and for future monitoring and protecting measures, in view of the natural heritage preservation.

Keywords

• stracoș cave
• geology
• climate
• plant communities
• physical-chemical water profile
• microbial indicators
• aquatic invertebrates
• terrestrial invertebrates
• bats