Every Thursday evening starting at 9:00pm to 10:00pm until June 17th (GMT+1)

The Cave Science Pills are small online lectures on caves, organized by the Italian Speleological Society, the Italian Show Caves Association, and the Speleopolis Association, sponsored by the International Union of Speleology, the International Show Caves Association, and the Italian Alpine Club.

The series will be held at a weekly basis, every Thursday night from 9 to 10 pm (GMT+1). Everyone can join the live streaming events, transmitted via different broadcasting systems. An appointment a week that will accompany us into the summer.

Each episode is composed of two small cave lectures held by young researchers and cavers, on scientific research themes carried out in Italian caves, on a wide variety of scientific disciplines.

Each of those evenings two small lectures of 20 minutes regarding similar arguments will be held, introduced by an expert in the field. There will be 10 minutes following each ‘pill’ for questions and curiosities, based on comments posted in the chat platforms.

The presentations will be in Italian with the support of slides in English. A simple but scientifically correct language will be used, aimed at being didactic and informative, since they are aimed at an audience of onlookers, but also of people who work in cave and karst environment as the guides of numerous show caves.

This series of ‘Cave Science Pills’ offer a great opportunity to present how exceptional cave environments are, and how rich they are from a scientific viewpoint. They also offer the opportunity to cavers and cave guides to know more about caves and karst, learn how to observe caves, describe and document them in an increasingly more efficient way, learning how to respect and admire these delicate places.

The small lectures will be recorded and translated and will form an online archive to be used for didactic purposes. This collection of lectures can then be updated with new episodes every year.

Contribute to making the Cave Science Pills known. Download and share the flyer to your cave association, your show cave colleagues, to speleo friends, to students of your course, to those who are curious to know more about underground world

Thursday 11 February 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Vincenzo Spagnolo
Neanderthal in Apulia. Discovering the stories hidden in caves.

Andrea Columbu
How was climate in South Italy during the Neanderthal extinction? Stalagmites can tell us.

Thursday 18 February 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Ilenia M. D’Angeli
The sulfuric acid caves of Calabria: how to recognize and study them.

Luca Pisani
Subsurface fluid flow in the Majella Massif: from fractures to sulfuric caves.

Thursday 25 February 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Elena Piano
Environmental conditions promoting lampenflora growth in show caves.

Rosangela Addesso
The green disease of show caves: how we can avoid and control it. Examples from Lazio and Pertosa-Auletta.

Thursday 4 March 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Simona Cafaro
Alburni Mts: from Pliocene to the present.

Claudio Pastore
A mountain and its waters: Alburni (Campania).

Thursday 11 March 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Stefano Fabbri
Underground remote sensing: laser light and caves a perfect match.

Tommaso Santagata
Ice cave monitoring through LIDAR and photogrammetry.

Thursday 18 March 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Matteo Romandini
Neanderthals, ursids and caves: evidence of interaction from zooarchaeological proofs in southern Europe. The cases of Fumane and Rio Secco sites (Italy).

Lisa Carrera
Fossil birds in the caves on North-Eastern Italy: paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic implications.

Thursday 25 March 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Valeria Vaccher
The semi-submerged caves in the Mediterranean Sea: between census, morphological evolution and protection

Giuseppe Matteo Riolo
Carburangeli Cave: a flak margin cave example (Sicily).

Thursday 1 April 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Pietro Valenti
Cave anthropology, the prehistoric site of Zubbio di Cozzo San Pietro.

Lucia Castagna
Loubens Cave (Gessi Bolognesi Natural Park): reconstruncting the past with a woman's skull only (Emilia Romagna).

Thursday 8 April 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Simone Bernardini
Are all black crusts composed of manganese? The Cervo Cave's case (Abruzzo).

Alessia Nannoni
The impact of marble-dust in cave: the Corchia's case (Toscana).

Thursday 15 April 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Francesco Boschin
Trieste karst in the prehistory: humans and caves.

Jacopo Crezzini
Neanderthal and Sapiens into the caves of Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park.

Thursday 22 April 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Giuseppe Nicolosi
Tourists in cave and subterranian arthropods: a possible coexistence?

Enrico Lunghi
The effect of speleo-tourism on the European cave salamanders

Thursday 29 April 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Michele Onorato
Anchialine systems: the groundwaters merging (Zinzulusa, Puglia).

Leonardo Ancillotto
Bats in caves: guidelines for cohabitation.

Thursday 6 May 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Pietro Gutgesell
Karstified Paleozoic limestones. The Tiamu Karstic area.

Alice Busetti
Gypsum karst of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region: the risk connected to a rapidly evolving process.

Thursday 13 May 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Valentina Balestra
Environmental monitoring in caves: goals and equipment.

Daniela Cinus
Show cave environmental implications: from microclimatic indicators to ambient impacts.

Thursday 20 May 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Stefano Marighetti
Where do Asiago Plateau waters go? (Veneto)

Isabella Serena Liso
Hydrogeological surveys in active caves of Apulia.

Wednesday 26 May 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Veronica Chiarini
Show cave management and monitoring: experiences with the ADRION - Adriaticaves Interreg Project in Emilia - Romagna.

Veronica Nanni
Human dimension and show caves.

Thursday 3 June 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Guido Leone
Underground water circulation into the karst acquifers of Apennine Chain.

Vittorio Catani
Vulnerability of underground hydric resources in karst environment.

Thursday 10 June 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Lisa Foschi
Microbiological world of moonmilk: the Black Cave (Abruzzo).

Federico Biagioli
The microbiota contaminations in show caves, management implications and possible uses as bioindicators.

Wednesday 16 June 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm 16 June 2021, 9:00-10:00 pm

Ilaria Vaccarelli
Cave Microbial Survey: cavers support subsurface microbiology.

Lorenza Rugnini
As a long as light exists, there is life: cyanobacteria biofilm in subsurface environment.

The program, during the evenings, may undergo some variation or integration. We will try to notify you as soon as possible but be sure to check for any changes on this page.

Is Thursday night your weekly meeting at your cave association? Don't worry, live streaming works great even from any PC on the internet and you can follow the episodes with your speleo friends, comment, discuss and rethink toghether the topics.
(we recommend a mask and adequate social distance!)

Introduced by Prof, Stefano Benazzi

In this talk we will explore some aspects of the life of Apulian Neanderthals: what do their traces tell us about them? To achieve this objective, we will start from a specific excavation field, to address the first part of my talk: methods of prehistoric excavation and research. After that we will discover some of the results brought to light by recent research in some key sites in Apulia, with a particular focus on the potentialities of Spatial Archaeology.

The seminar is divided into two parts. The first explains how stalagmites register information about past climates. The second provides a palaeoclimate reconstruction in south Italy during a particular phase of the last glacial, when Neanderthals disappeared while the "newcomer" Sapiens expanded.

Introduced by Prof. Leonardo Piccini

Here I will elucidate the main mechanisms of cave formation in sulfuric acid conditions, with a focus on Calabria, where recently several cavities have been classified as hypogene sulfuric acid caves.

In this talk I will illustrate how and why fluids from over 2 km of depth in the Earth's crust can migrate to the surface and produce peculiar karst systems, such as that of Cavallone-Bove in the Majella massif (Abruzzo).

Introduced by Dr. Francescantonio D’Orilia

In this presentation, I will show the main environmental drivers determining the growth of the lampenflora, by presenting the data collected in 4 caves in NW-Italy. More in detail, I will show how environmental factors differentially affect the growth of the three main groups of microorganisms that compose the lampenflora, namely diatoms, cyanobacteria and green algae.

We will illustrate the multiple impacts of lampenflora on natural cave surfaces and the possible treatment methods, known until now, to control its growth.

Introduced by Prof. Bartolomeo Vigna

The evolutionary history of a massif can be deduced through several aspects. The presence of epigean and subterranean karst forms can help to reconstruct the different stages leading to the current morphological configuration of a relief. The Alburni Mts, with the presence of flat-surfaces modelled in different ways and with an important deep karst, has made it possible to reconstruct its karstic history from the Pliocene to the present.

I will tell you which are the subterranean paths that water follows to then gush out at the slopes of the Alburni Mounts. We will talk about the role of the caves on the plateau, in which water is swallowed reaching the underground rivers, and then drained out from springs. Thereafter, we are going to say a few words about the several spring-caves deployed at the foot of the karst massif.

Introduced by Prof. Francesco Sauro

The seminar will be an opportunity to show the main features of L.A.S.E.R. and the main scientific results obtained thanks to the use of this technology in caves, which differ in both constitution and genesis: 3D geomorphology from the gypsum of Romagna to the Lessini Mountains.

We will talk about technologies for three-dimensional surveys applied to the study of glacial deposits in caves taking as an example the monitoring project of the Abyss Cenote, actually one of the deepest caves and with the most impressive internal glacial area of the Dolomites (over half a million cubic meters of volume).

Introduced by Dr. Ivana Fiore

This seminar shows how, since the Palaeolithic, human beings and bears have shared caves in much of Europe, as evidenced by a number of bones found in association with lithic artefacts. Among these, the bones found in two caves of North-Eastern Italy show that tens of thousands of years ago the Neanderthals, shortly before their extinction in Italy, had some kind of “conflictual close approaches” with the large plantigrades. In these conflicts, Neanderthals seem to have prevailed.

With this evening’s seminar, I will show how fossil birds from Pleistocene cave deposits are studied and what kind of information they can provide. In detail, I will describe the species retrieved in two caves in North-Eastern Italy and the significant palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic insights they provided.

Introduced by Prof. Stefano Furlani

After a short description of the main genetic processes of sea caves, I will focus on the Carburangeli Cave, a small cavity near Palermo, which has been a protected Nature Reserve since 1995 due to its speleological, biological and palaeontological values. I will describe the morphological features of the cave and the investigations which led to its identification as a coastal micing corrosion cave (a ‘flank margin cave’).

Introduced by Prof. Maria Giovanna Belcastro

During this pill, I will present the results of a first excavation campaign carried out in a Sicilian cave called Zubbio di Cozzo San Pietro. The recent discovery of this site opens new perspectives on the study of human settlements in Sicilian prehistory. The talk will start from the discovery of the osteological bed, to the organization and implementation of the excavation, terminating with the study in the laboratory of the recovered finds.

I want to tell you about the strange case of an isolated cranium, found by chance at the top of a natural shaft, in the depth of a gypsum doline near Bologna. How did it end up there in such an unusual place? How long ago? And above all: How to study it without a reliable archaeological stratigraphy? After the complex recovery, all these questions have led to a productive collaboration between the superintendence -SABAPBO- and scientists from various departments of Bologna University, creating an ideal composite and multidisciplinary case-study.

Introduced by Prof. Cristina Carbone

During my talk, I will show how the study of black patinas allows recognizing the shift between oxic and suboxic conditions, related to different phases of paleo-flood events, and investigating the role of the wall surface's roughness on the microbe-mineral interactions in such an extreme environment.

A brief overview of the marble quarrying district and the characteristics of the Apuan karst area is presented in the first part of the seminar. Then, the Corchia karst system is introduced as an example of cave system that is exposed to marmettola pollution and how this material is studied.

Introduced by Prof. Paolo Reggiani

This talk is a story of how the caves of the Trieste Karst, and the archives they contain, can provide us with useful information not only on the presence of man in the area during prehistoric times, but also on how the Karst plateau and the surrounding areas have changed over time. In order to reconstruct environments and human activities, we will be helped above all by the animal remains preserved in archaeological sites.

In this talk we will show some interesting data obtained from zooarchaeological analyses conducted on macromammal remains recovered in Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites in southern Italy. Analysis of ungulate bones revealed some important differences between the samples recovered in the layers related to Neanderthal and Modern Human. These differences are probably due to different patterns of animal exploitation adopted by the two human populations.

Introduced by Prof. Stefano Mammola

During my talk, I will present the current knowledge on the main threats affecting the fauna in tourist caves, with particular regard to the invertebrate fauna. Subsequently, I will focus on the case study of the Monello Cave, an integral natural reserve managed by the CUTGANA of the University of Catania and recently opened to small groups of visitors in the context of scientific research on the evaluation of "Carrying Capacity".

The seminar begins with a general overview on the European cave salamanders, showing their main features and ecological requirements. Then, I will report the experience of two dear Sardinian friends that observed the activity of European cave salamanders within two tourist caves.

Introduced by Dott. Paolo Agnelli

In this speech I will illustrate the latest scientific research carried out in Grotta Zinzulusa (Castro -LE) and future prospects. Already known as one of the ten most important karst sites in the world, according to the Karst Water Institute, for the peculiar forms of life that have been found within it, the aquifer system of the cave is for the first time studied in a systematic way, thanks the installation of a multiparametric probe, a net for capturing planktonic organisms and sampling water, sediment and encrustations. The consequent analyses made it possible to ascertain that this system was more complex than expected, finding particular organisms and questioning its classification as an anchialine system proper.

The seminar is divided in two parts. The first shows the diversity of the bat species found in Italy, explaining their life cycles. The second provides an overview of bat conservation and potential problems arising from the use of caves by humans, as well as giving some possible remedies we can set in place to enable the use of caves without compromising this preferred habitat for bats.

Introduced by Prof. Luca Zini

The seminar is divided into two parts. The first will talk about the Timau-Passo di Monte Croce Carnico karst area (general geological settings, overview on the main cavities and historical note). Because the area and especially the caves were used during the First World War by both armies and there are several pieces of evidence in the zone.

The latter part focuses on the hydrological and geochemical settings of the area. And how not always the drainage divide agrees with the groundwater basin and how we cope with these issues.

In this talk we will focus on the subsidence phenomena called “sinkholes”, holes that suddenly open under our feet. We will look at some examples in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, their main characteristics and associated risks. In short, if you see a sinkhole you will surely be able to recognize it and not fall into it!!

Introduced by Dr. Pierpaolo Duce

In this presentation, I will explain the importance of cave (touristic and not) monitoring, underlining how these studies are fundamental to examine the possible impacts from visitors. I will show the different instruments that can be used, from the installation of the equipment to the unloading and use of the collected data. Finally, I will illustrate some results, highlighting the main problems encountered.

My talk will focus on the importance of the physical characterization of the air masses in the karst environment and their monitoring aimed at evaluating the environmental changes in tourist caves due to anthropogenic presence. In particular, I will focus on underground meteorological monitoring data of some of the most important tourist caves in Sardinia as part of the PRIN "SHOWCAVE" project. I will introduce a new analytical approach that will be applied for the analysis of the environmental impact and the estimation of the carrying capacity of a tourist cave, the Life Cycle Assessment.

Introduced by Prof. Mario Parise

A first two-year monitoring of the waters that flow in the North-Eastern area of the Asiago plateau was carried out. In the study area, 200 km² with about 60 km of well-known caves, a hydrogeological and hydrochemical model was defined through the use of natural and artificial tracers. The exceptional 3D knowledge of the investigated area, allows to study the evolution of the chemical and physical characteristics of the waters: from their infiltration, along their path through complex vertical and horizontal galleries, which are established on various paleophreatic levels, up to the springs at the bottom valley of Valsugana.

The talk will illustrate the importance and methods to collect information, from within the caves and the surrounding karst environment, to better understand the behavior of fresh water moving below our feet.

Introduced by Dr. Massimiliano Costa

During this talk we will sum up the importance of caves for both scientific research and as a proper natural habitat, analysing cave fragilities in relation to cave frequentation (both touristic and not). We will talk about the importance of monitoring in caves open to the public and the approach adopted within the Interreg ADRION- Adriaticaves Project, with special regards to the activities carried out in the territories managed by the Authority for the management of Parks and Biodiverstiy – Romagna.

This talk aims to highlight the main impacts of tourism activities on subterranean ecosystems. We will also try to understand what tourists value more of this wonderful underground environment and what perception they have of their impact as visitors. We will start from current knowledge and illustrate the objectives of a new study aimed at understanding the awareness of tourists and other stakeholders on the impact of cave tourism.

Introduced by Prof. Francesco Fiorillo

Underground cavities and caves result from the dissolution of carbonate rocks due to groundwater circulation. In karst environments, groundwaters have different origins. In particular, they can be related to direct infiltration of rainwater, or they can follow deep paths. Generally, the paths followed by groundwater are complex and depend on numerous factors. This presentation aims to illustrate the groundwater circulation mechanisms which characterize some karst aquifers of Campania.

The protection of water resources is fundamental and of priority importance, especially when these resources are exploited for drinking water purposes.

Carbonate aquifers, given the excellent qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the water resource, represent an ideal water reservoir. During my talk, the groundwater vulnerability in karst environment will be illustrated: causes, paths and effects.

Introduced by Prof. Laura Bruno

In this talk we’ll discuss why caves are considered extreme environments and why microorganisms can play a significant role in caves reshaping. We’ll talk about Bacteria, trying to understand how microbial activity can affect speleothem formation. Specifically, we’re going to talk about the Grotta Nera (located in the Majella National Park, in Abruzzo) and its particular speleothems called moonmilk trays. At last I’ll tell you about our studies and how we’re investigating microbial communities inhabit these curious speleothems.

Because, beyond representing a natural heritage of biodiversity and contributing to the maintenance of the cave itself, the microbial components play a fundamental role in the assessment of anthropogenic impact and the state of caves, mainly in show caves, providing us natural living sensors such as bio-indicators.

Introduced by Prof. Maddalena Del Gallo

Cave Microbial Survey is a citizen science-based data collection project which was designed to create a link between speleologists and the world of research. It focuses on subterranean microbiology, performed by using a (very easy to fill) digital support. In this science pill, an overview of all forms of microbial activity that can be detected at naked eye will be introduced, also mentioning all the topics of research that are closely linked to the microbiology of the subsurface. Finally, some scientific papers will be presented that used data from this project.

In this seminar, I will describe the main methodologies for the characterization of phototrophic biofilms, mainly composed of cyanobacteria, sampled in hypogean environment. Data reported come from studies carried out in different Roman Catacombs, highlighting their common characteristics and their differences.