Znikający świat jaskiń lodowych

Ice caves are extremely valuable environments that can also be charming and fascinating for visitors. For this reason, they have been the target of exploration, entertainment, and even religious worship for centuries. The growing perennial ice in the caves serves as an archive in which biotic and abiotic elements are deposited, providing evidence of the changes occurring in boththecave'senvironmentanditssurroundings.However,theuniqueworldofice caves is one of the most sensitive ecosystems in the era of climate change. Independent research conducted in dozens of ice caves in the Northern Hemisphere indicates that, despite their high degree of isolation from external conditions, underground ice is rapidly disappearing due to advancing climate warming. This process has intensified over the past few decades. As a result, there has been growing interest in ice caves among scientists from a wide range of disciplines– from geologists and biologists to astrophysicists, who view ice caves as analogs of potential underground ice formations on Mars. Despite increasingly intensive research, ice caves remain one of the least under stood elements of the cryosphere