Content // Preface 7 // 1. Geological structure 11 // 2. Types of karst and caves 21 // 3. History of biospeleology 29 // 3.1 The period of the Hungarian and Austro-Hungarian empires (1841-1918) 29 // 3.2 The Interwar period of the Czechoslovak Republic and the Slovak State (1918-1945) 30 // 3.3 The period of the Czechoslovak Republic after the World War II (1945-1989) 32 // 3.4 The period after 1989 34 // 4. Cave habitats 37 // 4.1 Terrestrial environment 37 // 4.2 Water environment 65 // 5. Cave organisms 73 // 5.1 Microorganisms 73 // 5.2 Cave invertebrates 103 // 5.3 Vertebrates 126 // 6. Zoogeography of cave fauna 141 // 7. Conservation of subterranean habitats 147 // 8. Monitoring of cave biota 153 // Alternative geographic names 159 // Practical Slovak-English dictionary 159 // Glossary 160 // Abbreviations 164 // References 165 // About authors // 189 //