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  • Cave and karst news and announcements from NCKRI – June 2020

Cave and karst news and announcements from NCKRI – June 2020

Details

Dear Friends,

We continue to send you our best hopes that you and your loved ones are well during this time of international crisis.

Here is the latest news:

Various News

  • International Year of Caves and Karst: Update and Reminder
  • France Habe Prize: New Application Deadline
  • Call for Articles: Espelunca

Research and Student Opportunities

  • NCKRI National Seed Grant Program: Request for Proposals
  • Internship at Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota, USA

Conferences and Meetings

  • US National Speleological Society Convention: Virtual Cartographic Salon
  • Geological Society of America’s 2020 Annual Meeting Goes Virtual
  • 34th International Geographical Congress: Postponed
  • Balkan Cavers Camp 2020: Postponed
  • List of Upcoming Cave and Karst Meetings

Please contact the people and organizations listed below for more information, and feel free to share this message with anyone who may be interested.

George

International Year of Caves and Karst: Update and Reminder

The International Year of Caves and Karst (IYCK) is next year, It has incredible potential to advance speleology in many and great ways, but only if we all work together to make it possible. One way is to send manuscripts representing new advances, insights, and challenges in all fields of cave and karst research topics by visiting https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/ijs/. The deadline for submission is October 15, 2020.

For more information on the IYCK and ta downloadable leaflet and planning guide in multiple languages, see www.iyck2021.org.

George Veni, PhD
Executive Director, National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI)
and
President, International Union of Speleology (UIS)

France Habe Prize: New Application Deadline

The France HABE Prize is awarded by the Commission on Karst and Cave Protection of the International Union of Speleology (UIS). The prize is named in memory and honor of Dr. France HABE of Slovenia who among his other many accomplishments served as President of the UIS Protection Department from 1973-1997. The purpose of the prize is to promote the protection of karst and caves for generations to come.

The amount of the Prize is currently fixed at €250. Nominations of candidates for the Prize must be sent to the President of the UIS Commission on Karst and Cave Protection no later than the new deadline of August 20th of 2020. The nominating materials should include at least the following:

  • Digital version of the work if available (for example, Word documents, photographs, illustrations, video, links to websites with other pertinent information);
  • Registration form completed and signed by the nominator;
  • Photograph of the nominated person or group;
  • 10 to 15 sentences description of the importance of the work;

For complete information about the prize, registration form, and how to nominate candidates, contact Jean-Pierre Bartholeyns, President of the UIS Commission on Karst and Cave Protection, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Call for Articles: Espelunca

Espelunca is the official publication of the Cuban Speleological Society, which is calling for articles for this year’s issues. For more details and to contribute, see that attached file (only available in Spanish).

NCKRI National Seed Grant Program: Request for Proposals

Dear Colleagues,

NCKRI is pleased to announce our next round of seed grants in support of cave and karst research. The NCKRI National Seed Grant Program is designed to enable new cave and karst research, and encourage new principal investigators to enter the field.

Proposals for NCKRI National Seed Grants are due August 10th, 2020. Applications can be submitted at the following link

Please direct any questions about submission or budget preparation to Judith McShannon (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Other questions about this RFP can be directed to Daniel Jones, NCKRI Academic Director (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

We will also have another call for graduate and undergraduate student grants (the NCKRI Scholar Fellowship Program); that RFP will be announced later this year.

Please help spread the word about this opportunity, and please consider applying yourselves!

Sincerely,

Daniel S. Jones, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Geobiology, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Science
Academic Director, National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI)
314 Mineral Science and Engineering Complex (MSEC)
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Socorro, NM 87801
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Internship at Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota, USA

Position description

The intern will work with the Resource Management Division, with a focus in two areas: geological research (surface and subsurface) and cave management activities.

Work assignments include:

Geology - The intern will assist with a project to correlate surface and subsurface geology. This includes field mapping on the surface, caving trips to inventory and map subsurface geologic features, documenting field observations in Adobe Illustrator and ArcGIS, adding vertical displacement data to GIS maps, creating geological cross sections that include cave and aquifer relationships, and coauthoring a paper for presentation at a GSA or similar conference.

Cave Management - The intern will assist the Resource Management Staff with photomonitoring established photo-points along off-trail travel routes to document human impacts that have occurred over time; the intern will take in-cave photos, organize and compare them with previous photos, and write reports to summarize changes. He or she will also help mitigate human impacts along established tour routes, do routine microclimate monitoring, assist with data collection for an ongoing hydrology project, and assist in creating cave rescue pre-plans along the major in-cave travel routes.

For more details to apply, go to https://rock.geosociety.org/eo/viewJob.asp?jobID=2812 by June 15, 2020.

US National Speleological Society Convention: Virtual Cartographic Salon

There will be a virtual Cartographic Salon as part of the virtual NSS Convention in July.

The rules for the Salon are on the NSS Web site at http://caves.org/committee/salons/Cartographic.shtml

A few notes:

  • Submitted maps will not be available for viewing or downloading except by the Salon's judges.
  • The Salon Critique will be broadcast live using Zoom on Saturday, August 1, at 9 AM EDT. Entrants will be invited to attend. The Critique may be open to the NSS membership, but that decision has not been made yet.
  • Maps must be submitted by Friday, June 19.

Please direct any questions to the Cartographic Salon Chair, Dwight Livingston, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Geological Society of America’s 2020 Annual Meeting Goes Virtual

The Geological Society of America’s 2020 Annual Meeting, formerly scheduled for 25–28 October in Montréal, Québec, Canada, has been recast as a 100% online scientific exchange, taking place over five days, 26–30 October.

GSA 2020 Connects Online will retain many of the traditional features of the in-person annual meeting, including field trips, short courses, technical sessions, poster sessions, the Presidential Address, Feed Your Brain sessions, networking events, GeoCareers opportunities, and the exhibit hall (rebranded as the GSA Resource and Innovation Center)—along with elements that will elicit the flair and feel of the original Montréal location.

  • The abstract submission system will open 1 July for sessions that were accepted for the original annual meeting dates. The deadline for submissions will remain the same: 4 August. New, flexible guidelines on the format and length of the technical program will be announced soon.
  • Registration will open in early July, with reduced rates of close to 50% off the in-person registration rates. Additional financial assistance for students will be available.

More information will be available in the August issue of GSA Today, and on the annual meeting website Contact the GSA meetings department with questions.

34th International Geographical Congress: Postponed

The 34th International Geographical Congress has been postponed to 16-20 August 2021. It will be held as originally planned in Istanbul, Turkey, and will include two sessions on karst: Global Karst Critical Zone and Land Use Planning. The Global Karst Critical Zone session is chaired by Jianhua Cao, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Junbing Pu, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., with the International Research Center on Karst of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. The Land Use Planning session is chaired by Eko Haryono, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. of Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia, and Elena Trofimova, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., of the Laboratory of Geomorphology, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Important deadlines for the sessions and congress are:

  • Deadline for Abstracts: 11 January 2021
  • Notification of acceptance: 8 February 2021
  • Early bird registration deadline: 5 April 2021
  • Authors' registration deadline: 5 April 2021

Descriptions of each session and details on the congress are available at https://www.igc2020.org/en/KARST%20COMMISSION.html.

Balkan Cavers Camp 2020: Postponed

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The Organizing Committee of 14th Balkan Cavers Camp is happy to inform you that the Bulgarian Caving Society in agreement with the host of the Balkan Cavers Camp 2020, the Tourist Association "Bacho Kiro" - Dryanovo and the local cave club "Strinava", to postpone the Balkan Cavers Camp from 2-5 July 2020 to 9-13 September 2020 at the previously announced place of "Dryanovo Monastery", and the hut "Bacho Kiro" Dryanovo in Bulgaria. We sincerely hope that this time the epidemiological situation regarding KOVID 19 will not create obstacles to the much-desired meeting.

In the coming days, the organizers will inform you if there will be any changes in the program and deadlines for registration etc. Otherwise, everything else will take place as planned! Detailed information & on-line registration are available on the web page of event<http://balkancaverscamp.weebly.com/>. If you need more information do not hesitate to contact us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

List of Upcoming Cave and Karst Meetings

If you are interested in any of the following events, contact them directly to learn if they are still planned as announced below.

********************

George  Veni, PhD

Executive Director, National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI)
and
President, International Union of Speleology (UIS)

NCKRI address (primary)
400-1 Cascades Avenue
Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220 USA
Office: +575-887-5517
Mobile: +210-863-5919
Fax: +575-887-5523
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.nckri.org

UIS address
Titov trg 2
Postojna, 6230 Slovenia
www.uis-speleo.org
www.iyck2021.org