**About the Editors**

**Tanja Pipan** received her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Ljubljana in 2003. She is currently Research Advisor at ZRC SAZU Karst Research Institute and Associate Professor of Biology at University of Nova Gorica. She has research interests in the biology of shallow subterranean habitats, ecology of the epikarst copepod fauna, patterns of subterranean biodiversity, and karst ecosystem function. She is largely responsible for the recognition of epikarst as a significant subterranean habitat. She has published over 50 papers and has authored three books. Pipan is country coordinator for the International and European Long Term Ecological Research Program. In 2016, she received the ZRC SAZU Gold Award: a prize for outstanding scientific research.

**Louis Deharveng** received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Toulouse (France) in 1982. He is currently Research Director Emeritus of the CNRS based at Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. His research interest is in the taxonomy and evolution of springtails and the biodiversity of the hypogean environment. He has published more than 200 papers and led two European projects on these research topics. He has organized or co-organized several international projects and symposia on biodiversity between 2001 and 2019, especially in France, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and South Africa, and set up several biospeological expeditions in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. He is a member of the International Society for Subterranean Biology and the chair of the Cave Invertebrate Specialist Group at IUCN.

**David C. Culver** received his Ph.D. in Biology from Yale University in 1970. He is currently Professor of Environmental Science Emeritus at American University, Washington, DC, with broad research interests in subterranean biology, especially biodiversity, biogeography, and shallow subterranean habitats. He has published well over 100 research papers on subterranean biology, and is the author or editor of eight books on speleobiology. He has organized or co-organized international symposia on conservation and protection of karst (1997), mapping subterranean biodiversity (2001), epikarst (2003), karst ecosystems (2007), and carbon in karst (2013), among others. He is an Honorary Life Member of both the National Speleological Society and the International Society for Subterranean Biology, and a member of the Explorers Club.
