Introducing Dr Fabio Stoch, new Editor-in-Chief at Subterranean Biology
Dr Fabio Stoch - Chargé de recherches at the Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics group of the Evolutionary Biology & Ecology unit at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium - replaced Dr. Oana Moldovan as the Editor-in-Chief of Subterranean Biology.
At the University, Stoch is working on the molecular taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography of groundwater amphipods and copepod crustaceans.
As an active biospeleologist for almost 35 years and a member of the Cave Invertebrate Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), Stoch has always been concerned with the monitoring and conservation strategies of karst areas.
“Subterranean environments are strongly integrated with surface ecosystems,” he often points out.
On these lines, Fabio sees it as one of his first undertakings as an Editor-in-Chief to introduce those integrated aspects along with novel research methods, such as environmental DNA and speleomics, to the scope of Subterranean Biology.
However, this - by no means - is to renounce the traditional taxonomic and faunal topics of the journal’s content. Quite the contrary, Fabio is firmly convinced that these serve as the basis for any research work on the subterranean environment.
“My expectation in taking charge of the journal is that Subterranean Biology can become an indispensable reference for all researchers and stakeholders who will be involved in studying, managing, and conserving the subterranean environment, the ecosystem services it provides, and its cultural aspects,” he says.
“This is particularly crucial today, as these ecosystems are already at a great risk posed by the combined effects of natural resource exploitation and climate change. Hence, we must pursue every effort to protect and conserve their extraordinary and unique biodiversity."
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