In May of 2006, nine American scientists and cavers from the Karst Research Group at the University of South Florida traveled to western Romania to attend and present at an international conference on records of climate change in caves in the historic Roman town of Baile Hurculane. The conference, co-sponsored by the “Emil Racoviţă” Speleological Institute of Romania and the Karst Waters Institute, drew more than 100 experts in the field of climate change and karst, and was a wonderful time spent alongside the thermal springs and Austro-Hungarian bathhouses nestled within the massive limestone canyon of the Cerna River.
Following the conference and post-conference field trips in early June of 2006, six members of the American team joined with several Romanian colleagues to conduct paleoclimate research in the caves of the Apuseni Mountains of Transylvania. A follow-up trip in July of 2007 by a smaller research team completed the projects started the previous year. The NSS provided partial funding for the work in both 2006 and 2007 though an International Participation Grant. The Romanian Science Foundation and the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research provided much of the remaining funds
