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Z. Bajka:
"Micorclimatic conditions and modeling possibilities of the Dachstein-Rieseneishöhle";
Supervisor: M. Schuss; Institute for Architectural Science, Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology, 2021; final examination: 2021-09-27.

The Dachstein-Rieseneishöhle is one of the most important caves in Austria that hosts perennial ice. It is an ice cave that is located in the UNESCO world heritage site of Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut (WHS 806). In Austria it is considered a natural monument (nd597 ) and a nature protection area in
the EU (AT3101000/EU02 ).
Although caves are considered to be a stable climatic environment, protected from the outer extremes by the temperature filtration effect of its properties, the regional temperature trends seem to work against additional ice accumulation and presents a danger of a fastening degradation.
Scientists started to monitor the cave since its exploration in 1910. The latest climatic study started in late 2017. The results between 2018 and 2020 are evaluated and compared to those of the previous decades that were in the archives of the Karst- und Höhlen-Arbeitsgruppe in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien.
The results agree with the local climate change prognoses of the Eastern-Alps.
There is a clear indication that the mean annual temperature increase outside the cave since 1950 is strongly correlated to the simulations that predict the climate of the 21st century in the region.
This resulted in a significant temperature change in the cave halls, where glaciation happen. They are on average more than two degree Celsius warmer in the cooling period of winter. The same part of the cave is on the edge of the glaciation temperature zone in the summer, whereas it was well below the freezing point in the monitoring period of 1956-1958.
The cave management has some tools that can help to control the glaciation process, in the form of weather doors, that can block the influx of warm air or the outflow of colder cave air depending on the season; however scientists disagree on the magnitude of thermal energy that is transported into caves with the air movement.

The Dachstein-Rieseneishöhle is one of the most important caves in Austria that hosts perennial ice. It is an ice cave that is located in the UNESCO world heritage site of Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut (WHS 806). In Austria it is considered a natural monument (nd597 ) and a nature protection area in
the EU (AT3101000/EU02 ).
Although caves are considered to be a stable climatic environment, protected from the outer extremes by the temperature filtration effect of its properties, the regional temperature trends seem to work against additional ice accumulation and presents a danger of a fastening degradation.
Scientists started to monitor the cave since its exploration in 1910. The latest climatic study started in late 2017. The results between 2018 and 2020 are evaluated and compared to those of the previous decades that were in the archives of the Karst- und Höhlen-Arbeitsgruppe in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien.
The results agree with the local climate change prognoses of the Eastern-Alps.
There is a clear indication that the mean annual temperature increase outside the cave since 1950 is strongly correlated to the simulations that predict the climate of the 21st century in the region.
This resulted in a significant temperature change in the cave halls, where glaciation happen. They are on average more than two degree Celsius warmer in the cooling period of winter. The same part of the cave is on the edge of the glaciation temperature zone in the summer, whereas it was well below the freezing point in the monitoring period of 1956-1958.
The cave management has some tools that can help to control the glaciation process, in the form of weather doors, that can block the influx of warm air or the outflow of colder cave air depending on the season; however scientists disagree on the magnitude of thermal energy that is transported into caves with the air movement.