In Pirin Planina: Tragic and Comic Episodes from Captivity, Romanian poet and writer George Topirceanu (1886-1937) described his experiences as a soldier during World War I. Despite his bleak surroundings and vivid descriptions of death and tragedy that he witnessed, Topirceanu managed to find humor in the most unusual circumstances, making Pirin Planina a truly unique account of the War. His experiences will leave the reader perplexed. Topirceanu's unique blend of drama, tragedy, and humor will immerse the reader into the world of a soldier during World War I.

Landscape Development and Climate Change in Southwest Bulgaria aims to address some of the current limitations in our understanding of past Balkan climate and environment. High mountains and their ecosystems offer an outstanding opportunity for studies on the impact of climate change. The Balkan Mountains in Southeast Europe, situated at the transition between temperate and Mediterranean climate, are considered as very sensitive to historical and current global changes. The geoarchives lake sediment, peat and soil, long living trees and glaciers have been used to reconstruct the climatically-driven change of forest and treeline during the Holocene and the younger past. These processes are interrelated with complex ecological changes, as for example the seasonality of climate parameters. The landscape research approach with the analyses through multi-palaeo-geoecological proxies is new for the Balkans.

Glaciers have always played an important role in human history, and currently, they are carefully observed as climate change sentinels. Glacier melt rate is increasing, and its mass balance is continuously negative. This issue deserves accurate and in-depth studies in order to, adequately, monitor its state. This circumstance in fact endangers the water supply, affecting human settlements but also creating new environments allowing the colonization by pioneer communities and the formation of new landscapes. This book is subdivided into two main sections in order to deal with the two topics of worldwide research on glaciers and ecology in glacial environments. In the first one "Glaciers in the World," several reviews and studies are collected. It is an overview of glaciers, their state, and research carried out in different continents and contexts. The second section "Glacial Ecosystems" focuses, on the other hand, on glacier environments and ecological researches.