## 3 Results and Discussions
The assessment of the degree of cave degradation involved the assessment of the environmental and underground impact on the cave ecosystem's environmental impact and underground impact (slope collapses that led to clogging of entrances or opening of new entrances, water catchments in the karst impluvium, constructions, communication routes in the perimeter of the cave, storage of household waste or other material, excessive and/or disorganized tourism), evaluation of the paleontological deposit--thanatocoenosis (fossil deposit affected by illegal excavations/vandalism, presence of vandalized bioglyphs), archeologic evaluation of the deposit (incisions/drawings with vandalized coal, stone/bone/metal tools destroyed or removed from the archaeological/sedimentological context), assessment of the biodiversity of the underground environment--invertebrate fauna, vertebrate fauna (depending on diversity specific to the fauna of vertebrates and invertebrates in caves). The analysis showed that approximately 90% of the cave ecosystems were semi-degraded and only 2.66% were degraded. Most rivers in Romania spring in the Carpathian Mountains, flowing into hilly areas (small rivers) and lowland areas (large rivers). Their condition is influenced by the physical-geographical and socioeconomic characteristics of the areas they pass through. The mountainous areas cover 46.2% of the length of the rivers in Romania, the hill and plateau area constitutes 35.8% and plain and Danube Delta areas 18%. A preponderance of degraded and semi-degraded river ecosystems were observed in areas with low attitudes, in the plains (Figure 3d). There were approximately 4700 km of degraded rivers in the Romanian Plain and another 5000 km in a semi-degraded state, and 685 km were in a natural state. In the Transylvania Depression, approximately 4150 km were classified to a state of degradation, to which were added 5450 km in a state of semi-degradation, leaving only 390 km in a natural state. Most lake ecosystems are located in the southeastern and eastern part of Romania, respectively, in the Danube Delta (43.1%), the Romanian Plain (22.17%), the Dobrogea Plateau (6.62%) and the Moldavian Plateau (5.39%), (Figure 3e). The largest degraded area of lake ecosystems was located in the Romanian Plain with an area of 177.06 km\({}^{2}\), representing 35.52% of the lake ecosystems in this area, followed by the Moldavian Plateau with 45.9 km\({}^{2}\) and the Dobrogea Plateau with 32.16 km\({}^{2}\). Moreover, in the Dobrogea Plateau and in the Moldavian Plateau were the largest areas of semi-degraded lake ecosystems, 116.48 and 116.09 km\({}^{2}\), respectively. The largest degraded areas of coastal ecosystems were in the Periboina-Cap Singol area (71.05 km\({}^{2}\)), the Mangalia Plateau (20.34 km\({}^{2}\)) and the Chituc Grind (18.49 km\({}^{2}\)) (Figure 3f). The largest semi-degraded areas were in the areas Sulina-Periboina (963.83 km\({}^{2}\)), Periboina-Cap Singol (258.11 km\({}^{2}\)) and Eforie-Vama Veche (88.81 km\({}^{2}\)). The highest density of degraded forest ecosystems was identified in the Northeastern Carpathians, the northern group of the Western Carpathians and in the Southern Carpathians and also in the Sub-Carpathians (Figure 4). Moreover, in these areas, the confidence level of the hotspot was over 99%. The extensive forest areas that were deforested in northern Romania, in the Maramures Mountain area led to landscape degradation and decreased air quality and contributed to the aggravation of the negative effects of torrential floods due to the limited capacity to retain water in the canopy. The highest density of degraded grassland ecosystems was identified in the Northeastern Carpathians, in the Transylvanian Depression, the north, central-eastern and southern parts, and the confidence level of the hotspot was over 99% (Figure 5). A high density was also observed in the Nordic group of the Western Carpathians.