Momir Paunović

Conservation status of freshwater mussels in Europe: state of the art and future challenges.

Freshwater mussels of the Order Unionida provide important ecosystem functions and services, yet many of their populations are in decline. We comprehensively review the status of the 16 currently recognized species in Europe, collating for the first time their life‐history traits, distribution, conservation status, habitat preferences, and main threats in order to suggest future management actions. In northern, central, and eastern Europe, a relatively homogeneous species composition is found in most basins. In southern Europe, despite the lower species richness, spatially restricted species make these basins a high conservation priority. Information on freshwater mussels in Europe is unevenly distributed with considerable differences in data quality and quantity among countries and species. To make conservation more effective in the future, we suggest greater international cooperation using standardized protocols and methods to monitor and manage European freshwater mussel diversity. Such an approach will not only help conserve this vulnerable group but also, through the protection of these important organisms, will offer wider benefits to freshwater ecosystems.

Managing the effects of multiple stressors on aquatic ecosystems under water scarcity. The GLOBAQUA project

Water scarcity is a serious environmental problem in many European regions, and will likely increase in the near future as a consequence of increased abstraction and climate change. Water scarcity exacerbates the effects of multiple stressors, and thus results in decreased water quality. It impacts river ecosystems, threatens the services they provide, and it will force managers and policy-makers to change their current practices. The EU-FP7 project GLOBAQUA aims at identifying the prevalence, interaction and linkages between stressors, and to assess their effects on the chemical and ecological status of freshwater ecosystems in order to improve water management practice and policies. GLOBAQUA assembles a multidisciplinary team of 21 European plus 2 non-European scientific institutions, as well as water authorities and river basin managers. The project includes experts in hydrology, chemistry, biology, geomorphology, modelling, socio-economics, governance science, knowledge brokerage, and policy advocacy. GLOBAQUA studies six river basins (Ebro, Adige, Sava, Evrotas, Anglian and Souss Massa) affected by water scarcity, and aims to answer the following questions: how does water scarcity interact with other existing stressors in the study river basins? How will these interactions change according to the different scenarios of future global change? Which will be the foreseeable consequences for river ecosystems? How will these in turn affect the services the ecosystems provide? How should management and policies be adapted to minimise the ecological, economic and societal consequences? These questions will be approached by combining data-mining, field- and laboratory-based research, and modelling. Here, we outline the general structure of the project and the activities to be conducted within the fourteen work-packages of GLOBAQUA.

The Danube River Basin

The Danube is the European river par excellence; a river that most effectively defines and integrates Europe. It links more countries than any other river in the world. The Danube River Basin (DRB) collects waters from the territories of 19 nations and it forms the international boundaries for eight of these. The rivers largely eastward course has served as a corridor for both migration and trade and a boundary strongly guarded for thousands of years. This chapter provides an overview of the DRB, including the three main sections: upper, middle, and lower Danube, the delta and 11 major tributaries. Culturally and biologically, the river has always been a separator as well as a connector. It served as a migration corridor for organisms and cultures and has been an area of dispute as well as a major melting pot of cultures. It is also listed as one of the worlds top 10 rivers at risk. The development of the Trans-European Network for Transport, the ongoing construction of small- and medium-sized hydropower plants along its tributaries, bed incision, truncation of sediment transport, and rapid land-use change within the basin pose major threats.

Morphology, Feeding, and Reproduction of the Round Goby, Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas), in the Danube River Basin, Yugoslavia

The round goby Neogobius melanostomus was the last Ponto-Caspian goby species to enter in the Danube River bordered by Serbia and Yugoslavia. There are five Ponto-Caspian goby species in the waters of Serbia including the sand goby Neogobius fluviatilis, the round goby Neogobius melanostomus, the racer goby Neogobius gymnotrachelus, the bighead goby Neogobius kessleri, and the tubenose goby Proterorhinus marmoratus. The sand, bighead, and tubenose gobies occur along the Yugoslav Danube and in the lower reach of the Danubes tributaries; the racer goby is found both upstream and downstream of the Djerdap II dam; and, the round goby has been collected only downstream of the Djerdap II dam. Investigations on the continuous morphological characters of the round goby revealed neither sexual dimorphism, nor significant differences in adult size-classes, although some suggestions of sexual dimorphism were found in cranial skeletal analyses. Analysis of external continuous characters revealed a west-east cline along the distribution range of the round goby in the Black Sea basin. Molluscivory for the round goby was corroborated along the Danube. Standard length of each age class for the round goby in the Danube was less than populations in the Caspian and Azov seas.

Managing the world’s most international river: the Danube River Basin

Transboundary river-basin management is a challenging task emerging from lack of on-site expert knowledge, high administrative and socioeconomic complexity, various stakeholder interests, and difficulties enforcing international and national law. Therefore, an efficient ‘science–policy interface’ is a crucial ingredient for the successful development and implementation of adequate management strategies. The Danube River Basin (DRB) drains areas of 19 countries with different cultural, political, and environmental legacies. The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) has provided the guiding legal instrument for DRB management since 2000, supported by several multilateral agreements. The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) is responsible for the implementation of the WFD in the DRB. It stimulates management-oriented research and coordinates the various activities of the contracting parties and observers, including those of many NGOs and stakeholders. The development of the first DRB Management Plan in 2009 constituted a milestone of cooperation among scientific, political, and public organisations. Key stressors and pressures have been identified, a new basin-wide monitoring network has been established, and numerous conservation and restoration sites have been designated. A major challenge in DRB management will be to establish synergies among the competing interests of navigation, hydropower production, flood protection and nature conservation. This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of DRB science–policy interactions and outlines future strategies for sustainable development of the DRB as a template for transboundary river basin management.

Spatio-temporal pattern of the Chironomidae community: toward the use of non-biting midges in bioassessment programs

We employed the self-organizing map (SOM) method to investigate the spatio-temporal pattern of the Chironomidae community in the Southern Morava River basin (Serbia) and to examine to what extent the Chironomidae community is affected by environmental factors. Additionally, this study explores the problems of utilizing chironomids in bioassessment programs. The SOM analysis of the chironomid community data produced 3 groups of sites. The indicator species analysis presented indicator taxa for two groups. Twenty taxa (at species, species group and genus level), according to the Kruskal–Wallis test, showed the most pronounced differences among the temporal units. Out of 15 measured environmental parameters, one-way ANOVA pointed out that 10 significantly differ between the groups. Elevation had the most important influence on the chironomid community, also affecting other environmental parameters. According to our findings, the winter season and the periods with high water level are the main sources of natural variability. To avoid such variability and to successfully incorporate Chironomidae in bioassessment programs, we suggest exclusion of the arguable months from monitoring programs.

Monitoring of DNA damage in haemocytes of freshwater mussel Sinanodonta woodiana sampled from the Velika Morava River in Serbia with the comet assay

This study was undertaken to investigate the potential of the freshwater mussel Sinanodonta woodiana for detection of genotoxic pollution of the environment. Study was performed at two sites in the Velika Morava River, from May 2010 to February 2011. The alkaline comet assay on haemocytes was used, and the olive tail moment (OTM) was chosen as a measure of DNA damage. The specimens held on acclimation under controlled laboratory conditions for 10d were used as a control. Chemical analysis revealed the presence of phosphates and increased concentrations of zinc, copper and nickel at both sites during the entire sampling period. The values of OTM in mussels collected from the environment, significantly correlated with the concentration of zinc (r=0.6248), temperature (r=0.7006) and dissolved oxygen (r=0.7738). Seasonal variations in genotoxic response were observed, with the highest OTM values obtained during summer months. Preliminary results of the in vitro study indicated the effect of water temperature on genotoxic response to zinc and cadmium in S. woodiana suggesting that the presence of genotoxic pollutants during months with lower temperature could be under-estimated. Obtained results indicate that S. woodiana could be a valuable tool for active biomonitoring of aquatic environments and emphasizes the importance of seasonal genotoxic monitoring with this organism.

A report of Eriocheir sinensis (H. Milne Edwards, 1854) [Crustacea: Brachyura: Grapsidae] from the Serbian part of the Danube River

Two specimens of the Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis, were found in the Serbian part of the Danube River (1995, 1084

Assessment of the genotoxic potential along the Danube River by application of the comet assay on haemocytes of freshwater mussels: The Joint Danube Survey 3

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Macroinvertebrates along the Serbian section of the Danube River (stream km 1429–925)

km of the watercourse and 2001, 1174