Pomacea canaliculata, a freshwater snail native to tropical and temperate South America, has become an important invader and agricultural pest throughout tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Colonization of various aquatic habitats by P. canaliculata in coastal regions of South China and its establishment potential in estuaries have raised great concern, yet little is known about the

Artificial drainage networks, ubiquitous within lowland agricultural landscapes in Europe and North America, exhibit a range of physical and chemical conditions, and may provide important habitat for aquatic organisms. Drains share hydromorphological characteristics with both lotic rivers and lentic ditches, potentially providing opportunities for a diverse range of taxa. However, little is known about

Burbot (Lota lota) are a freshwater fish that exhibits a circumpolar distribution and is considered an indicator species for climate change. Adult burbot were artificially fertilized from the Sturgeon River, Michigan and eggs were incubated until hatch. For 10 weeks following hatch larvae were photographed, along with comparable samples from the Kootenai River, Idaho. Geometric morphology was used

Metacommunity structure depends on environmental and spatial factors. Stream fishes are constrained to disperse within dendritic networks and waterfalls and other barriers add resistance to species dispersal. We evaluated the importance of environmental and spatial effects on fish metacommunity composition, adopting different models of spatial distance: overland, watercourse, resistance (physical barriers)

Cannibalism can be a significant factor limiting the survival of pike, Esox lucius, early life stages in both natural and aquaculture conditions. In the present research, type I cannibalism was studied in pike larvae (size range: 9–32.5 mm standard length, SL) in controlled conditions for 45 days post-hatching (dph). For this purpose, the occurrence of cannibalistic pairs, i.e. prey caught by a cannibal

Effective amphibian conservation requires knowledge of both the aquatic and terrestrial phases of life. As extinction probabilities are a function of population size, it is crucial not only to understand the habitat requirement of the species but also to estimate its population size. In this work, we studied the endangered fire salamander, Salamandra infraimmaculata, and analyzed the population size

The spread of non-native fish species is a common problem in lakes and streams worldwide. Species that establish viable populations in a new environment can seriously deplete populations of native species and desired sportfishes. In some instances, extirpation of a native species has occurred. In western North America, the most common avenue by which non-native species invade new waterbodies is illegal

Little consensus exists on the role of food partitioning in the organization of tadpole assemblages. We studied trophic ecology of syntopic tadpoles through the analysis of gut contents, selectivity, and stable isotopes to assess the occurrence of food partitioning in tadpole assemblages. Tadpoles (n = 194) were collected in three wetlands and corresponded to four species: Elachistocleis bicolor (Eb)

Nowadays, when aquatic habitats are threatened by human and climatic disturbances leading to reductions in biodiversity and ecosystem functions, the study of the abundance–occupancy relationships of species traits and their underlying mechanisms is of great importance to future conservation management. To study the distribution patterns of benthic diatom traits, lakes were sampled during the summer

The small, shallow lake Littoistenjärvi (SW Finland) experienced in 1978–2019 rapid fluctuations between extreme ecological states, initially associated with mass occurrences of the submerged macrophyte Elodea canadensis Michx. In collapse years following abundance peaks, water was turbid, in other years clear. Aeration prevented anoxia under ice-cover, but this favoured Elodea. Mechanical plant removal

Estimating changes in organic matter flow from resource to consumer using trophic basis of production (TBP) is a way to examine resource limitation effects on ecosystem function. We examined diet shifts and production of insect detritivores to assess changes with reduced detrital inputs to a forested headwater stream. Organic matter was excluded for 7 years using a canopy net. Small and large wood

Paul Colinvaux and his Ecuadorian student Miriam Steinitz-Kannan were the first modern scientists to study limnology in Ecuador in the 1960s and 1970s. Fifty years later, Steinitz-Kannan continues this research along with many collaborators, focusing on Andean, Amazonian, and Galapagos lakes, particularly their paleolimnology, physical/chemical parameters, and plankton communities. Historically, Ecuador’s

Variations in morphological characteristics are frequently important determinants of the physiology, ecology and inter- and intra-specific interactions of organisms. Various causative drivers have been investigated for this morphological variation, such as sexual selection, variations in the available resources to exploit, habitat characteristics, and other environmental factors. However, it is not

Water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms (Commelinales: Pontederiaceae), is an important aquatic weed worldwide. Previous studies demonstrate that releases of Neochetina bruchi Hustache (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) provide biological control in many locations, but not all. Notably, N. bruchi were unsuccessful at regulating water hyacinth in tidal brackish waters. Abiotic factors, including

Diet has been linked to lifespan in a broad range of animals. In particular, pronounced caloric restriction has been associated with increased longevity. Herein, the relationship of feeding environment and longevity is examined experimentally using Spinicaudatan crustaceans (“clam shrimp”) from the geographically widespread genus Eulimnadia. Two projects examine the effects of food differences on longevity

Diatoms have been widely used in stream health assessments as they are highly sensitive to water quality. There is no standardised method for diatom-based stream health assessments causing many substrates, both natural and artificial, to be used. Few studies have investigated the impact of substrate type on diatom assemblages in streams with highly variable water levels. To determine if the substrate

Gastrotricha and Platyhelminthes form a clade called Rouphozoa. Representatives of both taxa are main components of meiofaunal communities, but their role in the trophic ecology of marine and freshwater communities is not sufficiently studied. Traditional collection methods for meiofauna are optimized for Ecdysozoa, and include the use of fixatives or flotation techniques that are unsuitable for the

Never heard of harpacticoids, ostracods, gastrotrichs or microturbellarians? This is no surprise, they are so tiny! Yet these taxa and many others more famous (nematodes, rotifers, or tardigrades) show complex behaviours and extraordinary physiologies that allow them to colonize inland waters worldwide. This exuberant fauna is better known as the meiofauna (or meiobenthos). Meiofaunal organisms have

Due to an unfortunate turn of events, some given names and family names were transposed in the original publication. The proper representation of the authors’ names and their affiliations is published here.

Cyanobacteria are oxygenic photosynthetic organisms that are prevalent in freshwater and marine ecosystems. A proportion of the cyanobacteria in a given locality are known to be introduced from other regions and are able to cause harmful cyanobacterial blooms. However, the processes by which cyanobacteria is relocated are not well described. This review presents the various natural and anthropogenic

Volcanoes serve as natural laboratories expanding our understanding of the recent and past ecological and evolutionary processes. Here, we present data elucidating the developmental and phenotypic transformations providing rapid adaptation for the salmonid fish, Salvelinus malma, to volcanic impact. After being isolated by the mudflow in 1996, the locked descendants of sea-run charr managed to survive

Soil salinity diminishes the dominance of species and affects their distribution. Phragmites australis is a dominant ecosystem engineer with broad distribution, high intraspecific variation and great socio-economic importance. Coastal ecosystems inhabited by P. australis are threatened by salinization. Here, we investigated salinity tolerance of freshwater and salt marsh population of the species,

Floodplain lakes are good metacommunity systems to study the environmental and spatial processes structuring local assemblages. They are more connected during high-water periods and are more isolated during low-water periods. We evaluated the effects of lake spatial patterning and water and sediment conditions on Unionida species assemblages. Moran Eigenvector Maps were used to generate spatial variables

Chrysolepidomonas dendrolepidota was described recently and little is known of its distribution, physiology or ecology. Although many photosynthetic chrysophytes have been identified as mixotrophic, combining photosynthesis and phagotrophy, this study provides the first evidence of mixotrophic nutrition in C. dendrolepidota. In a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with relatively high and low levels of light

The stingrays Potamotrygon amandae and Potamotrygon falkneri are nonnative species established in the Upper Paraná basin. Although they are widely distributed, few studies on their diets or respective metabolic responses exist. Therefore, the aim was to evaluate the dietary composition, trophic niche breadth and lipid/protein concentrations in muscle and hepatic tissues of these two species, as well

An increasing threat to local, native freshwater mussels (Unionida)—an ecologically important but globally alarmingly declining group—is the invasion by exotic bivalves. The Enemy Release Hypothesis predicts that introduced species should benefit from enemy-mediated competition because they are less likely to be harmed by natural enemies, such as parasites, than their native competitors. We investigated

Agriculture and urbanisation, the two forms of land use, represent serious threats to the ecological status of aquatic ecosystems, especially in the case of small streams at low altitudes. In this study, 75 Hungarian streams were analysed to explore the effects of these land use types on the composition of benthic diatom communities and their richness. In the Carpathian region, species and trait composition

Due to a mistake during the production process, the online/HTML version of the original article was published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The article is not open access and no special license applies. The original article has been corrected.

The River Continuum Concept (RCC) predicts that aquatic insect communities undergo predictable changes in composition from headwaters to downstream regions relative to changes in habitat. An important aspect of this change is stream temperature. Studies have been conducted on thermal partitioning of chironomids within the RCC and across streams with different thermal regimes; however, few have focused

Populations of the critically endangered freshwater mussel Pseudunio auricularius (Spengler, 1793) have been suffering sharp declines, particularly in the Ebro basin (Iberian Peninsula). Among other factors, pollution could be responsible for these declines. We conducted, for the first time, acute toxicological tests (96 h) with heavy metals and ammonia on P. auricularius juveniles. The resulting LC50

The visual capacity of aquatic organisms is, in general, related to light penetration in the water. Therefore, aquatic environments that differ in color can potentially contribute to species polymorphism, especially in fish. In this study, we explore the relationship between light quality and intensity in water bodies and the eye and mouth size in Galaxias maculatus, one of the most widespread fish

Understanding how environmental factors—here, light intensity and turbidity—influence the feeding, growth, and survival of larval Delta Smelt is critical for optimizing the culture of this endangered fish species. Three sets of rearing trials were conducted where larvae were cultured under different levels of turbidity and light intensity. Delta Smelt larvae feeding activity was observed throughout

The extinction of fish species can direct and indirectly affect many groups of associated species, among which parasite communities can be the most susceptible. However, the intensity of this effect depends on the structure interaction networks. This study evaluated whether networks constituted of fish ectoparasites or endoparasites differed in their robustness to the loss of host species and to what

Freshwater meiofauna occupies a central role in stream food webs, not always as intermediary but also as top consumers. Consequently, the meiofauna’s transient dynamical patterns and turnover are vital to understand its contribution to the overall production and energy flow within benthic freshwater systems. Here, we revise the current methodological procedures used to estimate production in benthic

In this study, the differential regeneration process in sponge Cinachyrella cf cavernosa (Lamarck, 1815) was examined by creating wounds at basal and apical tissues. The differences in wound healing were investigated based on qualitative and quantitative changes in collagen at both wound locations. The different cell types were also documented. The basal tissue was found to heal faster than apical

The aim of this research was to investigate the diversity patterns of benthic insects and functional feeding groups by assessing the contribution of α and β diversity components over 1 year. Temporal diversity variation as a function of the diversity components and regional rainfall in subterranean streams was also verified. Diversity components varied significantly at different spatial scales. In

Cell death drives the magnitude and community composition of phytoplankton and can result in the conversion of particulate organic carbon to dissolved organic carbon (DOC), thereby affecting carbon cycling in the aquatic food web. We used a membrane integrity probe (Sytox Green) to study the seasonal variation in the percentage of viable cells in the phytoplankton population in an estuary in the northern

The strength of interspecific competition and predator–prey interactions depends on the area of co-occurrence of the interacting species. Therefore, it is necessary to quantify the changes in the spatial overlap of trophically connected species to understand the outcomes of species interactions. In the Baltic Sea, the interplay between cod and flounder has previously been neglected. In this study,

Several biological levels are considered as signals of environmental perturbations so that integrative biological responses have been proposed in environmental monitoring activities. We evaluated the use of markers in Mytilus galloprovincialis at two different levels (protein nitration and S-nitrosylation, and geometric morphometrics) to investigate the sea coastal environmental status. We studied

Rapid development of high-throughput sequencing methods and metagenomics revealed a diverse world of microbiota associated with multicellular organisms. Although recent discoveries indicate that freshwater invertebrates are hosts for specific bacteria, it is still unknown if this specificity is driven by host-derived factors or by the environment, especially in animals with diapause in ephemeral habitats

Fertiliser use in agriculture increases the non-point pollution of waters with nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Wetland buffer zones (WBZs) are wetland ecosystems between agricultural lands and water bodies that protect surface waters from non-point source pollution. We assessed how vegetation harvesting within WBZs impacts their N and P removal efficiency, nutrient uptake by plants and their biomass

Quantifying the interactions between functional diversity and environmental change is important for understanding the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem processes. This study aims to evaluate zooplankton secondary production and biomass in an experiment with different levels of functional diversity and environmental stress in the form of increased salinity. It is expected that communities that are

We evaluated how eutrophication and humification impacted nutrient cycles and the efficiency of carbon transfer in the planktonic food webs of 12 lakes in north-eastern Poland that differed in trophic state. Our results indicated that the effectiveness of carbon transfer between phytoplankton and zooplankton varied from 0.0005% to 0.14%, which is much lower than the theoretical 10%. The highest efficiency

Since the end of the 19th century, the circumpolar fauna of freshwater Mollusca has not been reviewed despite the substantial increase of knowledge on this subject. A review of the freshwater mollusks of the Arctic based on an analysis of published data, own results and examination of museum collections is presented. 104 species of Mollusca have been registered, which constitutes less than 2% of the

Reduced streamflow because of climate change presents a major threat to aquatic biodiversity in arid, semi-arid and Mediterranean climatic regions. Freshwater mussels are particularly sensitive to this threat, because of their sedentary nature and limited mobility as juveniles or adults. The freshwater mussel Westralunio carteri, which is endemic to south-western Australia, has undergone a 49% reduction

Freshwater ecosystems are under increasing threat of salinization due to human activity. Given the contributions of microbial communities to stream ecosystems, it is critical to understand how these communities are affected by the increasing presence of salt in the environment. We used an artificial stream system to investigate how salt concentrations representing the 95th- and 99th-percentile of concentrations

Freshwater ecosystems are the most vulnerable worldwide and freshwater bivalves rank amongst the most threatened animals in the world. Surveying and monitoring freshwater bivalves are difficult tasks: they are difficult to find, hard to identify (taxonomic expertise is needed), and working underwater is technically challenging. It is therefore crucial to find more efficient methods to survey and monitor

Understanding and modelling the development of lake phytoplankton communities is a desirable goal, given the importance of these organisms to their ecosystem. PROTECH (Phytoplankton RespOnses To Environmental CHange) is one such model which attempts to do this and its applications over the last 10 years are reviewed here. These studies include: modelling very large lakes, linking catchment models to

Temporary streams are submitted to high seasonal hydrological variations which induce habitat fragmentation. Global change promotes longer non-flow periods, affecting hydrological continuity and the distribution of biological assemblages in river networks. We aimed to investigate the effects of hydrological discontinuity on phototrophic biofilm assemblages in a Mediterranean stream, at both network

Cyanobacterial blooms dominated by Raphidiopsis raciborskii, a potential producer of saxitoxin (STX), are commonly reported in continental water bodies of semiarid regions with high conductivity (> 1000 µS cm−1). STX production is proposed as a cellular protection mechanism against salt stress. Here, we test the hypothesis that high conductivity favors R. raciborskii growth and that STX is advantageous

Anthropogenic impact can alter food web structure through changes in species interactions. In this study, we explored the food web of three Mediterranean stream reaches (two seasonal and one permanent) along an anthropogenic impact gradient to test the hypothesis that increasing impact simplifies food webs. To test this, we applied the isotopic (δ13C and δ15N) niche concept to compare reaches using

The Local Ecological Knowledge of shellfish harvesters in a Northern Brazil estuary was recorded to provide socio-ecological information for the development of a co-management system. The research was carried out in the community of Acaú, Paraiba state, from January to October 2015, and involved 120 shellfish harvesters (average age 44 years). Participant observations, interviews, questionnaires, free

In shark populations, variation in sexual size dimorphism (SSD) appears to be related with the reproductive mode. Here, we aimed to investigate the reproductive biology of the narrowmouth catshark Schroederichthys bivius, an oviparous shark with size and secondary sexual dimorphism. For this purpose, specimens were collected during research surveys covering almost their entire distribution in the southwestern

The relative importance of allochthonous and autochthonous resources in fueling tropical headwater streams remains an open topic. We combined estimates of secondary production and assessment of its trophic basis to determine which resources were responsible for animal production. We studied benthic insect assemblages in two streams in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Habitat-weighted

Light, temperature, and discharge control stream metabolism, but the response of gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) to seasonal variation in these physical drivers may differ in accordance with the types of human activities present in the catchment. Our study examined three mid-order streams in southern Ontario, Canada that differed in anthropogenic nutrient sources (i.e

Otter diet in reservoirs is known to experience seasonal changes. We selected a reservoir with a large population of exclusively wintering great cormorants and seasonal changes in stored water volume to test the relative influence of abiotic and biotic factors on otter foraging ecology. DNA metabarcoding of otter spraints revealed a dietary change from autumn to winter. Otters had a diet dominated

Water level fluctuations (WLFs) affect phytoplankton dynamics, water quality, and fish populations in lakes and reservoirs around the world. However, such effects are system-specific and vary due to interactions with other external factors such as solar radiation, air temperature, wind, and external phosphorus loading. Utilizing data from a long-term monitoring program (1990–2016), we developed an

Chlorophyll measurements are commonly used to estimate phytoplankton biomass. However, phytoplankton readily acclimate to variations in light through a range of phenotypic responses, including major adjustments in chlorophyll pigmentation at the cellular level. The ratio of pigment chlorophyll to carbon concentration (Chl:C) is a commonly used metric in the oceanographic community to explore photoacclimation

Land-use practices in Mongolia can lead to environmental degradation and consequently affect the structure and function of biological communities. The main aim of this study was to determine land-use effects on freshwater macroinvertebrate communities based on their response to grazing and mining, using a trait-based approach (TBA). The functional structure of macroinvertebrate communities was examined

Ommastrephid squid produce some of the smallest cephalopod hatchlings, whose feeding behavior has not been observed. The present study aimed at indirectly filling this knowledge gap by describing ontogenetic changes in beak morphology and morphometry and integrating these results with published datasets on Illex argentinus arm crown morphology and gut contents. Individuals [0.7–15 mm mantle length