Permanent ponds are valuable freshwater systems and biodiversity hotspots. They provide diverse ecosystem services (ES), including water quality improvement and supply, food provisioning and biodiversity support. This is despite being under significant pressure from multiple anthropogenic stressors and the impacts of ongoing global change. However, ponds are largely overlooked in management plans and legislation, and ecological research has focused on large freshwater ecosystems, such as rivers or lakes. Protection of ponds is often insufficient or indirectly provided via associated habitats such as wetlands. This phenomenon is likely exacerbated due to lacking a full-scale understanding of the importance of ponds. In this review, we provided a detailed overview of permanent ponds across Europe, including their usages and the biodiversity they support. By discussing the concepts of pondscape and metacommunity theory, we highlighted the importance of connectivity among and between ponds and identified fluxes of emerging insects as another ES of ponds. Those insects are rich in essential nutrients such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), which are delivered through them to the terrestrial environment, however the extent and impact of this ES remains largely unexplored. Several potential stressors, especially related to ongoing global change, which influence pond diversity and integrity were discussed. To conclude this review, we provided our insights on future pond management. Adaptive measures, taking into account the pond system per se within the pondscape, were found to be the most promising to mitigate the loss of natural ponds and restore and conserve natural small water bodies as refuges and diversity hotspots in increasingly urbanized landscapes.
The catalogue summarizes the data found in the collection of freshwater decapods of the Macedonian Museum of Natural History in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. In the present work we have also critically reviewed the historical data on the occurrence and distribution of representatives of decapods present in the country. The populations of decapods have never been intensively studied in Macedonia, and thus, this catalogue may serve as a valuable source of data for nature conservation and protection of crustaceans and their habitats.
u ovom radu su prikazana dva nova nalaza rijetke vrste porodice Limnephilidae, Potamophylax rotundipennis (Brauer, 1857) s Balkanskog poluotoka, točnije iz republike Kosovo. prvi lokalitet se nalazi na izvorišnom području jedinog potoka unutar lovnog rezervata Blinajë u središnjem Kosovu, a drugi na srednjem dijelu pritoke rijeke Llap, turuqicë, na sjeveru Kosova. u Blinaji je također utvrđena po prvi puta na području Kosova vrsta stenophylax permistus McLachlan, 1895.
Mayflies are amphibious insects which represent an important link in food and energy transfer from aquatic to terrestrial habitats. They constitute a large proportion of the aquatic ecosystems' biomass. Although our knowledge about mayfly (bio)diversity in the Balkan Peninsula is still far from complete, more extensive systematic studies have been conducted within the last decade. In this chapter we explore development of mayfly research in the area of the Western Balkans, mayfly species richness in various small lotic habitats, including springs, streams and rivers, and determine the importance of such habitats for conservation of local mayflies. We discuss the value of mayflies as bioindicators of freshwater ecosystems' health, as well as the influences of various anthropogenic activities on mayfly assemblages in small lotic habitats of the Western Balkans. Moreover, we present current gaps in research and we give recommendations for future directions of mayfly research in the area of the Western Balkans.
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