• Develop a verification scheme to check stress on M. margaritifera based on thresholds • Assess the impact of future climate change in conservation status of M. margaritifera • Assess the impact of land-use in habitat requirements of M. margaritifera • Propose conservation measures to prevent extinction of M. margaritifera in Portugal a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o In this study, we assess the impacts of future climate and land-use in the Beça River (northern Portugal) under different scenarios and how this will translate into the conservation status of the endangered pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758). This species is currently present in several stretches of the Beça River that still hold adequate ecological conditions. However, the species is threatened by projected declines in precipitation for the 21st century, with implication on the river flows and water depths that might decrease below the species requisites. This situation could be especially critical during summer conditions since the ecological flows may not be assured and several river stretches may be converted into stagnant isolated pools. The habitat connectivity will also be affected with reverberating effects on the mobility of Salmo trutta, the host of M. margaritifera, with consequences in the reproduction and recruitment of pearl mussels. In addition, humanrelated threats mostly associated with the presence of dams and an predicted increases in wildfires in the future. While the presence of dams may decrease even further the connectivity and river flow, with wildfires the major threat will be related to the wash out of burned areas during storms, eventually causing the disappearance of the mussels, especially the juveniles. In view of future climate and land-use change scenarios, conservation strategies are proposed, including the negotiation of ecological flows with the dam promoters, the replanting of riparian vegetation along the water course and the reintroduction of native tree species throughout the catchment.

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Many doubts still exist about which freshwater mussel Unio species inhabit Northwest Africa. While some authors refer to the presence of Unio delphinus in the Atlantic North African basins of Morocco, a recent International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessment performed on Moroccan Unio species, recognised the existence of a distinct species, Unio foucauldianus, with a critically endangered conservation status. The present study delivered new genetic, morphological, and geographical distribution data on two Unio species (i.e. U. delphinus and U. foucauldianus) greatly increasing the almost non-existent data on these taxa. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis revealed two highly supported geographically concordant clades, which diverged by 3.2 ± 0.6 % (uncorrected p distance): the first distributed across Iberia and corresponding to U. delphinus, and the second distributed across Morocco, corresponding to U. foucauldianus. These results were corroborated by the analysis of ten newly developed microsatellite loci as well as shell morphometry. We suggest that the IUCN critically endangered conservation status of U. foucauldianus should be revised and probably down-listed since its actual distribution is much wider than previously described. Phylogenetic relationships with the other Unio species were resolved, showing that U. delphinus and U. foucauldianus fall inside the pictorum lineage. The estimated molecular rate reported herein (0.265 ± 0.06 % per million years) represents the first for the Unionida and could be used as a reference in future studies.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

Starting from a diagnosis of areas with different environmental land use conflicts located in various rural sub-basins of the River Sordo basin (northern Portugal), the present study analysed the ecological quality of surface water in small mountain streams to establish a relationship between land use, water and aquatic biota. Environmental land use conflicts were set up on the basis of land use and land capability maps, coded as follows: 1-agriculture, 2-pasture, 3-pasture/forest, and 4-forest. Land capability was assessed by the ruggedness number methodology (RN). The difference between the codes of capability and use defines a conflict class, where a negative or null value means no conflict and a positive value means class i conflict. Within and without the conflict areas, ecological quality of surface water was evaluated by the metrics EPT taxa, IPtI N index, diversity of Shannon-Wiener and Evenness index. Macroinvertebrate communities are strongly correlated to conflict classes, because sites without (reference sites) or with minor physicochemical and hydromorphological degradation (Class 1) presented high diversity, evenness, EPT taxa and IPtI N index, while more impacted sites (Class 2) presented an ecological status not fulfilling the demands of the European Union Water Framework Directive (2000/60). The present study indicates a significant impact of land use on water quality which has straight influence on the distribution of biota, emphasizing the key role of riparian vegetation in the conservation of aquatic ecosystems. The highest impacts on macroinvertebrate assemblages were associated with changes in water quality parameters such as temperature, oxygen saturation (%), turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), nitrates, phosphates and sulphates, conductivity and dissolved oxygen, as well as hydromorphological alterations driven by the total absence of riparian vegetation as a consequence of terrace building, agriculture and the resectioning/reinforcement of the banks associated with the culture of vine. ms_Tables

This contribution presents the first record of the freshwater jellyfish Craspedacusta sowerbii Lankester, 1880 in Greece. The species was found in a water transfer canal adjacent to Lake Marathon, 45 km northeast of Athens; this is the southernmost record of this invasive alien medusa in the Balkan Peninsula and Europe. A review of recently published records shows that this species has expanded its range in Europe and the Mediterranean countries. Genetic analysis of the Greek specimen suggests that the phylogeny of C. sowerbii needs further evaluation since we are probably dealing with a distinct species within the genus Craspedacusta, and that the Greek population represents a distinct invasion event from that previously recorded in central Europe. However, due to a lack of molecular information on the native and invasive ranges, further phylogenetic studies are necessary to clarify this issue.