engleski

Comprehensive research of drying resistance and resilience traits by different biota in intermittent rives and ephemeral streams

During the recent years, climate change has been an increasingly pervasive environmental stressor. Not all areas, activities, habitats or ecosystems are affected in the same way or severity, but under the influence of climate change, freshwater habitats have been projected to be highly vulnerable. This can make them react to climate changes quickly and therefore they are a great model for research. Most sensitive among freshwater ecosystems are intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), as well as perennial rivers in hot climates which are increasingly becoming intermittent. Because of the increase of global average temperature, the cycles between dry and wet periods are changing. As a means to concentrate efforts to research, understanding, predicting and mitigating the influences of climate change on IRES, Horizon 2020 Project DRYvER vas initiated. Different efforts inside the project include the work of experts from 4 continents that collaborate and have an interdisciplinary approach to the goal of understanding, predicting and protecting from the influence of climate change on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and services of IRES. One of these efforts is developing a dynamic meta-system framework to catalyze our understanding of the effects of drying on river network functions. Creating of a mentioned framework includes creating a database of freshwater communities from Europe and South America while focusing on new data gathered from drying river networks (DRN) and determining the traits of bacteria, fungi, diatoms, macroinvertebrates and fish that have the most important role in making them resistant or resilient to drying. In addition, the traits must pertain to the ability of taxa to evade droughts, sustain water, ensure survival of progeny, develop dormant phase etc. That type of work includes inputs by experts regarding their respective fields and biota, gathering of existing and abundant readily available data and research of literature applicable to the taxa expected across the DRNs. So far, we have conducted many interviews and initiated many discussions and collaborations, gathered samples and data from 9 DRNs around Europe and South America and continue to gather existing data. The amount of information to be gathered is unlimited, but there is the limitation of time. The problem that can occur while making a comprehensive research such as this is determining the reach, accuracy and time scale we have to work with, and it is the problem met often by scientists. So, as such, one of the biggest problems we are tackling is to determine how to gather and use the biggest amount of information in the allotted time.

Drying, climate change, flow intermittence, karst, Croatia

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