Field research- Sample collection

At the beginning of April, team members Marina Vilenica, Zuzana Redžović, Fran Rebrina, and Lea Ružanović completed their fieldwork mission. They collected samples of invertebrates from intermittent rivers that are currently in the lotic phase. They also gathered soil and water samples and measured key environmental factors.

The new member of our project team is a postdoc Zuzana Redžović, PhD

Her current scientific interest includes the study of environmental stressors in freshwater ecosystems, especially in groundwater-connected ecosystems and amphipod assemblages. Also, her narrower field of research includes the bioaccumulation of metals in organisms and physiological biomarkers, such as biomarkers of the organism's antioxidant defense and exposure to xenobiotics and the adenylate energy charge.

Annual award of the Faculty of Science for outstanding scientific work

On June the 6th 2023, at the ceremonial session of the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, a member of our research team - Fran Rebrina, PhD, received an annual award for outstanding scientific work for postdoctoral researchers. Our sincere congratulations and wishes for continued success in the future!

Spider taxonomy & field methodologies

Our PhD student, Lea, traveled to Crete to participate in a spider taxonomy and field methods training program hosted by CETAF-DEST (Distributed European School of Taxonomy) under the guidance of Dr. Maria Chatzaki, Dr. Jeremy Miller, Dr. Andres Rivera, and Dr. Iasmi Stathi. During the event, Lea and other participants gained knowledge on field techniques applied for spider sampling and classification at the family and species levels, and had the opportunity to network with several spider research experts.

training

Our PhD student, Lea Ružanović visited Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau in Germany. She identified the spiders collected by pitfall traps set up along the Krčić River in 2021 with external collaborator on the DinDRY project, prof. dr. Martin Entling. She also held a lecture where she presented the DinDRY project to doctoral students of the University.

FIELD RESEARCH – COLLECTING SOIL SAMPLES AND ABIOTIC PARAMETERS

In July 2022, during the dry phase, we collected soil samples from dry riverbeds and the surrounding riparian and karst habitats at the Krčić, Čikola, Guduča and Miljašić Jaruga rivers. The samples will be used for heavy metal and pesticide analysis, to investigate the effect of human activities on fragile IRES ecosystems.

We have collected data loggers at all four intermittent rivers included in this project. The loggers measured air temperature and humidity, soil temperature and moisture every two hours for the whole year, from July 2021 until July 2022.

SCIENTIFIC TRAINING 

Our PhD student, Lea Ružanović went to the University of Koblenz-Landau in February 2022. She attended a spider course organized by Prof. Dr. Martin Entling and worked on the spider samples collected during the first year of the DinDRY project. 

FIELD RESEARCH – MACROZOOBENTHOS SAMPLING

Despite the super-cold and strong wind, the aquatic macroinvertebrates of the second lotic phase were successfully collected at the beginning of March 2022 at four karst intermittent rivers. At each site, we also measured physico-chemical water parameters. The lowest measured water temperature was 5,9°C!!! Not even a couple of pairs of gloves could stop the cold. 😊

Most of the study sites at the studied Dinaric karst intermittent rivers dried out during the summer (Fig. 1). At the end of July, we have placed windowtraps (Fig. 2) into the dry river bed of the Krčić River. With this research we intend to obtain novel insights into dispersal patterns and dynamics of aquatic and terrestrial taxa in karstic IRES ecosystems. Now the sorting of the collected material begins...

Figure 1. The change is hydrological characteristics of the Krčić River during the spring and summer 2021. 

Figure 2. Placing the windowtraps in dry riverbed of the Krčić River in July 2021, and sampling of the collected macroinvertebrates. 

First fieldtrip done – aquatic and terrestrial macroinvertebrate sampling 

In the middle of April the weather forecast was finally on our side, and we managed to conduct the fieldrip in Dalmatia where we sampled macroinvertebrate fauna of intermittent streams of the Dinaric karst. Together with aquatic macroinvertebrate sampling, we measured water physico-chemical properties and we took water samples for analyses in the laboratory. Also, we set the pitfall traps used for terrestrial macroinvertebrates sampling.