András Weiperth

HUN-REN National Laboratory for Water Science and Water Security, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Centre for Ecological Research · Department of Danube Research

Indigenous crayfish species (ICS) have suffered a significant decline in recent decades due to various threats including anthropogenic habitat degradation with resulting fragmentation, and the introduction of non-indigenous crayfish species (NICS). However, only a few studies have assessed and quantified these threats on a broad landscape scale. We...

Freshwater crayfish are amongst the largest macroinvertebrates and play a keystone role in the ecosystems they occupy. Understanding the global distribution of these animals is often hindered due to a paucity of distributional data. Additionally, non-native crayfish introductions are becoming more frequent, which can cause severe environmental and...

Records count per crayfish taxa integrated in WoC platform.

Crayfish and A. astaci records integrated in WoC platform count per major hydrographic basins.

Crayfish and A. astaci records integrated in WoC platform count per country.

The ectoparasitic copepod Lernaea cyprinacea (anchor worm) has more than 100 host species among teleost fishes and affects cyprinids both in fish farms and natural waters. In addition, while L. cyprinacea infection in amphibians has been recorded in Asia, North and South America, there is no data available in the literature on their presence in Eur...

The release of ornamental pets and associated pathogens outside their native range might directly or indirectly impact the recipient community. In temperate regions, e.g., central Europe, feral freshwater species of tropical and sub-tropical origins are mainly constrained to thermally polluted waters and thermal springs. However, species with high...

Standardized terminology in science is important for clarity of interpretation and communication. In invasion science – a dynamic and rapidly evolving discipline – the proliferation of technical terminology has lacked a standardized framework for its development. The result is a convoluted and inconsistent usage of terminology, with various discrep...

The outflow of the natural thermal Lake of Hévíz is habitat of several fish species, with conservation relevance. In the past few years, numerous thermophile (tropically originated) fishes were reported in this waterbody, from which two species Parachromis managuensis (Günther, 1867), Vieja melanurus (Günther, 1862) characterized with strong, self-...

Common carp female generally matures at age 4–5 years old and spawns between April and July under the temperate climate. Contrary to a range of 0–28 °C of temperate freshwaters, the water temperature of Lake Hévíz (Hungary, Central Europe), the largest natural bathable thermal lake in the world, varies between 26 and 35 °C seasonally. The specific...

Functional diversity is regarded as a key concept in understanding the link between ecosystem function and biodiversity, and is therefore widely investigated in relation to human-induced impacts. However, information on how the intersection of roads and streams (hereafter road crossings, representing a widespread habitat transformation in relation...

Saprolegnia parasitica Coker, 1923 is a primary fish pathogen and one of the most common water molds in freshwater ecosystems. In our study, nineteen strains of S. parasitica were isolated, identified, and characterized using morphological and genetic markers. On the basis of the abundance of zoosporangia, gemmae, the formation of gemma chains, and...

Standardized terminology in science is important for clarity of interpretation and communication. In invasion science — a dynamic and quickly evolving discipline — the rapid proliferation of technical terminology has lacked a standardized framework for its language development. The result is a convoluted and inconsistent usage of terminology, with...

The narrow-clawed crayfish Pontastacus leptodactylus is a large native European astacid crayfish species distributed in the drainage area of the Azov, Black and Caspian Seas. The species shows immense morphological diversity across its range. Various species and subspecies have been described and, recently, eight species and two subspecies were con...

The SaveGREEN INTERREG project aims to help conserve or improve ecological corridors through integrated planning and to raise awareness of the different types of appropriate mitigation measures. In connection with the SaveGREEN project and in the framework of the university educational program of landscape architecture students, we prepared a compl...

Electronic decision-support tools are becoming an essential component of government strategies to tackle non-native species invasions. This study describes the development and application of a multilingual electronic decision-support tool for screening terrestrial animals under current and future climate conditions: the Terrestrial Animal Species I...

Ornamental aquaculture and the related pet industry are known to be important sources of non-native species worldwide. In the temperate zone, thermal waterbodies are attractive places for irresponsible owners to release unwanted freshwater pets including decapod crustaceans. Several non-native ornamental species have been reported in the thermal lo...

Background: Pikes, members of genus Esox, are widespread freshwater predators of the northern hemisphere, and important sport fish also. From the Carpathian basin only one species, the northern pike (E. lucius) is noted. At the same time the pike stocks living in this area show high level of phenotypic variance (e.g. various body pattern) and its g...

Small streams are crucial but vulnerable elements of ecological networks. To better understand the occurrence of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in streams, this study focused on the occurrence, distribution, and environmental risk of 111 PhACs and 7 trace elements based on a total of 141 water and sediment samples from small streams loca...

A csukafélék (Esocidae) gazdasági és ökológiai szempontból is jelentős édesvízi ragadozóhalak, ugyanakkor eddig a csoport Kárpát-medencei állományairól kevés filogenetikai információ állt rendelkezésre. Az összesen 49 mintahelyről begyűjtött 88 csukaegyed mtCytb és mtDloop szekvenciáin elvégzett elemzéseink eredményei szerint a Kárpát-medencében cs...

Pikeperch (Sander lucioperca L.) is an important species for European aquaculture and recreation fisheries. The wide range overexploitation of its stock highlights the importance of supporting wild stocks, within its native range. Our study was therefore addressed to test the effectiveness of different artificial spawning nests in a natural habitat...

Fishery management parameters and environmental state of Hungarian angling waters surveyed in our study. Management of angling waters have been strongly changed after the 2013/CII law on Fishery Management and Fish Protection took into force. This legislation aimed to protect the native fish fauna, to conserve the aquatic environment and maintain b...

The presence of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in drinking waters might pose a serious threat to human health worldwide. Therefore, this study sought to measure PhACs in Danube-derived tap water from the Budapest metropolitan region (Hungary), and to compare the results of those measured in the bank filtrate after which a human health ri...

Annak ellenére, hogy a garda (Pelecus cultratus) napjainkban is a Balaton egyik tömeges halfaja, szaporodásának pontos körülményeiről kevés információval rendelkezünk. Ebből , illetve a faj stresszérzékenységéből is adódóan a faj mesterséges szaporítására hazánkban korábban nem került sor. Az indukált szaporításhoz a gardákat a Balatonból fogtuk be...

The threat posed by invasive non-native species worldwide requires a global approach to identify which introduced species are likely to pose an elevated risk of impact to native species and ecosystems. To inform policy, stakeholders and management decisions on global threats to aquatic ecosystems, 195 assessors representing 120 risk assessment area...

The study of non-indigenous species, with emphasis on invasive alien species (IAS) within JDS4 was performed in order to collect comparable data along the Danube and its main tributaries, with the aim to assess current status in respect to bioinvasions within the Danube River Basin (DRB) and to evaluate stress caused by this important pressure. The...

Background In recent years, there are growing concerns about pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in natural ecosystems. These compounds have been found in natural waters and in fish tissues worldwide. Regarding their growing distribution and abundance, it is becoming clear that traditionally used risk assessment methodologies and ecotoxicolog...

The spread of non-native species results in novel and often unexpected assemblages. Using stable isotopes, we disentangled the trophic relationships between three invasive crayfish species at two sites of a small thermal tributary of the Barát stream, Hungary. We studied Procambarus virginalis and Faxonius limosus living in sympatry in the upper se...

Biological invasions have increasingly threatened indigenous species, influence metacommunity organization and consequently, global biodiversity. World-wide expansion of non-indigenous crayfish (NICS) is associated with dramatic changes in species poor indigenous crayfish (ICS) assemblages challenging conservation planning. We analysed long-term ch...

The marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) represents a very recently evolved partheno-genetic freshwater crayfish species that has invaded diverse habitats in Europe and in Madagascar. However, population genetic analyses have been hindered by the homogeneous genetic structure of the population and the lack of suitable tools for data analysis....

Az EU Biodiverzitás Stratégiájában szereplő zöldinfrastruktúra koncepció szerint a biodiverzitás megőrzése úgy biztosítható, ha a természetközeli élőhelyek és az egyéb, ökológiai funkciót betöltő, de nem természetközeli tájalkotó elemek (pl. telepített fasorok, gyepes mezsgyék) működő, azaz az élővilág számára átjárható élőhelyhálózattá kapcsolódna...

Összefoglalás: A magyarországi halgazdálkodás szabályozása az elmúlt időszakban jelentős átalakuláson ment keresztül, melynek fő kedvezményezettje a horgásztársadalom. A természetes vizek halgazdálkodási jogának megszerzésével a horgászszervezetek új feladatokat is kaptak a vizek kezelése, halállományának fenntartása és védelme tekintetében. Jelen...

There is a long history of crayfish introductions in Europe and numbers keep increasing. In Hungary, spiny-cheek crayfish Faxonius limosus, signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus, red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii, marbled crayfish P. virginalis and Mexican dwarf crayfish Cambarellus patzcuarensis have become established. Here we report on m...

Despite their low concentrations in many aquatic environments, evidence exists to suggest that herbicides do affect non-target organisms. Given that burrowing is a primary life-history trait in crayfish, herbicides could potentially have serious negative effects on these ecologically important freshwater macroinvertebrates. In this study, we expose...

Long-term changes of crayfish and fish fauna in the Hungarian section of the River Ipoly/Ipel were evaluated according to the historical, recent literature and own datasets. In the last decades all the three native decapode species (noble crayfish - Astacus astacus, narrow claw crayfish - Pontastacus leptodactylus, stone crayfish - Austropotamobius...

Several non-native crayfish species represent a particularly successful group of invasive species in freshwaters, hence their introduction poses one of the main threats to freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Based on our research the noble crayfish (Astacus astacus) and the narrow-clawed crayfish (Pontastacus leptodactylus) occur as...

Rapid adaptation to global change can counter vulnerability of species to population declines and extinction. Theoretically, under such circumstances both genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity can maintain population fitness, but empirical support for this is currently limited. Here, we aim to characterize the role of environmental and geneti...

The aim of our study was to summarise the current status of the non-native Decapod species in Hungary. Eight non-native Decapod species have been reported recently from Hungary. The first introduced species was the spiny cheek crayfish (Faxonius limosus) found in natural habitats in 1985. The signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) also expanded...

Globally, our knowledge on lake fisheries is still limited despite their importance to food security and livelihoods. Here we show that fish catches can respond either positively or negatively to climate and land-use changes, by analyzing time-series data (1970–2014) for 31 lakes across five continents. We find that effects of a climate or land-use...

Although it is well known that the increasing size of the human population has a negative effect on freshwater biodiversity, the subject of whether or how the intersection of roads and streams (hereafter road crossings) influence the diversity of stream macro-invertebrates is under-researched. To fill this gap in our knowledge, we collected stream...

The main objective of this paper is to report the effect of shrub removal, mowing, and grazing as grassland management methods on spider diversity. Sampling was conducted in the Mátra Mountains and four disturbed main road verges in Hungary. Shrub removal and mowing positively affected diversity. Moderate grazing caused increasing diversity, but in...

We examined the spatiotemporal distribution of isopods along four Hungarian highways (M1, M3, M5, M7) while accounting for sampling years and seasons in relation to climate conditions of highways. Isopods were collected with double-glass pitfall traps from 24 sites over three years. Isopod abundance followed the temporal trend of increasing average...

Background and purpose: The impact of invasive species in ecosystems is an important problem worldwide and the spreading of invader species are affected exceedingly by linear infrastructure. Primarily the aim of our investigation was to studied how the invasion of the species impacts the isopod diversity of roadside verges. Secondly, we determined...

A körülöttünk található élővilágot számos tényező veszélyezteti világszerte. Ezek közül az egyik legveszélyesebb tényező maga az ember, aki akarva vagy akaratlanul, közvetve és közvetlenül, de jelentősen átformálja környezetünket. A gondolkodó ember számára ma már nem kérdés, hogy tájformáló tevékenységének hatására olyan változások indultak el bol...

The pet trade is one of the most important sources of introduction of freshwater non-native decapod crustaceans. Precise and timely identification of potentially hazardous species is necessary for the effective prevention of new introductions. Here, we present a list of species of ornamental freshwater decapod crustaceans pet-traded in Hungary and...

This study presents the first occurrence and recent distribution pattern of the river nerite (Theodoxus fluviatilis L. 1758) in Lake Balaton. The first appearance of this Prosobranch snail was recorded along the western shore of the Tihany peninsula situated on the middle section of the lake, at 21 st of October 2013 during a routine macrozoobentho...

The international pet trade has caused numerous introductions of non-native species globally. This is true also for freshwater decapod crustaceans including the red cherry shrimp. This tiny creature has been previously found in thermally-polluted waters in Europe (Germany and Poland). Here we present its first occurrence in Hungary and in the entir...

Attempts to obtain information from geospatial data in freshwater ecology is a highly challenging task requiring the development of new concepts and adequate tools. Conventionally, river networks are represented as collections of vectors, but they can also be thought of as a succession of raster cells corresponding to the digital elevation model of...

Crayfish can be used as model organisms in phylogeographic and divergence time studies if reliable calibrations are available. This study presents a comprehensive investigation into the phylogeography of the European stone crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium) and includes samples from previously unstudied sites. Two mitochondrial markers were use...

Several non-native crayfish species represent a particularly successful group of invasive species in freshwaters, hence their introductions represent one of the main threats to freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem function. In Hungary the noble crayfish (Astacus astacus), the narrowclawed crayfish (Pontastacus leptodactylus) and stone crayfish (Au...

Az országos léptékű halállomány-felméréseink során számos esetben fogtunk atipikus megjelenésű csukákat. Az egyedek mintázata és oldalvonalbeli pikkelyszáma eltért az E. lucius fajnál megadottaktól, viszont nagyban hasonlóak az olasz és francia vizekből újonnan leírt csukafajokéhoz. Emiatt egy különálló csuka klád jelenlétét valószínűsítjük a magya...

Following the first record of red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii, Girard, 1852) in Carpathian Basin in January 2015, the established populations were found in a tributary creek (Sulák creek, Érd-Ófalú) and the adjacent River Danube in June 2016. Thereafter, we focused to survey the populations of the red swamp crayfish at the national scale. T...

Thermal and urban waters are frequently subjected to the releases of aquatic pets, which often occur in unexpected assemblages of native and non-native species. To document this, we conducted a half-year-long (January-July 2018) field survey the crayfish and fish species present in Barát and Dera creeks (two sampling sites per each) and sections ad...