Ferdinand Sporka

Slovak Academy of Sciences | SAV · Institute of Zoology

Throughout the ages, geological bedrock has significantly determined the structure of the Tatra stonefly taxocoenoses. Because of the high altitude and discharge of the streams, stoneflies are mainly affected by alkalinity, Ca, and Si. Statistical analysis has previously shown that alkalinity, Ca and Si content, catchment area, and altitude are cor...

In this study, we analyzed the impacts of different environmental conditions on aquatic worm communities along the Danube River, based on two longitudinal surveys, the Joint Danube Surveys 2 and 3 (JDS; 2007 and 2013). We identified the most important environmental factors (among analyzed groups) that shape worm communities: hydromorphlogical alter...

Paranais litoralis, a euryhaline aquatic oligochaete, was recently recorded in the middle stretch of the Danube River basin. This study provides more details about population abundance and habitat preferences of the species, inhabiting a lowland stretch of the Váh River in Slovakia. For the first time, few specimens were identified at one sampling...

Chironomid stratigraphic changes were studied in three man-made reservoirs situated in a region intensely used for mining in the past (Banska Stiavnica, Central Europe). The reservoirs were built in the first half of the 18th century and are remnants of a former hydro-energetic system that provided water for mining and smelting facilities until the...

Vysoká koncentrácia rozpustených látok determinuje bohatstvo niektorých skupín hydrobiontov napríklad mäkkýšov a veľkých kôrovcov, ktoré potrebujú veľa vápnika na stavbu schránok a pancierov. Niektoré hydrobionty uprednostňujú vody karbonátových masívov, teda s vysokou koncentráciou vápnika – dvojkrídlovce, ďalšie sa nachádzajú vo vodách menej boha...

This study was based on the complex environmental monitoring of the Danube River in Slovakia. Out of 23 monitored sites, three were chosen for the aim of this study. The three sites were sampled regularly three times per year during a 25-year period, which started in 1990, 2 years before the Gabčíkovo waterworks became operational. Each site repres...

The number of studies assessing the downstream effects of multiple reservoirs on benthic communities over a large spatial scale has been disproportionally less compared with studies of the effects of a single reservoir, while even fewer studies have examined the responses of non-insect macroinvertebrates on the impact of river discontinuity. The ma...

For free download follow the link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1X9t873NzuYEC Mining and metallurgy have caused vast devastation of the landscape in the past and left its legacy on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems all over the world. Lake sediments provide a continuous record for tracking and better understanding of human-environment interacti...

In spite of many investigations about the impact of reservoirs on river continuum, the downstream effects of a pumped-storage hydropower plants (PSHP) still have been less known. The aim of the study was to evaluate the downstream effect of the PSHP Čierny Váh in regard to the Serial Discontinuity Concept assumptions or studies assessing more frequ...

Attempting to help reduce the costs of bioassessment of aquatic habitats, the aim of this study was to estimate how particular substrate types influence the ecological quality evaluation based on a multihabitat scheme proposed by the AQEM/STAR consortium. Samples of macroinvertebrates were taken from the Stupavský potok brook, a small, 4th order cal...

The present contribution brings preliminary results of the paleolimnological research of three reservoirs in the Banská Štiavnica mining region. Since the beginning of the 18th century about 50 reservoirs were constructed in the region to provide energy to mining machinery. The sediments of those that remind until now serve as an archive of changes...

Floodplain habitats are functionally very important part of the landscape in large alluvial rivers. Yet, methods for their ecological assessment are poorly known. In the current article, we present the evaluation of the ecological development of the middle section of the Danube river (between rkm 1804 and rkm 1841) as related to the the Gabčíkovo w...

Quistadrilus multisetosus (Oligochaeta: Tubificidae) found at Šatava-Žabčice (N49°1‘4,1‘‘ E16°36’45,6‘‘) in the south of Moravia is a first record for the Czech Republic. The locality Žabčice is situated southward from Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Originally a nearctic species that is widespread in rivers and lakes in the ea...

Within the investigated river basins the deforestation ranged from 0-45.5%, dependent on the amount of windstorm damage. Our water temperature readings revealed that the canopy elimination above the streams in the areas damaged by the windstorm caused increase in daily and annual water temperature and also wider daily water temperature range, than...

Temporal and spatial distribution patterns of lotic larval stoneflies assemblages were investigated in Demänovka river basin (West Carpathians). Qualitative and quantitative samples were performed seasonally from October 1995 to August 1997 in 13 sampling sites. The most numerous families were represented Leuctra, Protonemoura and Isoperla. Analysi...

Zoning of Tatra National Park: what is a minimum scientific standard? We briefly reiterate the subject, goals, foundations, approaches, principles, criteria, methods, their advances and main results of our 2012 proposal for zoning of Tatra National Park (TANAP, Slovakia). Results suggest that both necessary and sufficient scientific standard of zon...

Lake sediments can serve as high-resolution archives of past environmental changes and for events related to anthropogenic activities in the catchment area. Subfossil chironomids have proven to be useful indicators for lake trophic development and hypolimnetic oxygen conditions. The present paper presents preliminary results from the paleolimnologi...

We analysed the influence of environmental stress (mainly deforestation of catchment due to windstorm) on taxonomic structure as well as composition of functional groups (FG) based on zonation preferences and feeding types of caddisfly species in 11 streams (12 sites) with various environmental conditions situated in the High Tatra Mts, Slovakia. U...

In the Czech part of the Labe River and the lower part of the Vltava River, we examined if the benthic macroinvertebrate composition changed from 1996 to 2005 due to expected improvements in water quality resulting from socioeconomic changes in the Czech Republic since the 1990s. Special attention was given to rare and alien species. The four biolo...

Zoning of Tatra National Park: what is a minimum scientific standard? We briefly reiterate the subject, goals, foundations, approaches, principles, criteria, methods, their advances and main results of our 2012 proposal for zoning of Tatra National Park (TANAP, Slovakia). Results suggest that both necessary and sufficient scientific standard of zon...

A total 14 streams located in the Tatra Mts (Slovakia) were investigated. The studied river basins have different deforestation range (0–45.5%) influenced by windstorm. Daily and annual water temperature suggested that in streams overflowing through the area deforested by windstorm the temperature was higher than in selected non-disturbed streams....

In this study we describe how the river morphology of seven High Tatras streams has been influenced in different ways by a severe windstorm that occurred in November 2004. A control site situated in an undisturbed area is compared with six sites in windstorm damaged areas. In 2009–2010 River Habitat Survey (RHS) was used to assess the character of...

Hydrobiological research of high mountain streams in the High Tatras was carried out in 2009–2010. We evaluated the influence of windstorm on caddisfly assemblages. To assess the influence of windstorm we focused on river morphology using the RHS method and evaluation of TAM, TOM and BOM (CPOM, FPOM, UFPOM) amount in seven streams. Site 1 was a con...

The aim of this work is to discuss the distribution of Oligochaeta (Annelida) in the Danube River using the collections made by the Joint Danube Survey 2007 (JDS2) on more than 2800 km of the river. The basic faunistical features of the oligochaete assemblages were analysed with regard to three main sectors of the Danube (upper, middle and lower re...

This study reflects the growing demand for better understanding the response of alpine lake ecosystems to climate forcing. We combined continuous monitoring of water temperature with GIS-derived data, and modeled the lake surface water temperature (LSWT) and ice-cover characteristics of 18 Tatra Mountain lakes against altitude, lake morphometry and...

Hydrobiological research of high mountain streams in the High Tatras was carried out in 2009–2010. We evaluated the influence of windstorm on caddisfly assemblages. To assess the influence of windstorm we focused on river morphology using the RHS method and evaluation of TAM, TOM and BOM (CPOM, FPOM, UFPOM) amount in seven streams. Site 1 was a con...

In this study we describe how the river morphology of seven High Tatras streams has been influenced in different ways by a severe windstorm that occurred in November 2004. A control site situated in an undisturbed area is compared with six sites in windstorm damaged areas. In 2009–2010 River Habitat Survey (RHS) was used to assess the character of...

The occurrence of Ponto-Caspian amphipod Corophium robustum (Sars, 1895) was reported on a Slovak side of the Danube River. Specimens were found during the investigation of the Danube River between years 2007 and 2011 and near to the inlet of the Hron River. Until now, two species of genus Corophium were known to be present in Slovak section of the...

We report the discovery of Bothrioneurum vejdovskyanum Štolc, 1886 (Annelida: Oligochaeta: Tubificidae: Rhy-acodrilinae) in Serbian freshwaters. Fifteen specimens were found in the middle course of the River Ibar (southern Serbia), at a locality where the macrolithal type of substrate and strong currents prevail. These organisms were found together...

Data on benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages of two alpine lakes in the Tatra Mts (Slovakia) collected in 1914, 1933, 1979–1982, 1993–1997, and 2000 were collated and analysed in an attempt to define their relationship to major environmental events affecting these alpine lakes over the last century. The oldest data were considered an important bac...

Littoral benthic macroinvertebrates were studied in three alpine lakes in the High Tatra Mountains (Slovakia) located at different elevations: 2157, 1940 (alpine zone) and 1725m (sub-alpine zone). The study sites were selected in order to obtain a gradient in thermal regimes and particular organic matter (POM). Differences in the faunal composition...

Invertebrates inhabiting alpine water bodies are sensitive to environmental variability and lake faunal communities can therefore be important indicators of long-range airborne pollution, climate change and other human impacts. Information about the trophic structure and species composition of alpine lake ecosystems over space and time should there...

A method is presented for defining the five classes of ecological quality based on a multimetric index (MMI) of macroinvertebrates, as required for implementation of the Water Framework Directive for small (catchment area 10–100 km2), medium (101–1000 km2) and large (> 1000 km2) streams. Our method (expert judgment) allows us to overcome an absence...

New data on the distribution of Bothrioneurum vejdovskyanum, a rare species in streams of Danube basin, from 21 sampling sites are given. Mature individuals were found in 5 streams. The revision of the first record of B. vejdovskyanum from an arm in the Slovak stretch of the Danube showed it as a misidentification.

A multimetric assessment system was developed to determine the ecological status of two types of stream in the Carpathian ecoregion following the requirements of the WFD. The organic pollution gradient was defined using Canonical Correspondence Analysis. Classification based on physical, chemical and biological data divided the tested sites into tw...

Structure of hydrocoenoses of the streams in the Poloniny National Park were studied during the years 1999 and 2000. Composition of epilithic diatom communities, microzoobenthos, interstitial communities, all the main groups of macrozoobenthos (permanent fauna, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Coleoptera, Trichoptera, Diptera) and basic hydrological, abi...

In 2000 and 2001, miniature thermistors with integrated data loggers were employed to measure lake surface water temperatures (LSWTs) and temperature profiles in high-altitude mountain lakes lying between 1580 and 2145 m a.s.l. on both the Slovak and Polish sides of the Tatra Mountains. This allowed the annual cycle of water temperatures and ice co...

This study evaluates runoff and different methods for the estimation of water balance and runoff genesis in four small alpine catchments, which lie outside the standard network of hydrological and climate networks. These test catchments, whose size ranges between 2.3 and 110 ha, are located above the timberline at elevations between 1,784 and 2,380...

Abstract: Littoral benthic macroinvertebrates of 45 mountain lakes in the Tatra Mountains were sampled using a semiquantitative method in September 2000. A total of 32,852 specimens were identified to 93 taxa belonging to 14 higher taxonomic groups. Multivariate statistics (CCA, RDA) and nine biotic metrics (AQEM/STAR) were used to explain relation...

Abstract: The composition of invertebrates of inlets and outlets of selected West Tatra and High Tatra lakes (Slovakia, 49◦10� N, 20◦00� E) was analyzed. Twenty-seven sampling sites representing 11 inlets and 16 outlets of 19 mountain lakes were investigated. In total, 10,692 aquatic invertebrates from 27 samples were sorted, 7,314 from inlets and...

In order to standardise biological assessment of surface waters in Europe, a standardised method for sampling, sorting and identification of benthic macroinvertebrates in running waters was developed during the AQEM project. The AQEM method has proved to be relatively time-consuming. Hence, this study explored the consequences of a reduction in sam...

The EU Water Framework Directive requires assessment of the ecological quality of running waters using macroinvertebrates. One of the problems of obtaining representative samples of organisms from streams is the choice of sampling date, as the scores obtained from macroinvertebrate indices vary naturally between seasons, confounding the detection o...

STAR is a European Commission Framework V project (EVK1-CT-2001-00089). The project aim is to provide practical advice and solutions with regard to many of the issues associated with the Water Framework Directive. This paper provides a context for the STAR research programme through a review of the requirements of the directive and the Common Imple...

The objective of this study is to describe a high-mountain stream ecosystem, with the main emphasis on particulate organic matter, structure of food guilds and the impact of predation upon macroinvertebrates. In the brook Hincov the concentration of total phosphorus and coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM) increased considerably with the increa...

STAR is a European Commission Framework V project (EVK1-CT-2001-00089). The project aim is to provide practical advice and solutions with regard to many of the issues associated with the Water Framework Directive. This paper provides a context for the STAR research programme through a review of the requirements of the directive and the Common Imple...

A stratigraphic study of spheroidal carbonaceous fly-ash particles (SCP) in a sediment core section from high mountain lake Nizne Terianske Pleso (1941 m a. s. l., High Tatra mountains), spanning the last similar to 150 years, revealed a rapid increase in SCP starting 1935-1940 AD. This increase coincided with a rise in ferrimagnetic, paramagnetic...

Shells and one living adult of the freshwater bivalve Corbicula fluminea were found on the three localities of Danube river and its surroundings, SW and S Slovakia.

We examined benthic invertebrates and metabolism on the basis of the annual sampling of 9 types of running waters in the West Carpathians. Headwaters in general represent typical heterotrophic systems, except where they are high mountain streams, which are autotrophic. Lower down, the upper reaches of brooks are transition zones between heterotroph...

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Life cycle and larval production was studied in 10 mountains stonefly species (Protonemura montana, P. nimborum, Leuctra armata, L. autumnalis, L. pusilla, Capnia vidua, Siphlonoperla neglecta, Diura bicaudata, Isoperla sudetica and Perlodes intricatus). The daily growth attains 1.2 - 2.4 mg (per 100 mg of larval dry weight), stoneflies achieve rel...

Sedimentological climate proxies and a 200-year long climate record, reconstructed using a data-set of European-wide meteorological data, have been compared at the high mountain lake Nin Terianske pleso in the High Tatras, Slovakia. Diatoms, chrysophyte stomatocysts, chironomids, plant pigments and spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) were anal...

Weather variation and climate fluctuations are the main sources of ecosystem variability in remote mountain lakes. Here we describe the main patterns of seasonal variability in the ecosystems of nine lakes in Europe, and discuss the implications for recording climatic features in their sediments. Despite the diversity in latitude and size, the lake...