THE STONE
CRAYFISH (AUSTROPOTAMOBIUS TORRENTIUM), PRESENT STATUS IN ROMANIA,
DISTRIBUTION, PHILOGENY AND POPULATION EVALUATION
Project no. 1019/2009
The goal of this project is to establish the geographical areal of the
species, to investigate the quality of the ecosystems in which the species
lives and to characterise the species populations from the morphological and
genetic point of view.
Project justification:
In
the natural dynamics of ecosystems, numerous species have extended or
diminished their areal, new species have been artificially introduced that have
replaced the native species and sometimes the habitat have been destroyed, factors that limit the current
knowledge on astacids from Romania and Europe.
As far as the stone crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium, Schrank,
1803), Subphyillum: Crustacea, Family: Astacidae, is concern, the knowledge is
even more limited, the international status of the species being insufficient known
(IUCN, Groombridge, 1994). Because, the European areal of the species has his
estic limit in Romania and
from the ecological point of view is divided by MuresRiver
(the natural barier for this species characteristic to the mountain springs),
we consider that our data will complete the European knowledge on this species.
The Habitats Directive, through Anexx V, considers
the stone crayfish in the prioritary species category for protected areas
management, one more reason for knowing its actual geographical spreading. For
a sustainable management it is compulsory to know the biological and ecolological
parameters that maintain the species in optimum conditions. To this effect we
propose complex investigations regarding the populations dimensions and
biological state cummulated with habitats structure, chemo-physical
characteristics and also the quality of the water interpreted from the
indicator species analysis. Our studies will establish the complete species distribution
for Romania,
the optimal ecological parameters, the morphological characteristics of
populations, with the investigation of their genofond, outlining the evolutive
line of which the populations came and identifying the possible speciation. We will take also into account other disturbance factors in the
species equilibrium like the invasive species and the anthropic impact.
