Habitats for large branchiopods in the agricultural landscape of the Mureş Floodplain Natural Park: how long will they last?

Abstract

Abstract In the last two hundred years, the Mureş River Floodplain has suffered major changes caused by dike constructions, meander cutting, and by the transformation of the natural landscape into an agricultural one. In this environmental context, we wanted to find out the degree to which large branchiopod species still survive in the Mureş Floodplain area. Every stagnant aquatic habitat encountered in 2019 in the Mureş Floodplain Natural Park was sampled. For the habitats where more species co-occur, urgent preservation actions must be taken. Most of the species prefer open habitats and have survived in the wheel ruts on agricultural lands. In the absence of natural habitats, the importance of this habitat type becomes a major one. The forest advantages species related to shady habitats, such as Chirocephalus diaphanus. We have found several individuals in the park that showed black spots on their bodies, characteristic of the black disease of fairy shrimp. The presence of the disease only in the populations from wheel ruts suggests that vehicles which make these ruts, could be the carriers of the disease.