Ethnobotanical Survey of Culturally Important Plants and Mushrooms in North-Western Part of Croatia.

The Republic of Croatia is spread in geographical and climatic conditions that support a great diversity of habitats and associated plant taxa, many of which can be used for food or medicine. However, urbanization, loss of natural habitats, as well as changes in people's dependence on the natural resources from the surrounding environment may lead to the loss of valuable knowledge about the use of plants and mushrooms. With the aim of studying and preserving this knowledge in the continental north-western part of Croatia, an ethnobotanical survey was undertaken at the two study areas-Valpovo and Durdevac, which included a total of 17 settlements. A total of 103 informants, 65% female and 35% male, aged between 22 and 83 years, participated in an interview using pre-planned questionnaires. The informants reported 131 plants belonging to 55 families and 17 mushroom taxa. The largest number of plants belonged to the families of Rosaceae, Lamiaceae, Asteraceae, and Apiaceae. In both areas, the informants cultivate and also gather wild plants, but these practices are better preserved in the area of Durdevac where 109 taxa from 47 families were recorded. In addition to cultivated and gathered plants, informants from the Valpovo area also reported the use of purchased plants. Plants and mushrooms are mostly used as food (21 plant taxa and 17 mushrooms), but plants also serve as medicine (68 taxa), as both food and medicine (35 taxa), feed for cattle (11 taxa), repellent (four taxa), and/or space freshener (two taxa). The most frequently used wild plants are Chamomilla recutita, Mentha x piperita, and Urtica dioica, while Boletus edulis, Agaricus campestris, and Macrolepiota procera are the most often used mushrooms. The results indicate that the local people in the studied north-western part of Croatia still nurture the practice of cultivating and gathering plants and that herbal remedies are considerably important among the informants. The study should be further extended to broaden and preserve valuable ethnobotanical knowledge and encourage the protection of culturally important plants of the studied area.

Footprint of the plastisphere on freshwater zooplankton.

Changes in the functional groups of zooplankton were studied in autumn in a temperate floodplain lake (Lake Sakadas, Kopacki Rit Nature Park, Croatia) and in the Drava River (in the Croatian part of the river). Various abiotic parameters as well as available food sources (phytoplankton and microphytes (algae and cyanobacteria) developing on epixylon, epilithon and artificially introduced microplastics called "plastisphere") were also studied. The lake was hydrologically isolated from the main river during the study, while the water level of the Drava River fluctuated, resulting in larger variations in limnological parameters. Due to stable conditions in the lake, zooplankton abundance, biomass, and species richness were higher than in the Drava River. In both environments, zooplankton species feeding on bacteria, detrital suspensions, and small algae were most abundant, with predators and microfilter-feeders being more abundant in the lake. Microphytes were diverse and mostly small and medium-sized in phytoplankton and all substrate types. Stable lake conditions promoted higher abundance of the zooplankton group, which effectively uses larger algae as a food source. The lower abundance of zooplankton feeding on larger algae and predatory species in the river suggests that the epilithon and plastisphere community was a less mature community compared to the lake, and the heterotrophic component with ciliates and/or other small heterotrophs was not well developed. The importance of plastispheres was particularly evident under the turbid hydrologic conditions that prevailed in the river at the end of the study, when phytoplankton biomass decreased and zooplankton abundance steadily increased, suggesting that microphytes colonised on microplastics were an additional food source for higher trophic levels.

A European Multi Lake Survey dataset of environmental variables, phytoplankton pigments and cyanotoxins.

Under ongoing climate change and increasing anthropogenic activity, which continuously challenge ecosystem resilience, an in-depth understanding of ecological processes is urgently needed. Lakes, as providers of numerous ecosystem services, face multiple stressors that threaten their functioning. Harmful cyanobacterial blooms are a persistent problem resulting from nutrient pollution and climate-change induced stressors, like poor transparency, increased water temperature and enhanced stratification. Consistency in data collection and analysis methods is necessary to achieve fully comparable datasets and for statistical validity, avoiding issues linked to disparate data sources. The European Multi Lake Survey (EMLS) in summer 2015 was an initiative among scientists from 27 countries to collect and analyse lake physical, chemical and biological variables in a fully standardized manner. This database includes in-situ lake variables along with nutrient, pigment and cyanotoxin data of 369 lakes in Europe, which were centrally analysed in dedicated laboratories. Publishing the EMLS methods and dataset might inspire similar initiatives to study across large geographic areas that will contribute to better understanding lake responses in a changing environment.

Oxidative stress in leaves of two olive cultivars under freezing conditions.

Olive is one of the most important cultivated Mediterranean plants. In order to determine the differences in frost resistance of two, two-year-old olive cultivars (Olea europaea cv. Leccino and cv. Oblica) growing on different types of nutrient substrates (soil and coconut fibres), the trees were exposed to low temperature (-5 °C) in the dark. It was shown that low temperature caused an increase in H2O2 concentration, level of lipid peroxidation and carbonyl protein content in both cultivars and on both nutrient substrates, respectively. The CAT and APX activities significantly varied depending on the cultivar, the nutrient substrate type and the time of exposure to low temperature. Cv. Oblica and cv. Leccino growing on coconut fibres showed a better antioxidative response to low temperature probably due to the higher nitrogen and phosphorus concentration established in this type of nutrient substrate. That positive antioxidative response determined on coconut fibres was more pronounced in leaves of cv. Leccino.