Oriental freshwater mussels arose in East Gondwana and arrived to Asia on the Indian Plate and Burma Terrane.

Freshwater mussels cannot spread through oceanic barriers and represent a suitable model to test the continental drift patterns. Here, we reconstruct the diversification of Oriental freshwater mussels (Unionidae) and revise their taxonomy. We show that the Indian Subcontinent harbors a rather taxonomically poor fauna, containing 25 freshwater mussel species from one subfamily (Parreysiinae). This subfamily most likely originated in East Gondwana in the Jurassic and its representatives arrived to Asia on two Gondwanan fragments (Indian Plate and Burma Terrane). We propose that the Burma Terrane was connected with the Indian Plate through the Greater India up to the terminal Cretaceous. Later on, during the entire Paleogene epoch, these blocks have served as isolated evolutionary hotspots for freshwater mussels. The Burma Terrane collided with mainland Asia in the Late Eocene, leading to the origin of the Mekong's Indochinellini radiation. Our findings indicate that the Burma Terrane had played a major role as a Gondwanan "biotic ferry" alongside with the Indian Plate.

Conservation status of freshwater mussels in Europe: state of the art and future challenges.

Freshwater mussels of the Order Unionida provide important ecosystem functions and services, yet many of their populations are in decline. We comprehensively review the status of the 16 currently recognized species in Europe, collating for the first time their life-history traits, distribution, conservation status, habitat preferences, and main threats in order to suggest future management actions. In northern, central, and eastern Europe, a relatively homogeneous species composition is found in most basins. In southern Europe, despite the lower species richness, spatially restricted species make these basins a high conservation priority. Information on freshwater mussels in Europe is unevenly distributed with considerable differences in data quality and quantity among countries and species. To make conservation more effective in the future, we suggest greater international cooperation using standardized protocols and methods to monitor and manage European freshwater mussel diversity. Such an approach will not only help conserve this vulnerable group but also, through the protection of these important organisms, will offer wider benefits to freshwater ecosystems.

Testing the extended biotic index in Slovakia: consistency, advantages, and limitations versus the saprobic assessment method of water quality.

The European Union Water Framework Directive requires the achievement of environmental objectives for the ecological quality of water bodies. A comparable implementation of the Directive throughout member countries of the European Union is necessary to verify equal protection of surface waters. The Directive specifies that member states determine ecological quality by means of biological indices. To improve comparability of water quality assessment, this research carried out an intercalibration trial between the Slovak Saprobic Index and the Italian protocol of the Extended Biotic Index, as part of a cooperative program between Italy and the Slovak Republic. When assessing streams with no or low pollution, statistics showed similar results for both methods. In contrast, the comparison of indices was not accurate in the case of severely affected waters. Reliable conversion formulas are feasible to transform the Italian Extended Biotic Index into the Slovak Saprobic Index, and not vice versa.