Hydrology is a major influence on amphibian abundance in a large European floodplain.

River-floodplain ecosystems play a crucial role in connecting landscape patches through hydrological connectivity, but they are among the most threatened ecosystems. Floodplains provide important habitat for amphibians by connecting aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Modifications to floodplain hydrology can impact amphibian communities, yet few studies have examined amphibian metacommunities in floodplain wetlands.

eDNA metabarcoding reveals the role of habitat specialization and spatial and environmental variability in shaping diversity patterns of fish metacommunities.

Information is scarce on how environmental and dispersal processes interact with biological features of the organisms, such as their habitat affinity, to influence patterns in biodiversity. We examined the role of habitat specialist vs. generalist species, and the spatial configuration, connectivity, and different environmental characteristics of river-floodplain habitats to get a more mechanistic understanding of alpha and beta diversity of fish metacommunities.

Effect of 80% ethanol or 10% formalin fixation, freezing at -20 °C and staining on (Myxosporea) spores to be deposited in parasitological collections.

The preparation of myxosporeans for the description of myxospores and their preservation as type material in parasitological collections show great variations. Most frequently, formalin and ethanol are used for fixation and Giemsa solution for staining spores. In this work, authors studied the effect of 80% ethanol and 10% formalin fixation, freezing at -20 °C and staining on the size and transparency of two species of cyprinid fishes, and , and recommended a new method for the deposition of type material to parasitological collections in museums.

New record of metacercariae of the North American Posthodiplostomum centrarchi (Digenea, Diplostomidae) in pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) in Hungary.

Two species of the genus Posthodiplostomum (Digenea: Diplostomatidae) (Posthodiplostomum brevicaudatum Nordmann, 1832 and Posthodiplostomum cuticola Nordmann, 1832) are known as parasites of Hungarian native fishes. Metacercariae of P. cuticola are widespread in Europe and cause black spot disease.

Impact of urbanization on abundance and phenology of caterpillars and consequences for breeding in an insectivorous bird.

Urbanization can have marked effects on plant and animal populations' phenology, population size, predator-prey, interactions and reproductive success. These aspects are rarely studied simultaneously in a single system, and some are rarely investigated, e.g.

Problem-solving performance and reproductive success of great tits in urban and forest habitats.

Success in problem solving, a form of innovativeness, can help animals exploit their environments, and recent research suggests that it may correlate with reproductive success. Innovativeness has been proposed to be especially beneficial in urbanized habitats, as suggested by superior problem-solving performance of urban individuals in some species. If there is stronger selection for innovativeness in cities than in natural habitats, we expect problem-solving performance to have a greater positive effect on fitness in more urbanized habitats.

Does urbanization facilitate individual recognition of humans by house sparrows?

Wild animals living in proximity to humans may benefit from recognizing people individually and adjusting their behaviour to the potential risk or gain expected from each person. Although several urban-dwelling species exhibit such skills, it is unclear whether this is due to pre-existing advanced cognitive abilities of taxa predisposed for city life or arises specifically in urban populations either by selection or through ontogenetic changes facilitated by exposure to humans. To test these alternatives, we studied populations of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) along the urbanization gradient.