Living Danube [antikvár]

Keynote Lectures Macrophytes of the Danube River: aquatic plant ecology - and some outreach into 'real world' policies Janauer Georg a. Department of Limnology, University of Vienna, Department of Limnology, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria, Ptione: +43 699 148 13904, [email protected] Keywords: Expert Group IAD, survey method, habitat features, biodiversity, climate change, EU policy Introduction In 1985 the IAD established the Expert Group 'Macrophytes' (EGM) who's members again joined the day before the opening of the 2012 IAD conference. Despite the fact that macrophyte worl< had started much earlier in Europe in many places this group especially focused on macrophyte research in the Danube Basin. Two activities centered EGIVI activities from the beginning: Standardizing the survey method among members in all Danube Countries and assessing macrophyte life in the Danube River corridor and in tributaries of different character. EGM work produced many Individual publications (e.g. Schütz et al. 2008, Janauer & Schmidt 2005, Hrivnak et al. 2010, Kuhar et al. 2011, Oslmec et al. 2010, Sipos et al. 2003, Vukov et al. 2008, Valchev, Georgiev 2012 [web reference], Sarbu et al. 2011) and many more still unpublished results, but a concerted strategy combined forces on the 'Multifunctional Integrated Study Danube: Corridor and Catchment' (MIDCC 2012; see web references). All this information, and the participation of the Viennese Team under the lead of the author in several EU-projects of scientific -as well as applied content - form the background of many details described below. Survey methodology Alexander Kohler was the first scientist to realize, that the three-dimensional development of plant stands is an important feature of the aquatic vegetation. This is because this factor varies to a much wider extent in water than in terrestrial vegetation due to the influence of water depth and water flow. As 'cover'-based methods did not consider this vertical development and neglected the importance of the non-vegetated parts of survey units, Kohler developed an estimate-based assessment. This was the 'amount' of an aquatic plant species (in German: Pflanzenmenge) in relation to a defined survey unit in running water or in the littoral area of a still water body. A huge number of publications - albeit most of them in German - (starting with: Kohler et al. 1971) were produced until