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Can a benthic diatom community complement chemical analyses and discriminate between disturbed and undisturbed saline wetland habitats? A study of seven soda pans in Serbia

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Abstract

Soda pans are protected in the European Union as Natura 2000 areas in the category of “Pannonic saline steppes and marshes”. There are at least six soda pans of reference status in Serbia and only a half have strict legal protection. The number of similar, but disturbed (modified) habitats that could be reconstructed is still unknown. We conducted sampling in five natural and two disturbed soda pans aiming to compare a difference in physical and chemical water properties and benthic diatom communities. In addition, we tried to apply recently developed Diatom Index for Soda Pans (DISP) and Trait-based index (TBI) to test the applicability of taxonomic and trait-based approaches in ecological status assessment of soda pans in the southern part of the Carpathian Basin. In contrast to natural soda pans, lower pH and nutrients levels were recorded in disturbed pans. A total of 86 taxa of benthic diatoms, including 11 new for diatom flora of Serbia, were identified. A lower species richness and Shannon index was recorded in natural soda pans. Nitzschia austriaca, N. supralitorea, Navicula veneta and N. wiesneri were dominant diatoms in soda pans of the reference status. Both diatom indices were in average lower in disturbed pans, and this difference was statistically significant for DISP index. We concluded that two indices, supplemented with indicator values for some local diatom species, can be a promising tool for soda pan conservation in this part of the Carpathian Basin.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (Grants No. 451-03-68/2020-14/200026 and 451-03-68/2020-14/200178).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Miloš Ćirić, Biljana P. Dojčinović & Danijela Vidaković

  2. Department of Physical Geography, Geographical Institute “Jovan Cvijić”, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Đure Jakšića 9, Belgrade, Serbia

    Bojan Gavrilović

  3. Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Jelena Krizmanić

Authors
  1. Miloš Ćirić
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  2. Bojan Gavrilović
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  3. Jelena Krizmanić
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  4. Biljana P. Dojčinović
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  5. Danijela Vidaković
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Contributions

MĆ developed the main idea for the study, wrote the main part of the manuscript and produced the statistical output. BG assisted in the study design and proofreading of the text. The literature study was done by JK. Chemical analyses and an interpretation of the relationship between ions in saline water was carried out by BPD. DV identified and counted diatoms, produced the graphics and helped with the field work.

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Correspondence to Miloš Ćirić.

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Ćirić, M., Gavrilović, B., Krizmanić, J. et al. Can a benthic diatom community complement chemical analyses and discriminate between disturbed and undisturbed saline wetland habitats? A study of seven soda pans in Serbia. Wetlands Ecol Manage 29, 451–466 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-021-09794-9

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