Assessment of Benthic Free-Living Nematode Assemblages Diversity in Kune – Vain Wetland (Adriatic Coast, Albania) Fundime MIRI, Mihallaq QIRJO, Andi KARABOJA Eurasia Proceedings of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics, 2021 This work presents preliminary data on benthic free-living nematode assemblages from Kune-Vain Wetland Complex, situated in the northern part of the Adriatic coast in Albania. The study was carried out during a joint ecological approach, to collect chemical-physical and biological data of the wetland and evaluate the hydrological intervention in improving the environmental situation and increase resilience to climate change. The sampling was conducted bimonthly from July 2018 – July 2019, in three main water body component of Kune-Vain wetland, Ceka, Zaje and Merxhani. Nematode assemblages were analyzed in term of composition and structure, determining taxonomic composition up to genus level and biological traits. Nematodes were the dominant component of meiobenthos in all three water bodies, comprising 98-100%. Their taxonomic composition reflected the chemical features of transitional habitat dominated by brackish genera. Genera composition revealed different diversity patterns among water bodies. The most dominant genera were Sabatieria and Terschellingia, both deposit feeders and characteristic of bad ecological quality status.
Drink and sleep like a fish: Goldfish as a behavior model to study pharmaceutical effects in freshwater ecosystems Valbona Aliko, Enis Mehmeti, Mihallaq Qirjo, Caterina Faggio Journal of Biological Research Italy, 2019 Behavior is a mechanism through which organisms react to internal and external stimuli to best cope with challenges in an ever-changing environment. The study of animal behavior patterns in response to environmental stress/threats, is a relatively new and unexplored topic. The aim of this study is to offer a modest contribution in explaining the effects of pharmaceutical pollutants found in freshwater ecosystems, using the behavior patterns and physiology of Carassius auratus. Behavior changes were evaluated through swimming patterns, opercula and pectoral response, and rheological aggressivity. Animals were exposed for 5 weeks to water (as control), ethanol (EtOH, 0.25 and 1%, v/v), fluoxetine (FLX, 100 μg/L) and caffeine (CAF, 50 mg/L) and their short-term responses were recorded. The video has been analyzed using the open-sourced software program Track3D and EthoVision XT, which objectively quantified swimming and social behaviors. In all treatments, fish showed significantly (P<0.01) high level of stress, aggressivity and hyperactivity, compared to control. An interesting fact was that for each pollutant, fish exhibited different swimming patterns, from the normal one. These changes in the nervous system such as stressed behavior, irregular swimming patterns, hyperactivity and aggression, are consequences of pharmaceutical pollution in freshwater bodies and as such they can be used as suitable early physiological response biomarkers to environmental stress. Monitoring of altered behavior is a great early indicator of water pollution, which can easily be applied in the best aquaculture and fishery practices.
Building multi-country collaboration on watershed management: Lessons on linking environment and public health from the Western Balkans Maryann R. Cairns, Clayton E. Cox, Jose Zambrana, Joseph Flotemersch, Alexis Lan, et al. Reviews on Environmental Health, 2017 Community-based watershed resilience programs that bridge public health and environmental outcomes often require cross-boundary, multi-country collaboration. The CRESSIDA project, led by the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) and supported by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), forwards a resilience-focused approach for Western Balkan communities in the Drini and Drina river watersheds with the goal of safeguarding public health and the environment. The initial phases of this project give a contextualized example of how to advance resilience-driven environmental health goals in Western Balkan communities, and experience within the region has garnered several theme areas that require focus in order to promote a holistic watershed management program. In this paper, using CRESSIDA as a case study, we show (1) how watershed projects designed with resilience-driven environmental health goals can work in context, (2) provide data surrounding contextualized problems with resilience and suggest tools and strategies for the implementation of projects to address these problems, and (3) explore how cross-boundary foci are central to the success of these approaches in watersheds that comprise several countries.
