Rare arctic-alpine plant species of the Ukrainian Carpathians: ecological aspects

BIOLOGIA Sp. Iss./2017 Biogeography of the Carpathians Cluj-Napoca 2017 Ecological and evolutionary facets of biodiversity The Second Interdisciplinary Symposium, 28-30 September 2017, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 1 The Second Interdisciplinary Symposium Biogeography of the Carpathians: Ecological and evolutionary facets of biodiversity 28-30 September 2017, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Conference organized and financially supported by: Official sponsors of the Conference: ABSTRACT Honorary Committee László Rákosy Director of the Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University Sorina Fărcaș Director of the Institute of Biological Research Cosmin Sicora Director of the Al. Borza Botanical Garden, Babeș-Bolyai University Scientific and Organizing Committee Mihai Puşcaş Faculty of Biology and Geology and Al. Borza Botanical Garden, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (plant biogeography and phylogeography, distribution ranges) Bogdan-Iuliu Hurdu Institute of Biological Research, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (plant diversity, biogeography and endemism in alpine systems) Michał Ronikier Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland (alpine plant biogeography, phylogeography) Anna Ronikier Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland (taxonomy and biogeography of mountainous fungi and myxomycetes) Patrik Mráz Department of Botany, Charles University, Praha, Czechia (plant biogeography, evolution and taxonomy) Vasile Cristea Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (plant systematics, phytosociology) Gheorghe Coldea Oana Gavrilaș Anamaria Roman Dana ȘuteuMireșan Pavel-Dan Turtureanu Tudor Ursu Institute of Biological Research, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (plant systematics, phytosociology) Al. Borza Botanical Garden, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (taxonomy of fungi, plant pathology) Institute of Biological Research, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (biodiversity conservation, landscape ecology) Institute of Biological Research, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (plant systematics, phylogeography) Al. Borza Botanical Garden, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (functional ecology, environmental monitoring, plant diversity) Institute of Biological Research, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (ecosystem ecology, phytosociology) YEAR Volume 62 (LXII), Sp. Iss. 2017 PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2017-09-20 PUBLISHED PRINT: 2017-09-20 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI BIOLOGIA Sp. Iss. STUDIA UBB EDITORIAL OFFICE: B.P. Hașdeu no. 51, 400371 Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Phone + 40 264 405352, www.studia.ubbcluj.ro SUMAR – CONTENTS – SOMMAIRE – INHALT KEYNOTE ABSTRACTS E. BREMAN, The Millenium Seed Bank and its role of ex situ plant conservation in meeting global challenges on biodiversity conservation: current status and perspectives ............................................................................................... 15 P. CHOLER AND THE ODYSSEE CONSORTIUM, The biogeography of soil diversity: insights from European mountains .................................................. 16 A. FEURDEAN, Past responses of Carpathian vegetation to a warmer world and anthropogenic impacts ..................................................................................... 18 K. MARHOLD, Central European and Carpathian phylogeography: evidence for cryptic refugia? ................................................................................................ 19 T. SCHMITT, The zoogeography of the Carpathians and their links to the adjoining high mountain systems .................................................................... 21 ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS Z. BARKASZI, Endemic rodent species in the Ukrainian Carpathians and their spatial distribution ........................................................................................... 24 CONTENTS 6 A. ČEREVKOVÁ, M. RENČO, E. GÖMÖRYOVÁ, Long-term effects of different management practices on soil nematode communities in European mountain spruce forests after a windstorm ...................................................... 27 D. COPILAŞ-CIOCIANU, A. PETRUSEK, The footprints of the geological and climatic history of the Carpathians on the biogeography of their freshwater amphipods ........................................................................................................ 29 Z. FAČKOVCOVÁ, J. ZOZOMOVÁ-LIHOVÁ, M. SLOVÁK, A. GUTTOVÁ, Genetic diversity of circum-mediterranean lichen Solenopsora candicans with special focus on the marginal Carpatho-Pannonian populations ............. 30 R. GRINDEAN, I. TANȚĂU, A. FEURDEAN, Linking vegetation dynamics and stability in the forests of the Eastern Romanian Carpathians .................... 32 M. HÁJEK, P. HÁJKOVÁ, D. DÍTĚ, I. GOIA, V. HORSÁKOVÁ, M. HORSÁK, T. PETERKA, Ecological or historical biogeography of calcareous fens? Differences and similarities between the Western and Eastern Carpathians in the European context ................................................................................... 34 B. -I. HURDU, M. PUȘCAȘ, S. LAVERGNE, C. ROQUET, W. THUILLER, P. D. TURTUREANU, S. BEC, J. RENAUD, A. SAILLARD, P. CHOLER, Disentangling historical and ecological processes driving alpine species assemblages through an analysis of Carex curvula phylogenetic community structure across the European Alpine System .................................................. 36 E. I. IORGU, I. Ș. IORGU, G. SZÖVÉNYI, K. M. ORCI, A. -M. KRAPAL, T. SAHLEAN, O. P. POPA, L. O. POPA, Genetic variation in Isophya species from the Isophya pyrenaea complex (Insecta: Orthoptera) in the Carpathians .... 39 M. JANIŠOVÁ, N. BAUER, M. CHYTRÝ, J. CSIKY, J. DENGLER, T. HLÁSNY, C. HOBOHM, E. RUPRECHT, I. ŠKODOVÁ, W. WILLNER, D. ZELENÝ, Biogeographical patterns of Carex humilis-dominated rocky steppes in the Carpathian-Pannonian region .................................................... 41 P. KLINGA, M. MIKOLÁŠ, M. TEJKAL, P. SMOLKO, P. ZHELEV, D. KRAJMEROVÁ, L. PAULE, Phylogeography and landscape genetics of western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) in the Carpathians ............................. 43 A. KNOTEK, F. KOLÁŘ, Role of highand low-elevation postglacial refugia in preserving plant diversity: case of central European Galium pusillum agg. ........ 45 F. KOLÁŘ, G. FUXOVÁ, A. KNOTEK, E. ZÁVESKÁ, K. MARHOLD, Phylogeography of Carpathian plants above and below the timberline – case study of two Arabidopsis species with pronounced altitudinal ecotypic variation ........................................................................................................... 47 P. KOUTECKÝ, Hybridization as the pivotal source of variation and taxonomic confusion in Carpathian Centaurea ................................................................. 48 CONTENTS 7 L. LACZKÓ, P. A. VOLKOVA, J. PÁL TÓTH, J. BERECZKI, L. TRIEST, I. A. SCHANZER, G. SRAMKÓ, Phylogeography of common primrose (Primula acaulis Huds.) and the role of the Carpathian Basin in the colonisation of Europe ..................................................................................... 49 S. MIHĂILESCU, M. ONETE, D. STRAT, I. GHEORGHE, Conservation status of plant species and habitats of community importance on the Romanian Carpathians ...................................................................................................... 51 O. T. MOLDOVAN, I. C. MIREA, M. KENESZ, R. NĂSTASE-BUCUR, Diversity and distribution of Carpathian subterranean fauna .......................... 53 P. MRÁZ, M. I. BĂRBOS, L. FILIPAŞ, A. BELYAYEV, J. CHRTEK, V. MRÁZOVÁ, L. PAŠTOVÁ, J. PINC, P. ZDVOŘÁK, J. FEHRER, The importance of the Carpathians for understanding of evolutionary processes and biodiversity patterns in the genus Hieracium L. s.str. (Asteraceae) ......... 54 C. PACHSCHWÖLL, M. WINKLER, P. ESCOBAR GARCÍA, G. M. SCHNEEWEISS, P. SCHÖNSWETTER, Evolution of high mountain plant species in the Alps and Carpathians – the “hairy” case of the Doronicum clusii aggregate (Asteraceae) ........................................................................... 56 L. PETR, E. JAMRICHOVÁ, B. JIMÉNEZALFARO, V. JANKOVSKÁ, L. DUDOVÁ, P. HÁJKOVÁ, M. HÁJEK, Vegetation and landscape variation of Western Carpathians during Late Glacial and Holocene ............................. 58 M. PUȘCAȘ, T. -M. URSU, P. D. TURTUREANU, G. COLDEA, Changes in vascular plant diversity within the alpine zone of the Eastern Carpathians: 15 years of continuous survey of the GLORIA summits in the Rodna Mountains (2001-2015) ..................................................................................................... 60 J. RENAUD, B. -I. HURDU, J. KLIMENT, A. NOVIKOV, M. RONIKIER, P. MRÁZ, J. SIBIK, P. TURIS, M. PUŞCAŞ, A database and atlas of endemic vascular plants of the Carpathian Region ........................................................ 62 A. RONIKIER, P. JANIK, Diversity and distribution of nivicolous myxomycetes (Amoebozoa) in the Carpathians in the larger geographical context ............... 64 M. RONIKIER, L. GIELLY, T. SUCHAN, P. MRÁZ, Evolutionary history of a high-mountain plant Hypochaeris uniflora (Asteraceae): the Carpathians as ancestral area and colonization source of the Alps and the Sudetes ............ 66 M. SLOVÁK, E. ŠTUBŇOVÁ, A. MELICHÁRKOVÁ, O. PAUN, T. MANDÁKOVÁ, I. HODÁLOVÁ, J. KOCHJAROVÁ, M. VALACHOVIČ, J. KUČERA, Notes on the evolution and biogeography of Carpathian members of the genus Soldanella (Primulaceae) ............................................. 68 J. SMYČKA, C. ROQUET, S. LAVERGNE, Disentangling drivers of plant endemism and diversification in the Alps - a phylogenetic and spatially explicit approach .............................................................................................. 70 CONTENTS 8 A. STACHURSKA-SWAKOŃ, E. CIEŚLAK, A. KACZMARCZYK, J. NOWAK, M. RONIKIER, Genetic structure of Doronicum austriacum Jacq. (Asteraceae) in the Carpathians and adjacent areas: towards a comparative phylogeographical pattern of tall-herb communities ....................................... 72 E. G. TÓTH, Z. A. KÖBÖLKUTI, Á. BEDE-FAZEKAS, G. G. VENDRAMIN, F. BAGNOLI, M. HÖHN, Population demographic inferences of Scots pine along the Carpathians and the Pannonian Basin based on bioclimatic and molecular genetic data .............................................................................. 74 P. D. TURTUREANU, M. PUȘCAȘ, C. BARROS, S. BEC, B. -I. HURDU, J. RENAUD, A. SAILLARD, J. ŠIBÍK, W. THUILLER, P. CHOLER, Intraspecific functional trait variation and structure at a biogeographical scale: comparative analysis of two high-mountain graminoids co-distributed over the European Alpine System ................................................................... 76 J. UHLÍŘOVÁ, D. BERNÁTOVÁ, J. ŠIBÍK, Bog woodlands of the Western Carpathians – A unique ecological phenomenon in the transition of phytogeographical regions ............................................................................... 78 Z. VARGA, Biogeographical limitations of alpine and arctic-alpine species in the Carpathians and Balkans ............................................................................ 79 POSTER ABSTRACTS I. BĂCILĂ, D. ŞUTEU, G. COLDEA, Validation of the taxonomic status of Onobrychis transsilvanica Simk. (Fabaceae) through genomic SSR fingerprinting ................................................................................................... 80 Z. R. BALÁZS, R. GARGIULO, M. F. FAY, D. PODAR, Ecological aspects and genetic diversity of Cypripedium calceolus L. populations from Transylvania, Romania ........................................................................................................... 82 L. BARTHA, K. MACALIK, E. SZABÓ, D. ZUBOV, F. JOVANOVIĆ, H. YILDIRIM, B. TRÁVNÍČEK, H. L. BANCIU, S. YÜZBAŞIOĞLU, L. LACZKÓ, L. KERESZTES, Comparative plastid phylogeography of two deciduous forest geophytes (Scilla bifolia and Galanthus nivalis): implications to their glacial survival in the Carpathian Basin ......................... 84 A. BARTÓK, E. SZABÓ, T. E. ȘESAN, L. BARTHA, Towards clarifying the phylogenetic position and taxonomy of Pedicularis baumgartenii Simonk., a rare endemic species of the Southern Carpathians (Romania) ........................ 85 K. P. BATTES, M. CÎMPEAN, L. MOMEU, V. MUNTEAN, A. -Ș. ANDREI, H. L. BANCIU, Patterns of invertebrate diversity in several saline lakes from the Transylvanian Basin .......................................................................... 87 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 15 === KEYNOTE ABSTRACT === The Millenium Seed Bank and its role of ex situ plant conservation in meeting global challenges on biodiversity conservation: current status and perspectives Elinor Breman1, The need for plant conservation has never been greater. Of the 393,000 vascular plants known to science, 1 in 5 if faced with extinction. Yet plants underpin our very existence and offer solutions to the global environmental challenges facing humanity. The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has been working to conserve the seeds of orthodox seed bearing plants to help address this issue. Working in partnership with over 95 countries and territories since 2000, it is the largest ex situ conservation programme in the world. There are currently 54 countries involved in active seed conservation projects. The work of the MSB includes: ensuring seed conservation standards are adhered to across the partnership; capacity building and technology transfer; and increasing the profile and availability of data from seed collections across the partnership. The MSB’s most recent programme focuses on conserving the flora of the Carpathian region together with partners in Romania, Ukraine and Slovakia. This project will ensure the long-term ex situ conservation of 500 plant species (notably endemics and sub-endemics), deliver research on biogeographic, taxonomic and genetic diversity of five model genera (Carex, Daphne, Draba, Silene zawadzkii and Soldanella), and establish a Carpathian research network and associated database. Additional outputs include research papers, a monograph on Carpathian endemics, and red listing of Carpathian species. 1 Kew Royal Botanical Gardens.  Corresponding author: Elinor Breman, Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, the Conservation Science Department of the Millenium Seed Bank, Wakehurst, United Kingdom, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 16 === KEYNOTE ABSTRACT === The biogeography of soil diversity: insights from European mountains Philippe Choler1, and the ODYSSEE Consortium My presentation will focus on the distribution patterns of soil biodiversity across the European Alpine System, with a special emphasis on the Carpathians. I will address two questions: are there biogeographical patterns for soil micro-organisms and soil mesofauna? and, are these patterns consistent with those described for macro-organisms? I will briefly review past literature before showing recent results obtained in the framework of the ODYSSEE project. This project aims at integrating ecology and evolution to understand multi-trophic species assemblages in two highelevation ecosystems: subalpine grasslands dominated by Nardus stricta and alpine meadows dominated by Carex curvula. I will discuss the main findings of the project in light of postglacial history, spatial connectivity, soil climate and disturbance regimes of mountain grasslands. I will conclude by some perspectives pertaining to multitrophic comparative phylogeography in the European Alpine System and to the implemntation of meta-community models able to track the response of species assemblages to environmental changes in a dynamic landscape. Acknowledgements. This work is supported by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) – France (Project ODYSSEE, ANR-13-ISV7-0004) and Executive Agency for the Financing of High Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI) – Romania (Project ODYSSEE, PN-II-ID-JRP-RO-FR-2012, no. 15/01.01.2014). 1 Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, LECA, F-38000 Grenoble, France.  Corresponding author: Phillipe Choler, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, LECA, F-38000 Grenoble, France, E-mail: philippe[email protected] KEYNOTE ABSTRACT 17 REFERENCES Geremia, R. A., Pușcaș, M., Zinger, L., Bonneville, J. -M., Choler, P. (2016) Contrasting microbial biogeographical patterns between anthropogenic subalpine grasslands and natural alpine grasslands, The New phytologist, 209:1196-1207 Zinger, L., Shahnavaz, B., Baptist, F., Geremia, R. A., Choler, P. (2009) Microbial diversity in alpine tundra soils correlates with snow cover dynamics, Isme Journal, 3:850-859 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 18 === KEYNOTE ABSTRACT === Past responses of Carpathian vegetation to a warmer world and anthropogenic impacts Angelica Feurdean1,2, Long-term ecological (palaeoecological) research provided by various indirect measurements, the so-called proxies, can provide fundamental ecological and biogeographic understanding of ecosystems under a range of environmental conditions and disturbance regimes. ETo illustrate this, I will show examples from long-term research (pollen, plant macrofossil, micro-and macro-charcoal, dung fungi) from forests and open grassy systems of the Carpathians in order to determine biotic responses (range shifts, turnover, biodiversity) during time intervals when the magnitude and rate of climate change were comparable to those predicted to occur in the next century as well as the effect of increasing anthropogenic impact on resilience of these systems. One important outcome is that the mechanisms responsible for these past biotic changes were different in time (i.e., natural processes vs. anthropogenic), but the magnitude of biotic changes can be large in both cases. Finally, I stress the importance of long-term palaeoecological data in understanding contemporary and future biotic responses. 1 Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre BiK-F, 25 Senckenberganlage, D-60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 2 Dept. of Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  Corresponding author: Angelica Feurdean, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre BiK-F, 25 Senckenberganlage, D-60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 19 === KEYNOTE ABSTRACT === Central European and Carpathian phylogeography: evidence for cryptic refugia? Karol Marhold1,2, The origins of phylogeography date back to the pioneering works of Avise and his collaborators, which resulted in their classical 1987 paper, where the term “phylogeography” was used for the first time. The following years saw the publication of a considerable number of papers dealing with the phylogeography of European terrestrial species, both of animals and plants. Their results were later synthesized particularly by Hewitt (1999 and subsequent papers), who proposed three main paradigm patterns of postglacial recolonization of Central and Northern Europe from the three Mediterranean peninsulas (Iberian, Italian and Balkan), each of them representing a single refugium. This was, however, a rather simplistic approach that did not reflect the wide range of evolutionary histories of species composing the European biota. Already in 2007 the “refugia-within-refugia” model was introduced by Gómez and Lunt, reflecting the complex glacial and postglacial histories of species in the Mediterranean peninsular refugia. With the increasing amount of phylogeographic evidence amassed over the last decade or so, the possibility that plant populations survived the Last Glacial Maximum in Central Europe is a matter of ongoing discussion. Theories concerning the survival of some species in so-called “northern refugia” are supported also by plant macrofossil evidence and by snail fossils. However, especially the survival of comparatively thermophilous species in Central Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum is still not commonly accepted and may be considered doubtful (cf. Tzedakis et al., 2013). Nevertheless, for a number of species, the existence of “northern” refugia in Central Europe is the most likely explanation of the discovered phylogeographic patterns. 1 Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-845 23 Bratislava, Slovak Republic. 2 Department of Botany, Charles University, Benátská 2, CZ-128 01 Praha, Czech Republic.  Corresponding author: Karol Marhold, Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre, Bratislava, Slovak Republic; Department of Botany, Charles University, Praha, Czech Republic, E-mail: [email protected] KEYNOTE ABSTRACT 20 Acknowledgements. This study was financially supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV, grant no. APVV-0139-12) and by the Grant Agency VEGA, Bratislava, Slovak Republic (grant no. 2/0133/17). REFERENCES Avise, J. C., Arnold, J., Ball, R. M., Bermingham, E., Lamb, T., Neigel, J. E., Reeb, C. A., Saunders, N. C. (1987) Intraspecific phylogeography: the mitochondrial DNAbridge between population genetics and systematics, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 18:489–522 Hewitt, G. H. (1999) Post-glacial re-colonization of European biota, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 68: 87–112 Gómez, A., Lunt, D. H. (2007) Refugia within refugia: patterns of phylogeographic concordance in the Iberian Peninsula, In: Phylo-geography of southern European refugia, Weiss, S., Ferrand, N. (eds.), Springer, Berlin, pp. 155–188 Tzedakis, P. C., Emerson, B. C., Hewitt, G. M. (2013) Cryptic or mystic? Glacial tree refugia in northern Europe, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 28:696–704 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 21 === KEYNOTE ABSTRACT === The zoogeography of the Carpathians and their links to the adjoining high mountain systems Thomas Schmitt1,2, Although the Carpathians represent the most extended high mountain region of south-eastern Europe, the zoogeography of this area is still relatively poorly studied, especially if focusing on phylogeographic analyses. However, some recent studies reveal the biogeographic structuring within the Carpathians and their links with adjoining mountains systems, i.e. the eastern Alps and the eastern Balkan high mountain systems (Schmitt, 2009). For most of the wide-spread mountain species, several phylogeographic lineages have been detected within the Carpathians, most likely resulting from independent differentiation in geographically isolated glacial refugia in different regions along this mountain chain in many of these cases. One example for two lineages (one in the Tatra region and the other in the eastern and southern Carpathians) is the caddisfly Drusus discolor (Pauls et al., 2006). A relatively similar pattern but with a third lineage endemic to the Apuseni Mountains is known for the stonefly Arcynopteryx dichroa (Theisinger et al., 2012). Even more complicated is the phylogeographic structuring of the tipulid Pedicia occulta with one wide-spread lineage in many regions of Europe and another one restricted to the Romanian Carpathians. While the first shows almost no differentiation all over the Carpathians, the latter has two well defined lineages, one in the southwestern Carpathians and the other in the Apuseni Mountains and regions in the eastern Carpathians (i.e. Rodna) (Ujvárosi et al., 2010). An even more complex phylogeographic pattern is known for the butterfly Erebia medusa, in Romania mostly found in hilly and mountainous areas. This species has several genetic lineages in the southern Carpathians, one in common for the Apuseni Mountains and eastern Carpathians and a completely different lineage in the Tatras (Schmitt et al., 2007, Besold and Schmitt, 2015). 1 Senckenberg German Entomological Institute, D-15374 Müncheberg. 2 Zoology, Biology, Natural Sciences I, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, D-06099 Halle.  Corresponding author: Thomas Schmitt, Senckenberg, Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, Eberswalder Straße 90, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany, E-mail: [email protected] KEYNOTE ABSTRACT 22 Distribution patterns of many species demonstrate a close zoogeographic cohesiveness between the Tatras and the northeastern Alps. This pattern is also supported by phylogeographic analyses. Thus, the jumping spider Pardosa saltuaria has the same genetic linage all over the Alps and Carpathians (Muster and Berendonk, 2006). Also one of the seven genetic lineages of the leave beetle species complex Oreina alpestris/speciosa is wide-spread all over the Carpathians and in the Alps north of their main chain (Triponez et al., 2011). Furthermore, the butterfly Erebia manto shows an identical genetic make-up in the Tatras and the north-eastern Alps, but a different genetic lineage in the southern Carpathians (Schmitt et al., 2014). These examples demonstrate frequent exchanges between Tatras and north-eastern Alps along the Pleistocene for many species. The Danube valley separating the Carpathian and the eastern Balkan region apparently is an important obstacle for dispersal for many mountain species. Nevertheless, occurrences of several mountain butterfly species on either side (e.g. Erebia melas, E. neleus, Coenonympha rhodopensis) demonstrate its permeability (Varga and Schmitt, 2008). Stricing similarities of gential structures of the butterfly Erebia pandrose (Cupedo, 2007) and of allozyme patterns of Erebia euryale (Schmitt and Haubrich, 2008) support late Pleistocene exchanges. Introgression of a Carpathian haplotype of the stonefly Arcynopteryx dichroa into the Balkan phylogroup shows that secondary exchange has taken place recently after a longer periode of separation between both regions for this species (Theissinger et al., 2012). REFERENCES Besold, J., Schmitt, T. (2015) More northern than ever thought: Refugia of the Woodland Ringlet butterfly Erebia medusa (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) in Northern Central Europe, Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 53:67-75 Cupedo, F. (2007) Geographical variation and Pleistocene history of the Erebia pandrose – sthennyo complex (Nymphalidae; Satyrinae), Nota lepidopterologica, 30:329-353 Muster, C., Berendonk, T. U. (2006) Divergence and diversity: lessons from an arcticalpine distribution (Pardosa saltuaria group, Lycosidae), Molecular Ecolology, 15:2921-2933 Pauls, S. U., Lumbsch, H. T., Haase, P. (2006) Phylogeography of the montane cadddisfly Drusus discolor: evidence for multiple refugia and periglacial survival, Molecular Ecology, 15:2153-2169 Schmitt, T. (2009) Biogeographical and evolutionary importance of the European high mountain systems, Frontiers in Zoology, 6:9 Schmitt, T., Haubrich, K. (2008) The genetic structure of the mountain forest butterfly Erebia euryale unravels the late Pleistocene and postglacial history of the mountain coniferous forest biome in Europe, Molecular Ecology, 17:2194–2207 KEYNOTE ABSTRACT 23 Schmitt, T., Habel, J. C., Rödder, D., Louy, D. (2014) Effects of recent and past climatic shifts on the genetic structure of the high mountain Yellow-spotted ringlet butterfly Erebia manto (Lepidoptera, Satyrinae): a conservation problem, Global Change Biology, 20:2045-2061 Schmitt, T., Rákosy, L., Abadjiev, S., Müller, P. (2007) Multiple differentiation centres of a non-Mediterranean butterfly species in south-eastern Europe, Journal of Biogeography, 34:939-950 Theissinger, K., Bálint, M., Feldheim, K. A., Haase, P., Johannesen, J., Laube, I., Pauls, S. U. (2012) Glacial survival and post-glacial recolonization of an arctic–alpine freshwater insect (Arcynopteryx dichroa, Plecoptera, Perlodidae) in Europe, Journal of Biogeography, 40:236-248 Triponez, Y., Buerki, S., Borer, M., Naisbit, R. E., Rahier, M., Alvarez, N. (2011) Discordances between phylogenetic and morphological patterns in alpine leaf beetles attest to an intricate biogeographic history of lineages in postglacial Europe, Molecular Ecology, 20:2442-2463 Ujvárosi, L., Bálint, M., Schmitt, T., Mészáros, N., Ujvárosi, T., Popescu, O. (2010) Divergence and speciation in the Carpathians area: patterns of morphological and genetic diversity of the crane fly Pedicia occulta (Diptera: Pediciidae), Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 29:1075-1088 Varga, Z., Schmitt, T. (2008) Types of oreal and oreotundral disjunction in the western Palearctic, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 93:415-430 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 24 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Endemic rodent species in the Ukrainian Carpathians and their spatial distribution Zoltán Barkaszi1, Mountain systems are characterized by a significant habitat diversity not only in geographic dimension (massifs, ridges, valleys), but also elevational zones, which leads to a high level of biodiversity and a complex set of geographical ranges. The altitudinal zonation in the Ukrainian Carpathians has its own features on both the northern and southern megaslopes related mainly to the ratio of mountain biotopes with their corresponding analogues on adjacent plains. Accordingly, the peculiarities of the region’s fauna and the uniqueness of assemblages are determined by two groups of species: (i) species typical for certain altitudinal zones (or interzonal biotopes as well), and (ii) species distributed exclusively within these zones or only in the Carpathians (endemics, regional endemics). In most cases, these two groups are represented by the same set of species meaning that they should be analysed together. Our study focuses on the order Rodentia as model object, being the largest group of mammals in the region’s fauna. The distribution of rodents is closely related to the type of biotopes and altitudinal zones. Such connection is more evident in endemic species having a strict specialization and limited adaptive capability. In the rodent fauna of the Ukrainian Carpathians, two groups of endemics can be distinguished: (i) actual endemics (species considered endemic for the entire Carpathians), and (ii) regional endemics (species that within Ukraine occur only in the Carpathians). The sole endemic and autochthonous rodent species in the Carpathians is Terricola tatricus (Mitchel-Jones et al., 1999) represented in the Ukrainian Carpathians by a subspecies T. t. zykovi (Zagorodniuk, 1989). Such species as Chionomys nivalis, 1 National Museum of Natural History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Bohdan Khmelnytsky St. 15, 01030 Kyiv, Ukraine.  Corresponding author: Zoltán Barkaszi, National Museum of Natural History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Bohdan Khmelnytsky St. 15, 01030 Kyiv, Ukraine, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 31 The obtained genetic variation in the Western Carpathian samples was not sufficient to consider that these samples represent a specific genetic lineage. Actually, maximum likelihood and neighbour joining trees showed polytomy across whole datasets with only one ancestral accession significantly delineated from the rest comprising few individuals from Turkey and Morocco. This might indicate cryptic speciation. However, to confirm this hypothesis, further investigations and more extensive sampling are required. Acknowledgements. We are indebted to all colleagues for their assistance in obtaining samples for this study. We thank Andrea Pleceníková (Bratislava) for assistance during initial lab work and Jaromír Kučera (Bratislava) for final graphical arrangement of phylogenetic trees. This work was supported by the projects VEGA 2/0032/17 „Unraveling processes responsible for the contemporary geographic range of symbiotic organisms with Mediterranean distribution”, APVV-15-0210 „Distribution potential of different fungal trophic groups in Europe”, bilateral mobility APVV project SK-PT-2015-0027 „Disentangling evolutionary relationships across morphologically and ecologically diverse lichen genus Solenopsora”, and Synthesys project HU-TAF-6340 „How ecologically plastic are symbiotic associations linked to mediterranean-type biotopes in Pannonia and Western Carpathians?: case study on Solenopsora candicans”. STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 32 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Linking vegetation dynamics and stability in the forests of the Eastern Romanian Carpathians Roxana Grindean1,, Ioan Tanțău1 and Angelica Feurdean1,2 The Carpathian Mountains are rich in biodiversity and host Europe's largest continuous temperate forest ecosystems (UNEP, 2007). We used a fossil record (Tăul Muced) from a montane coniferous forest of the Eastern Carpathians to explore patterns of change in vegetation composition, turnover and diversity in response to various forcing factors (e.g., climate, wildfire, species interactions, natural and anthopogenic disturbances) during the Holocene, and to investigate the plant communities associated with periods of high landscape stability. Results from the palynological and numerical analyses reveal three apparent periods in the dynamics of past plant communities: 8700–5500, 5500–1750 and 1750 cal BP – present. Low to moderate compositional changes were recorded during the early to mid Holocene (8700-5500 cal BP) when dense forests of Picea abies-Corylus avellana and mixed oaks (Ulmus, Quercus, Tilia) developed in the region. Evaluation of drivers of these changes leads to the outcome of climate conditions and natural disturbances (e.g., fire) as the main drivers of change at the time. Low compositional change that indicate great landscape stability was noted between 5500 and 1750 cal BP. A high amount of compositional change at 5500 cal BP is concurrent with Carpinus betulus, soon followed by Fagus sylvatica, becoming the main deciduous trees, and a noticeable increase in anthropogenic indicators. These compositional changes are most likely linked to the onset of human influence on the otherwise climate-driven forest ecosystem. The period of highest compositional change is shown between 1750 cal BP and present, but in particular over the last 40 years. Main vegetation characteristics include the declining 1 Babeş-Bolyai University, Department of Geology, 1 Mihail Kogălniceanu Street, 400084 ClujNapoca, Romania. 2 Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.  Corresponding author: Roxana Grindean, Babeş-Bolyai University, Department of Geology, 1 Mihail Kogălniceanu Street, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 33 abundance of primary tree taxa and marked increased abundance and diversity of herbaceous taxa and anthropogenic indicators. These changes become significantly greater through the last four decades with the deforestation of the Picea abies and Abies alba forests. We conclude that the long term forest dynamics in the study area were primarily influenced by climatic conditions, natural disturbance and species interaction. However, human activities imprinted changes on forest dynamics over the last 1750 years with a strong effect in the last decades. Our study reveals that up to a few decades ago these forests were one of the most pristine in the Romanian Carpathians and most likely in Eastern Europe, however, they have undergone accelerating changes due to human impact over recent years. Our study supports recent investigations that we are now losing one the last old-growth forests of Europe at rapid rates. Acknowledgements. We acknowledge financial support from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research (CNCS – UEFISCDI PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-2445). REFERENCES UNEP (2007) Carpathians Environment Outlook, United Nations Environment Programme, Geneva STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 34 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Ecological or historical biogeography of calcareous fens? Differences and similarities between the Western and Eastern Carpathians in the European context Michal Hájek1,, Petra Hájková1,2, Daniel Dítě3, Irina Goia4, Veronika Horsáková1, Michal Horsák1 and Tomáš Peterka1 Calcareous fens represent the habitats mostly fed by springs of bicarbonaterich groundwater, characterised by the occurrence of calcicole brown mosses and small sedges; peat mosses (Sphagnum) occur rarely and belong among so called calciumtolerant species. Calcareous fens are usually quite waterlogged, otherwise they change into broadleaved fen grasslands or poor Sphagnum fens. Despite the ecological homogeneity they display great variability in both plant and snail assemblages, including a number of rare and threatened species such as fen specialists and relics. In the previous studies from the Western Carpathians (presented in the talk on the first Biogeography of the Carpathians meeting in Kraków) we demonstrated an important role of Holocene history on such variability. Here in Cluj-Napoca we confront these results to the pattern observed in the Eastern Carpathians (Romania, Ukraine, marginally also Slovakia and Poland). Again, developmentally young sloping spring fens of the flysch bedrock or mountain summits differed from relict fens located mostly in basins or on more consolidated bedrock, and their variability followed water chemistry, hydrology and hemeroby level (see the poster of Hájková et al.). Relict fens, located mostly in the Harghita county and Rodna Mts., showed quite a complicated variability. All these fens had been classified into a single alliance, the Caricion davallianae, in previous vegetation surveys of Romania. A comparison with all available data on European fen vegetation showed the occurrence of some 1 Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic. 2 Laboratory of Paleoecology, Institute of Botany ASCR, Lidická 25/27, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic. 3Plant Science and Biodiversity Center SAV, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 23, Bratislava, Slovakia. 4 Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, 42 Republicii Street, RO-400015, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  Corresponding author: Michal Hájek, Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic, E-mail: [email protected].cz ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 35 previously unrecognised major vegetation types in few unique sites of the Romanian Eastern Carpathians: boreal brown-moss quaking fens (the Stygio-Caricion limosae alliance), rich fens with calcium-tolerant peat mosses (the Sphagno warnstorfiiTomentypnion alliance) and boreal-continental N-limited fens (with low N:P ratio in plant biomass) of the Saxifrago hirculi-Tomentypnion alliance. The latter type represents a unique case when enhanced phosphorus concentration does not annihilate fen vegetation, and instead determines a specific species composition which is rare but compositionally similar across Eurasia. Romanian occurrences are very isolated and associated with phosphorus-rich volcanic bedrock where high iron concentrations probably maintain ancient fen vegetation. According to the macrofossil records from the Czech and Slovak Republic and according to the ecological theory (increasing N:P ratio during the Iversen cycle), boreal brown-moss quaking fens and borealcontinental N-limited fens may represent relicts from glacial and early postglacial times. During our research in Romanian fens we further enlarged substantially the knowledge about distribution and ecology of rare and relict fen species such as Vertigo geyeri, Hamatocaulis vernicosus and Carex vaginata. Acknowledgements. The research was funded by the Czech Science Foundation (Centre of Excellence Pladias; 1436079G) and institutional supports of Masaryk University and Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 36 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Disentangling historical and ecological processes driving alpine species assemblages through an analysis of Carex curvula phylogenetic community structure across the European Alpine System Bogdan-Iuliu Hurdu1,, Mihai Pușcaș2,3, Sebastien Lavergne4, Cristina Roquet4, Wilfried Thuiller4, Pavel Dan Turtureanu2, Stephane Bec4, Julien Renaud4, Amélie Saillard4 and Philippe Choler4 Past events in Earth’s history, including orogenesis processes and major climatic oscillations, have shaped both the evolution and spatial distribution of plants. In order to better understand these processes and how they contributed to the currently observed diversity across different scales, the most appropriate evolutionary systems to be chosen, besides the island archipelagos, are the mountains (or “sky islands”), characterised by alpine areas with a similar, insular-type, spatial configuration. In Europe, one of the most prominent evolutionary imprints is preserved by the European Alpine System (EAS), which encompasses several major ranges developed along longitude: the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Carpathians and the Northern Balkan Peninsula Mts. Current developments in DNA sequencing and analytical tools allow us to obtain better inferences about the evolutionary relationships between species. Among such developments, the existence of well-resolved phylogenies became a major asset for ecological (Tucker et al., 2017) and biogeographical studies (Laffan et al., 2016), allowing more complex questions to be raised. Through the use of a genus-level phylogeny (Roquet et al., 2013; Thuiller et al., 2014) and different phylogenetic metrics (SES-PD, MPD, MNTD), we hereby aim to explore the main phylogenetic patterns found within the late-successional alpine communities dominated by Carex 1 Institute of Biological Research, Republicii 48, 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2 A. Borza Botanical Garden, Babeș-Bolyai University, Republicii 42, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 3 Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Republicii 44, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 4 Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, LECA, F-38000 Grenoble, France  Corresponding author: Bogdan-Iuliu Hurdu, Institute of Biological Research, Republicii 48, 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 37 curvula, in the spatial context of the EAS. Our aims are to investigate and explain the (1) influence of regional species pool on the phylogenetic diversity within communities (alpha-diversity), (2) relationship between phylogenetic alphaand beta-diversity among communities across the EAS, by applying range-weighted metrics (3) the influence of yearly snow coverage and distance between known glacial refugia and C. curvula communities’ on their phylogenetic diversity, and (4) the role of environmental diversity and environmental filtering in shaping the phylogenetic structure of species assemblages. Previous studies on C. curvula (Pușcaș et al., 2008a) focusing on its phylogeography and genetic diversity have shown contrasting patterns between the Alps and Carpathians, highlighting a recent history of postglacial recolonization in the Alps and Pyrenees and a long-term resilience of the species in the Carpathians and Balkans. Conversely, no relationship was found between community species diversity and genetic diversity of C. curvula across the EAS (Pușcaș et al., 2008b), possibly indicating a range of different assembly processes acting in the alpine system, in direct connection with the available regional species pool. However, these studies did not account for the total amount of evolutionary history encompassed by these communities. Consequently, phylogenetic diversity analyses within and between communities could potentially highlight different signals for C. curvula communities across the EAS than previously found, mainly influenced by range-restriction processes acting at regional scales and promoting phylogenetic endemism and by differential horizontal / vertical migration processes. Finally, this new perspective on C. curvula communities might strengthen previous findings or highlight new aspects of the postglacial history of the alpine siliceous vegetation within the studied geographical range. Acknowledgements. The work was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) – France (Project ODYSSEE, ANR-13ISV7-0004) and the Executive Agency for the Financing of High Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI) – Romania (Project ODYSSEE, PN-IIID-JRPRO-FR2012, no. 15/01.01.2014). We are grateful to Florent Mazel for the valuable advices and help with the analyses. REFERENCES Laffan, S. W., Rosauer, D. F., Di Virgilio, G., Miller, J. T., González-Orozco, C. E., Knerr, N., Thornhill, A. H., Mishler, B. D. (2016) Range-weighted metrics of species and phylogenetic turnover can better resolve biogeographic transition zones, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 7: 580-588 Puşcaş, M., Choler, P., Tribsch, A., Gielly, L., Rioux, D., Gaudeul, M., Taberlet, P. (2008a) Post-glacial history of the dominant alpine sedge Carex curvula in the European Alpine System inferred from nuclear and chloroplast markers, Molecular Ecology, 17: 2417-2429 ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 38 Puşcaş, M., Taberlet, P., Choler, P. (2008b) No positive correlation between species and genetic diversity in European alpine grasslands dominated by Carex curvula, Diversity and Distributions, 14: 852-861 Roquet, C., Thuiller, W., Lavergne, S. (2013) Building megaphylogenies for macroecology: taking up the challenge, Ecography, 36: 13-26 Thuiller, W, Guéguen, M., Georges, D., Bonet, R., Chalmandrier, L., Garraud, L., Renaud, J., Roquet, C., Van Es, J., Zimmermann, N. E., Lavergne, S. (2014) Are different facets of plant diversity well protected against climate and land cover changes? A test study in the French Alps, Ecography, 37: 1254-1266 Tucker, C. M., Cadotte, M. W., Carvalho, S. B., Davies, T. J., Ferrier, S., Fritz, S. A., Grenyer, R., Helmus, M. R., Jin, L. S., Mooers, A. O., Pavoine, S., Purschke, O., Redding, D. W., Rosauer, D. F., Winter, M., Mazel, F. (2017) A guide to phylogenetic metrics for conservation, community ecology and macroecology, Biological Reviews, 92: 698-715 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 39 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Genetic variation in Isophya species from the Isophya pyrenaea complex (Insecta: Orthoptera) in the Carpathians Elena Iulia Iorgu1,, Ionuț Ștefan Iorgu1, Gergely Szövényi2, Kirill Márk Orci3, Ana-Maria Krapal1, Tiberiu Sahlean1, Oana Paula Popa1 and Luis Ovidiu Popa1 Genus Isophyais is one of the most species-rich genera from the European Orthoptera, comprising 97 taxons described so far, commonly known as plump bushcrickets. Based on their morphology, most of these taxa are grouped in several species complexes. One of these is “Isophya pyrenaea” species complex with 14 species, some of them recently described (Warchałowska–Śliwa et al., 2008, Iorgu et al., 2017). All taxa from this group share a series of morphological traits such as: fastigium half as wide as scapus, male elytra narrow, as long as pronotum. The cubital vein forms an obtuse angle with the right margin of the right tegmen. The cerci are slender, incurved in the distal quarter and with an apical denticle. The female ovipositor is usually short and upcurved. Due to these similarities, the best way to identify each species is by analyzing the male species-specific song structure and the female’s acoustic response (Heller et al., 2004). The species from this group have AN Eurasian distribution, mainly in the mountain ranges of the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Carpathians, the Balkans and the Altai Mts. They usually inhabit subalpine mesophytic meadows, dominated by dicotyledonous broadleaf plants. 1“Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History, Şos. Kiseleff no. 1, 011341 Bucharest 2, Romania. 2Department of Systematic Zoology & Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. sétány 1/c, H–1117, Budapest, Hungary. 3 Ecology Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University and Hungarian Natural History, Museum, Pázmány P. sétány 1/c, H–1117, Budapest, Hungary.  Corresponding author: Elena Iulia Iorgu, “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History, Şos. Kiseleff no. 1, 011341 Bucharest 2, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 40 In this study we analyzed the genetic diversity of ten species within the I. pyrenaea group, using two mitochondrial and two nuclear gene fragments: cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI), 16s ribosomal gene (16s) and the internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS 2). A total of 170 specimens were sampled from 71 populations across the Carpathians. The specimens were later recorded, identified by morphology and song pattern and then genetically analyzed. Our results revealed a high level of genetic variability between and within the analyzed taxa. We used different phylogenetic reconstruction methods, with Isophya modesta as outgroup and the resulted trees had similar topologies. Several major clades were revealed within the Carpathian populations, with sympatric lineages. Our data suggest that several species were formed by independent sympatric or parapatric speciation events from isolated populations of Isophya camptoxypha. Acknowledgements. This study was supported by a grant from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number PN– II–RU–TE–2014–4–2093, allotted to Ionuț Ștefan Iorgu. REFERENCES Heller, K. -G., Orci, K. M., Grein, G., Ingrisch, S. (2004) The Isophya species of Central and Western Europe (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea: Phaneropteridae), Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, 147: 237–258 Iorgu, I. Ş., Iorgu E. I., Szövényi, G., Orci, K. M. (2017) A new, morphologically cryptic bush-cricket discovered on the basis of its song in the Carpathian Mountains (Insecta, Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae), ZooKeys, 680: 57-72 Warchałowska–Śliwa, E., Chobanov, D. P., Grzywacz, B., Maryańska–Nadachowska, A. (2008) Taxonomy of the genus Isophya (Orthoptera, Phaneropteridae, Barbitistinae): comparison of karyological and morphological data, Folia biologica (Kraków), 56(3–411): 227–241 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 47 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Phylogeography of Carpathian plants above and below the timberline – case study of two Arabidopsis species with pronounced altitudinal ecotypic variation Filip Kolář1,2,, Gabriela Fuxová1, Adam Knotek1, Eliška Záveská3 and Karol Marhold1,4 The evolutionary history of plant species, as can be inferred from the genetic structure of their populations, is still poorly known for the Carpathian flora. While (comparative) phylogeography has provided important insights into the spatio-temporal evolution of flora and fauna of other European mountains (especially the Alps), we still have fragmentary information from the Carpathians, that is largely based on investigations of plants inhabiting the highest, (sub)alpine habitats. In contrast, we lack information on plants inhabiting the area below the timberline and/or plants with a wider elevation span. In our contribution, we will present new findings from the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of two Arabidopsis species (Brassicaceae), which have a centre of their diversity in the Carpathians, mainly in the lower (below tomberline) mountain ranges, but in several areas they also reach the subalpine positions. By investigating evolutionary history of Arabidopsis arenosa and A. halleri populations by means of multilocus markers (AFLP or SNP) reveals surprising parallels in the evolution of both species. In particular, they confirm the main genetic barrier, already observed in the subalpine species, at the East and West Carpathian borders, but they also point to the repeated evolution of alpine morphotypes from geographically close foothill populations. In the case of A. arenosa, the Carpathians are not only a refugium of rare genetic diversity, but also a source of the populations that recolonized the northern parts of Europe. 1 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic. 2 Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Průhonice, Czech Republic. 3 Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria. 4 Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic.  Corresponding author: Filip Kolář, Department of Botany, Benatska 2, Prague, Faculty of Science, E Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 48 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Hybridization as the pivotal source of variation and taxonomic confusion in Carpathian Centaurea Petr Koutecký1, The genus Centaurea is notorious for hybridization and taxonomic intricacy. Among infrageneric groups present in Central Europe, the section Jacea is most problematic. It comprises about 50 taxa (of a species or subspecies level, based on the taxonomic concept applied) in Europe and the Caucasus, of which about 20 taxa are present in Central Europe. The section is a polyploid complex with two dominant ploidy levels, diploids and tetraploids, and three minority cytotypes (tri-, pentaand hexaploids) that are found within populations of the dominant cytotypes due to occurrence of unreduced gametes and/or hybridization. Previous as well as ongoing studies using crossing experiments and/or sampling natural mixed populations, flow cytometry and molecular methods have shown that the extent of hybridization strongly depends on ploidy levels of hybridizing taxa. Homoploid hybridization (both at the diploid and tetraploid level) is frequent and the hybrids are usually fertile and capable of backcrossing. In contrast, heteroploid hybridization is very rare. Heteroploid hybrids are either triploid or tetraploid. Triploid hybrid seeds arise more frequently that tetraploid hybrid seeds but the triploid hybrids are extremely rarely established in natural populations due to reduced growth and are sterile. In contrast, tetraploid hybrids are vigorous and fertile. Thus, if heteroploid hybrids are found in the wild, they are usually tetraploid. Their fertility may allow unidirectional gene flow from diploids to tetraploids and even formation of triple hybrids with other tetraploid species. Individual taxa of the sect. Jacea has usually small to medium-sized distributions and are often alloor parapatric, except for the widespread tetraploid C. jacea sensu lato. The Carpathians are one of the few “melting pots” where several taxa of the same ploidy level come into contact and may form extensive hybrid zones. 1 Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Czechia.  Corresponding author: Petr Koutecký, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, České Budějovice, CZ-37005, Czechia, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 49 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Phylogeography of common primrose (Primula acaulis Huds.) and the role of the Carpathian Basin in the colonisation of Europe Levente Laczkó1, Polina A. Volkova 2, János Pál Tóth3,7, Judit Bereczki4, Ludwig Triest5, Ivan A. Schanzer6 and Gábor Sramkó1,7, Primula acaulis Huds. (syn. P. vulgaris Hill) has a distribution from the Caucasus to the British Isles and from Norway to North Africa. We investigated the postglacial colonisation routes of this Atlantic-temperate species using a phylogeographical approach on the whole species area by paying a special attention to the Carpathian Basin, where the distribution pattern were previously interpreted based on the hypothesis of ‘pincer migration’, i.e. the postglacial colonisation occurred along a western, the ‘Illiric-Noric’, and an eastern, ‘Dacian’ migration routes (Hendrych, 1996; Varga, 1964). To test this – which implies the existence of refugia on the S European peninsulas – we used a molecular phylogenetic approach as outlined by Volkova et al. (2013). Nuclear ribosomal ITS and plastid IGS (trnL-trnF, rpl32-trnL) were sequenced then riboand haplotype networks were reconstructed. In case of populations located in the Carpathian Basin (“local dataset”), we supplemented the previous dataset with SSR analysis (14 loci specifically designed for this species) and geometric morphometry (Hangle-Fourier morphometric outline analysis). Finally, we assessed migration rates between the main geographic areas. Surprisingly, the Black Sea Coastal region (i.e. SW Caucasus) and the Carpathian Basin shared the same, basal ribotype. Populations located in W Europe and in the Carpathian Basin share the same haplogroup, while the basal haplotype is situated in NE Black Sea Coast. The local dataset did not 1 Department of Botany, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary. 2 Moscow South-West High School, Moscow, Russia. 3 MTA-DE “Lendület” Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Debrecen, Hungary. 4 Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary. 5 Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium. 6 Main Botanical Garden of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. 7 MTA-DE “Lendület” Evolutionary Phylogenomics Research Group, Debrecen, Hungary.  Corresponding author: Gábor Sramkó, MTA-DE “Lendület” Evolutionary Phylogenomics Research Group, 4032 Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1., Hungary, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 50 bring any evidence of the existence of the ‘pincer-migration’ routes in case of P. acaulis, partly because of apparent inbreeding within many populations. The (postglacial?) colonisation did not take place from S Europe. A ‘secondary’ centre of Caucasian ribotypes is in the Carpathian Basin, which corresponds to previous results of Bartha et al. (2015). Our results support that the colonisation of Europe occurred from the Carpathian Basin, while the primary refugium was in the Colchis region of the Caucasus Mts. Acknowledgements. the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund [OTKA PD109686]; Russian Fund for Basic Research [RFBR # 15-29-02486]; the Biodiversity Program of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Ministry of Science and Education, Russian Federation [grant no. 16.51811.7076]. REFERENCES Bartha, L., Sramkó, G., Volkova, P. A., Surina, B., Ivanov, A. L., Banciu, H. L. (2015) Patterns of plastid DNA differentiation in Erythronium (Liliaceae) are consistent with allopatric lineage divergence in Europe across longitude and latitude, Plant Syst. Evol., 301(6):1747-1758 Hendrych, R. (1996) Primula vulgaris in der Slowakei und in den umliegenden Gebieten, Preslia, 68:135-156 Varga, Z. (1964) Magyarország állatföldrajzi beosztása a nagylepkefauna komponensei alapján [Zoogeographical division of Hungary based on the components of the butterfly fauna], Rovartani Közlem., 17:119-167 Volkova, P. A., Schanzer, I. A., Meschersky, I. V. (2013) Colour polymorphism in common primrose (Primula vulgaris Huds.): many colours–many species? Plant Syst. Evol., 299:1075–1087 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 51 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Conservation status of plant species and habitats of community importance on the Romanian Carpathians Simona Mihăilescu1,, Marilena Onete1, Daniela Strat2 and Iuliana Gheorghe3 The conservative status of the plant species and habitat types which occur in the Alpine biogeographic region (ALP) were presented, based on available data that were resulted from the first monitoring of conservative status of the species and habitats of Community interest from Romania. This has been achieved during the 2007-2012 monitoring period as an obligation arising from Article 11 of Habitats Directive (HD) in order to report in 2013. The results were summarized, analysed and reported to the European Commission according to Article 17 of the directive that requires Member States to report every six years the progress made with the implementation of the HD. The ALP overlaps all mountain ranges from the Carpathian range and occurs in 13 EU countries (31.1% of total terrestrial area of EU) extends over 20% of the Romanian territory, which represents 8.6% of EU territory and around 6% of entire surface of ALP at the Europe continent level. According to latest reference list of ALP from Romania are found 21 plant species and 49 habitat types, as following: freshwater habitats (5), temperate heath and scrub habitats (5), grasslands habitats (11), bogs and fens habitats (7), screes and rocky habitats (6), cave habitat (1), and forests habitats (14). From all these habitat types 17 occur only in the ALP as follows: freshwaters (2), temperate heath and scrub habitats (4), grasslands (4), bogs and fens (3), screes (1), forests (3). Another 1 Institute of Biology Bucharest of Romanian Academy, 296, Splaiul Independenței, 060031, Bucharest, Romania. 2 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography, 1, Nicolae Bălcescu Blvd., 010041, Bucharest, Romania. 3 Ecological University of Bucharest, Faculty of Natural Science and Ecology, 1G, Blvd. Vasile Milea, Bucharest, Romania.  Corresponding author: Simona Mihăilescu, Institute of Biology Bucharest, Romanian Academy, 296, Splaiul Independenței, 060031, Bucharest, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 52 24 habitat types occur both in ALP and Continental biogeographical region (CON) from Romania, but several of them are located only in Carpathian System – mountains range and highlands. The assessment of conservative status of all plant species and habitat types was carried out following the methodology agreed by the European Commission and the Member States that is based on separate evaluation of four parameters which define the “Favourable Conservation Status” given in the HD. For the plant species, the results show that the conservative status is “Favourable” for 13 species, “Unfavourable inadequate” for 15 species, “Unfavourable bad” for one species, and “Unknown” for none. For the habitats, the results show that the conservative status is “Favourable” for 35 habitat types, “Unfavourable inadequate” for 10 habitat types, “Unfavourable bad” for 2, and “Unknown” for 2 other. For all seven bogs and fens habitat types the conservative status is unfavourable but is favourable for all 10 grassland habitat types. Regarding habitats that occur only in ALP the conservative status is “Favourable” for 12 habitat types (1 freshwater, 4 heat and scrub, 4 grasslands, 1 rocky habitat, 2 forest habitats), “Unfavourable inadequate” for 3 habitat types (1 freshwater, 1 bog and fen, 1 forest), “Unfavourable bad” for one bog and fen habitat type, and “Unknown” for another bog and fen habitat type. Due to this biogeographical junction and the great heterogeneity of the landscape within its territory, Romania has a great diversity of plant species and natural habitats. A lot of these were included in Natura 2000 European ecological network. Acknowledgements. This paper presents partial results from two projects: POS SMIS 17655 and RO 1567-IBB04/2017. STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 53 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Diversity and distribution of Carpathian subterranean fauna Oana Teodora Moldovan1,, Ionuț Cornel Mirea2, Marius Kenesz1 and Ruxandra Năstase-Bucur1 Eastern Europe is one of the richest regions in the world in subterranean (caves and associated habitats) endemic species. Although considered as one of the main refugial area for several groups of surface fauna during the climate changes of the Pleistocene and the Holocene, the Carpathian Mountains subterranean fauna importance is underestimated especially due to dispersed information on its diversity and the scarcity of molecular studies in the area. Here, we present a first general view of the cave fauna hotspot represented by the Carpathians and the geological and historical processes that shaped the patterns of subterranean distribution and diversity at regional scale. Phylogeography of Coleoptera and environmental parameters are adding to the general view at regional scale and offer additional explanation for this exceptional subterranean diversification in a nonMediterranean region. The Carpathians are an amalgam of various geological units with different paleogeographical evolution that is reflected in completely different species assemblages dominated by unit specific fauna groups. 1 Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 400006. 2 Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology, Bucuresti, Romania, 010987.  Corresponding author: Oana Teodora Moldovan, Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology, ClujNapoca, Romania, 400006, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 54 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === The importance of the Carpathians for understanding of evolutionary processes and biodiversity patterns in the genus Hieracium L. s.str. (Asteraceae) Patrik Mráz1,, Marius Ioan Bărbos2, Liviu Filipaş3, Alexander Belyayev4, Jindřich Chrtek1,4, Viera Mrázová1, Ladislava Paštová4, Jan Pinc1, Pavel Zdvořák1 and Judith Fehrer4 Hieracium L. belongs to the most diverse angiosperm genera in the world due to a large amount of morphological and molecular variation likely caused by massive interspecific hybridization in the past (Zahn 1921-1923, Fehrer et al., 2009). This process has been tightly coupled with polyploidization and shift to apomixis – asexual seed reproduction – which has assured the reproduction and thus persistence of otherwise sterile interspecific hybrids. Sexually reproducing diploid taxa have undoubtedly played a crucial role in creating new apomictic polyploid lineages of hybridogeneous origin. It has been suggested that apomixis is obligate or nearly obligate in polyploid Hieracium taxa. In our talk we will show that based on our exhaustive search of published and unpublished chromosome counts / ploidy level estimations, the overwhelming majority of Hieracium taxa are triand tetraploid, whereas diploidy has been found only in a few species. Except for the widespread H. umbellatum, diploid taxa have restricted distribution and are usually geographically and / or ecologically allopatric. This efficiently prevents, or at least severely limits, current interspecific gene flow. The geographical distribution of diploids is very uneven, being concentrated in the mountain ranges of Central and Southern Europe including the South-Eastern Carpathians. This pattern thus represents a nice example of so-called geographical parthenogenesis – a pattern where sexual diploid taxa occupy more restricted ranges, 1 Department of Botany, Benátská 2, CZ-12801 Praha, Czechia. 2 GTM CO SRL, Calea Manastur 85/99, RO-400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 3 Str. Azurului 6, RO-725700 Vatra Dornei, Romania. 4 Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, CZ-25243 Průhonice, Czechia.  Corresponding author: Patrik Mráz, Department of Botany, Praha, Czechia, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 55 which are shifted towards southern latitudes when compared to more widespread polyploid asexuals occurring also at high latitudes. Specifically, the South-Eastern Carpathians are an important evolutionary center of the genus. In this mountain range, several diploid taxa have evolved or found their refugium during the Pleistocene. This pattern has recently been corroborated by a discovery of a new diploid species for science. Karyological and molecular analyses not only confirmed its species status, but furthermore revealed that this narrow endemic taxon has been involved in the origin of at least one allopolyloid taxon with very peculiar morphology. In addition, in this part of the Carpathians, some co-occurring populations of diploid species can be found where interspecific gene flow is still ongoing (Mráz et al., 2011). Furthermore, we have an evidence for recent natural heteroploid hybridization and presence of apomictic populations which are still able to produce some progeny by sexual pathway. These findings thus stress the importance of the South-Eastern Carpathians for studying evolutionary mechanisms involved in the evolution of the genus Hieracium in particular, and of apomixis in general. Acknowledgements. This study was financially supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR, grants no. 14-02858S and 17-14620S). REFERENCES Fehrer, J., Krak, K., Chrtek, J. (2009) Intra-individual polymorphism in diploid and apomictic polyploid hawkweeds (Hieracium, Lactuceae, Asteraceae): disentangling phylogenetic signal, reticulation, and noise, BMC Evolutionary Biology, 9:239 Mráz, P., Chrtek, J., Fehrer, J. (2011) Interspecific hybridization in the genus Hieracium s.str. – evidence for bidirectional gene flow and spontaneous allopolyploidization, Plant Systematics and Evolution, 293:237–245 Zahn, K. H. (1921–1923) Hieracium, In: Engler A. (ed.), Das Pflanzenreich 75, 76, 77, 80, 82 (IV/280), Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 56 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Evolution of high mountain plant species in the Alps and Carpathians – the “hairy” case of the Doronicum clusii aggregate (Asteraceae) Clemens Pachschwöll1,, Manuela Winkler1,2, Pedro Escobar García1,3, Gerald M. Schneeweiss1 and Peter Schönswetter4 With its high degree of endemism in both animals and plants, the European Alpine system is an excellent region to study speciation modes related to Pleistocene glaciations. A well-suited system to address such questions is the monophyletic Doronicum clusii aggregate (Asteraceae). It comprises four taxa endemic to the Alps and the Carpathians, which are differentiated geographically, ecologically (basiphilous versus silicicolous), by their ploidy levels (diploid versus tetraploid) and can be morphologically distinguished by hair characters. The silicicolous diploid D. clusii is distributed in the western and central Alps and the silicicolous tetraploid D. stiriacum (= D. clusii subsp. villosum) in the eastern central Alps (outside the range of D. clusii) and the eastern and western Carpathians. The basiphilous diploid D. glaciale subsp. glaciale is known from the eastern Alps and D. glaciale subsp. calcareum (= D. calcareum) from the northeastern Alps (Pachschwöll et al., 2015). In order to infer phylogenetic relationships, origin of polyploids and phylogeographic history, three plastid DNA regions (ndhF-rpl32, rpl32-trnL, rps16– trnK) and one nuclear DNA region (ITS) were sequenced, including molecular cloning of ITS. AFLP fingerprinting data were generated from 58 populations. Furthermore, DNA ploidy levels were estimated, and for selected individuals, absolute genome sizes were measured and chromosome numbers counted (Pachschwöll et al., 2015). 1 Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, A-1030 Vienna, Austria. 2 GLORIA co-ordination, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Center for Global Change and Sustainability & Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, Silbergasse 30, A-1190 Vienna, Austria. 3 Department of Botany, Natural History Museum, Burgring 7, A-1010 Vienna, Austria. 4 Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Sternwartestrasse 15, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.  Corresponding author: Clemens Pachschwöll, Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, A-1030 Vienna, Austria, E-mail: clemens.[email protected].at ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 63 exhaustive knowledge over both historical and ecological data encompassed in the database, with the final aim to deliver this information to people interested in endemism, ecology or, more generally, in the Carpathians’ flora and enhance the interdisciplinary character of future biogeographic studies in the region. Further developments would also allow contributors to enter different types of data (e.g., occurrences, traits data or pictures). REFERENCES Kliment, J., Turis, P., Janišová, M. (2016) Taxa of vascular plants endemic to the Carpathian Mts., Preslia, 88:19-76 Hurdu, B. -I., Escalante, T., Pușcaș, M., Novikoff, A., Bartha, L., Zimmermann, N. E. (2016) Exploring the different facets of plant endemism in the South-Eastern Carpathians: a manifold approach for the determination of biotic elements, centres and areas of endemism, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 119:649-672 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 64 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Diversity and distribution of nivicolous myxomycetes (Amoebozoa) in the Carpathians in the larger geographical context Anna Ronikier1, and Paulina Janik1 Myxomycetes (plasmodial slime moulds) are phagotrophic eucaryotic organisms that commonly occur in associations with decaying plant material in terrestrial ecosystems. They belong to the supergroup (kingdom) Amoebozoa (Baldauf et al., 2000) where they form a monophyletic group (Fiore-Donno et al., 2010b) characterized by the highest level of organization within the Amoebozoa. One of most spectacular ecological groups of slime moulds is formed by nivicolous myxomycetes. They occur, often abundantly, at the edge of spring-melting snow in the mountainous areas (Ronikier and Ronikier, 2009). The diversity and taxonomical assessment of nivicolous slime moulds is a recently well developing field and data from various areas become available. The Carpathians are, however, still poorly investigated compared to other main European mountain ranges. At present, there are nearly 80 species of nivicolous myxomycetes described worldwide (Lado, 2005– 2017), while less than 30 species have been reported from the Carpathians so far. This figure however clearly results mainly from the underinvestigation of the area. Some data suggest that the Carpathians may be an important diveristy hotspot for nivicolous myxomycetes. The discovery of a possibly undescribed species closely related to Lamproderma retirugisporum from the Ukrainian Carpathians (Krivomaz et al., 2005) and report of a rare species, Lamproderma argenteobrunneum (Ronikier et al., 2010) may hold as examples. The aims of the presentation are to: (i) summarize available data on diversity and distribution of nivicolous myxomycetes in the Carpathians in the context of the global diveristy of the group, (ii) present recent results of investigation of nivicolus myxomycetes in the Polish part of the Carpathian range (Janik and Ronikier, 2016, unpbl. data). Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the statutory fund of the W. Szafer Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences. 1 W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz46, PL-31-512 Kraków, Poland.  Corresponding author: Anna Ronikier, W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Kraków, Poland, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 65 REFERENCES Baldauf, S. L., Roger, A. J., Wenk-Siefert, I., Doolittle, W. F. (2000) A Kingdom-level phylogeny of eukaryotes based on combined protein data, Science, 290:972-977 Fiore-Donno, A. M., Nikolaev, S. I., Nelson, M., Pawlowski, J., Cavalier-Smith, T., Baldauf, S. L. (2010) Deep phylogeny and evolution of slime moulds (mycetozoa). Protist, 161:55-70 Janik, P., Ronikier, A. 2016. Meriderma species (Myxomycetes) from the Polish Carpathians: a taxonomic revision using SEM-visualized spore ornamentation, Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae, 85:3492 Krivomaz, T., Meyer, M., Michaud, A. (2005) First search for nivicolous myxomycetes in the Ukrainian Carpathians and collection of samples for isolation of dictyostelids and protostelids, In: International Congress on Systematics & Ecology of Myxomycetes ICSEM 5. Abstracts of oral and poster presentations, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Mexico Lado, C. (2005–2017) An on line nomenclatural information system of Eumycetozoa. Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC. Madrid, Spain [accessed May16, 2017] http://www.nomen.eumycetozoa.com Ronikier, A., Lado, C., Meyer, M., Wrigley de Basanta, D. (2010) Two new species of nivicolous Lamproderma (Myxomycetes) from the mountains of Europe and America, Mycologia, 102:718-728 Ronikier, A., Ronikier, M. (2009) How alpine are nivicolous myxomycetes? Worldwide assessment of altitudinal distribution, Mycologia, 101:1-16 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 66 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Evolutionary history of a high-mountain plant Hypochaeris uniflora (Asteraceae): the Carpathians as ancestral area and colonization source of the Alps and the Sudetes Michał Ronikier1,, Ludovic Gielly2, Tomasz Suchan1 and Patrik Mráz3 The Carpathians constitute the main mountain range of Central Europe and one of major elements of the European Alpine System, of high importance for extant biodiversity of Europe and its evolutionary history (Mráz and Ronikier, 2016). Phylogeographical studies focused on this area, intensified in recent years, allowed revealing some general patterns of intraspecific divergence and diversity and main barriers, along with a range of more idiosyncratic patterns (reviewed by Ronikier, 2011, Mráz and Ronikier, 2016). Current efforts should focus, apart from accumulating further data on large-scale patterns, on more detailed testing of barriers and contact zones and on attempts to better understand the spatial and temporal history that led to biogeographical patterns observed today. In this study, we focus on Hypochaeris uniflora as a suitable model that fulfills several important prerequisites: it has a continuous distribution over the Carpathians, a wide altitudinal range, and a significant phylogeographical structure revealed in previous analyses (Mráz et al., 2007); it can also profit from relatively large knowledge on time-calibrated phylogeny of the Cichoriae tribe (Tremetsberger et al., 2013). We aim to further advance our knowledge on biogeographical history of the Carpathian mountain flora and in particular: (i) to attempt identification of the ancestral area of the species and (ii) spatial and temporal dynamics of its intraspecific divergence; (iii) to test the consistency of previously detected main phylogeographical breaks in the Carpathians and (iv) to refine knowledge on phylogeographical transitions between mountains of 1 Molecular Biogeography Group, W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, 31-512 Kraków, Poland. 2 Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR CNRS-UGA-USMB 5553, Université Grenoble Alpes, CS 40700, 38058 Grenoble Cedex 9, France. 3 Herbarium and Department of Botany, Benátská 2, CZ-12801 Praha, Czechia.   Corresponding author: Michał Ronikier, Molecular Biogeography Group, Kraków, Poland, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 67 Central Europe. We based our study on genome-wide AFLP fingerprinting and sequencing of nuclear and plastid DNA loci, applied on a population sampling representing previously detected main phylogeographical groups, complemented by samples from biogeographically important areas not included in the previous study and by samples of several closely related taxa for phylogeny calibration. All three data sets provided largely congruent results although likely reflecting differing temporal perspectives. Our results, especially the nuclear ribosomal DNA variation (ITS data), confirm an earlier hypothesis (Mráz et al., 2007) that the Carpathian populations are more variable and likely represent the ancestral area and source of colonization of other mountain ranges – the Alps and the Sudety Mts. Samples representing the latter range were included within the Western Carpathian phylogeographical group. Preliminary analyses of the sequencing data point at the South-Eastern Carpathians as the likely cradle of the species. Furthermore, ITS data revealed an admixture pattern in the contact zone between two deeply divergent lineages from the Eastern and Southern Carpathians. The main phylogeographical break located at the border between the Eastern and Western Carpathians remains fully supported by data including close populations (Bieszczady Mts. and Volovské Vrchy Mts.), which further demonstrates its biogeographical relevance. Additionally, our data do not support a hypothesis on anthropogenic origin (driven by historical Valachian migrations) of the lower-altitude populations at the eastern edge of the Western Carpathians but rather their natural establishment from nearby high-altitude mountain ranges. Acknowledgements. We acknowledge the support by statutory funds of the W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Botany, Charles University. REFERENCES Mráz, P., Gaudeul, M., Rioux, D., Gielly, L., Choler, P., Taberlet, P., Intrabiodiv Consortium (2007) Genetic structure of Hypochaeris uniflora (Asteraceae) suggests vicariance in the Carpathians and rapid post-glacial colonization of the Alps from an eastern Alpine refugium, J. Biogeogr., 34:2100–2114 Mráz, P., Ronikier, M. (2016) Biogeography of the Carpathians: evolutionary and spatial facets of biodiversity, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 119:528–559 Ronikier, M. (2011) Biogeography of high mountain plants in the Carpathians: an emerging phylogeographical perspective, Taxon, 60:373–389 Tremetsberger, K., Gemeinholzer, B., Zetzsche, H., Blackmore, S., Kilian, N., Talavera, S. (2013) Divergence time estimation in Cichorieae (Asteraceae) using a fossilcalibrated relaxed molecular clock, Org. Divers. Evol., 13:1–13 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 68 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Notes on the evolution and biogeography of Carpathian members of the genus Soldanella (Primulaceae) Marek Slovák1,, Eliška Štubňová1, Andrea Melichárková1, Ovidiu Paun2, Terezie Mandáková3, Iva Hodálová1, Judita Kochjarová4, Milan Valachovič1 and Jaromír Kučera1 Snowbells, the genus Soldanella (Primulaceae), belong to one of the most attractive mountain plants in the European continent. Members of this genus are characterized by an outstanding and complex morphological diversity accompanied by large ecological amplitude. Despite the long-standing interests of botanists in this genus, evolutionary relationships among species, taxonomic status of numerous taxa, and their genetic diversity were left unresolved. We focused here on the bio-ecological diversity of members of the genus Soldanella originated predominantly from the Carpathians and closely adjacent mountain ranges, namely, the Eastern Alps and the Hercynian Massif. We employed a combination of various methodological approaches including karyological, morphological, and genetic analyses. Comprehensive karyological investigations confirmed existence of two cytotypes in studied snowbells, namely dysploid 2n = 38 and euploid 2n = 40, and a minute absolute genome size variation. Obviously, cytotype and AGS diversification did not played important role in evolutionary history and speciation process of the genus. The RADseq technique (restriction site associated sequencing) was used to reveal phylogenetic relationships and genetic diversity of studied snowbells. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that taxa 1 Plant Science and Biodiversity Center, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravska cesta 9, SK-845 23 Bratislava, Slovak Republic. 2 Plant Ecological Genomics group, Department for Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, A-1030 Vienna, Austria. 3 Research Group Plant Cytogenomics, Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, building A26, CZ-62500 Brno, Czech Republic. 4 Department of Phytology, Faculty of Forestry, Technical University Zvolen, Masarykova 24, SK-960 53 Zvolen, Slovak Republic.  Corresponding author: Marek Slovak, Plant Science and Biodiversity Center, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences,Dúbravska cesta 9, SK-845 23 Bratislava, Slovak Republic, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 69 from the Carpathians and adjacent regions are segregated into two discrete, well delimited groups. Soldanella carpatica formed its own cluster unrelated to all other taxa from studied region. The rest of the species were co-clustered with south-eastern Balkan and south Apennine species. Carpathian taxa form several evolutionary lineages with various level of statistical support. Several species appeared to be polyphyletic. Using multivariate morphometric analyses we identified suits of morphological characters out of which at least a part can serve for clear delimitation of species. Preliminary morphometric analyses indicated that some of snowbells species are morphologically evidently distinguishable from other related congeners (e.g. S. carpatica or S. montana). However, there are also taxa with continual variation (e.g., S. major and S. hungarica) and their precise delimitation is more complex. It seems that our data do not support recognition of several, especially newly described taxa of snowbells (S. angusta, S. rugosa, S. montana subsp. gubalowkae, and S. tatricola). Results of our investigation clearly indicate that the real taxonomic identity of at least the Carpathian snowbell taxa needs to be critically revised and a new taxonomic concept needs to be proposed. Acknowledgements. Financial support for this study was provided by the Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences, VEGA 2/0088/15 (to Marek Slovák, Bratislava) and the Millennium Seed Bank Project, KEW United Kingdom (to Dr. Jaromír Kučera). STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 70 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Disentangling drivers of plant endemism and diversification in the Alps – a phylogenetic and spatially explicit approach Jan Smyčka1,, Cristina Roquet1 and Sébastien Lavergne1 The Alps have rich endemic flora and large portion of this endemic diversity is clustered in particular geographic areas. These hotspots of endemism have traditionally been explained in two ways: (i) these areas are “museums” of biodiversity in glacial refugia, and current floristic patterns are linked to survival-recolonisation dynamics during the Quaternary (Tribsch and Schönswetter, 2003), (ii) these areas are “craddles” of biodiversity in high elevations, and endemism is caused by increased speciation rate due to steep environmental gradients and free niches (Roquet et al., 2013), or by specific reproductive and dispersal strategies of high mountain plants (Körner, 2003). Using a spatially explicit model of endemism and “community phylogenetics” dealing with data uncertainty, we show that some areas of high endemism can be explained by presence of Quaternary refugia while others by high elevation. These different types of hotspots of endemism carry different signature in phylogenetic structure of local plant assemblages: Species assemblages of glacial refugia are phylogenetically overdispersed, suggesting that they constitute “museums” of biodiversity conserving pre-glacial flora. Species assemblages in high elevation hotspots are on the other hand phylogenetically clustered, suggesting that they constitute “craddles” of biodiversity shaped by higher speciation rate in high elevation flora combined with ecological filtering for dispersal capacities. To shed more light on processes forming endemism in high elevation hotspots, we related endemism to species altitudinal optimum, ecological and functional characteristics. We also compared diversification dynamics of seven plant groups exhibiting high degree of endemism in European mountains, using phylogenies estimated from genome-skimming data. Our results suggest that some of high 1Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine (LECA), Université Grenoble Alpes & CNRS, 2233 rue de la Piscine, 38000 Grenoble, France.  Corresponding author: Jan Smyčka, Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine (LECA), Université Grenoble Alpes & CNRS, 2233 rue de la Piscine, 38000 Grenoble, France, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 71 elevation lineages indeed speciate faster than their relatives. On the other hand, endemism in high elevation areas is formed by species dispersal characteristics, rather than higher speciation rates, suggesting that endemism-speciation relationship was erased by migration processes acting on shorter timescales. Our results suggest that glacial survival on one hand, and the interplay of migration and speciation in high elevation areas on the other hand, generate similar amount of endemism and strong phylogenetic structures in local plant assemblages in the Alps. This stresses out that future studies of endemism or diversification in temperate mountain ranges should take in account glacial survival, species migration and speciation dynamics alltogether, as these three processes may all have comparable influence on floristic patterns. Interesting step forward would be confronting our results with similar study in the Carpathians, that were much less glaciated than the Alps, but were exposed to severe changes of humidity and temperature during the ice ages. Acknowledgements. The research was funded by the ANR project Origin-Alps (ANR-16574 CE93-0004), the ERC Grant TEEMBIO (no. 281422 575) and Labex OSUG@2020 (ANR10LABX56) project. JS was supported by doctoral funding from French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and Fieldwork funds of the French Ecological Society. REFERENCES Körner, C. (2003) Alpine plant life - Functional plant ecology of high mountain ecosystems. 2nd ed. Springer, Berlin. pp. 274–290 Roquet, C., Boucher, F. C., Thuiller, W., Lavergne, S. (2013) Replicated radiations of the alpine genus Androsace (Primulaceae) driven by range expansion and convergent key innovations, J. Biogeogr., 40:1874–1886 Tribsch, A., Schönswetter, P. (2003) refugia for mountain plants: patterns of endemism and comparative phylogeography confirm palaeo-environmental evidence in the Eastern European Alps, Taxon, 52:477–497 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 72 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Genetic structure of Doronicum austriacum Jacq. (Asteraceae) in the Carpathians and adjacent areas: towards a comparative phylogeographical pattern of tall-herb communities Alina Stachurska-Swakoń1,, Elżbieta Cieślak2, Agnieszka Kaczmarczyk1, Justyna Nowak2 and Michał Ronikier2 Tall-herb communities in the Carpathians are formed by tall perennial plant species that create a distinct element of the mountainous vegetation. They develop in humid habitats with relatively nutrient rich soil from sub-mountain to subalpine zones. As the contemporary flora of the tall-herb communities consists of different geographical elements, there is a question of its formation and changes, especially in the connection to the climatic oscillations throughout the Pleistocene. Our previous phylogeographical studies from this kind of vegetation (Cicerbita alpina, Ranunculus platanifolius) unraveled a roughly consistent pattern pointing at existence of two main genetic groups within the European mountains (Stachurska-Swakoń et al., 2011, 2012, 2013). In the next step of our research heading toward a comparative phylogeography of the European tall-herb communities, we approach Doronicum austriacum (Asteraceae), another key species building tall-herb vegetation. It is a Central-European species with the centre of its distribution in the European mountains. In Poland it has also some localities in the lowland area beyond the Carpathians. Population samples from the Carpathians, Alps, Sudetes, mountains of the Balkan Peninsula and from the Polish lowland were used for a genetic structure analysis using AFLP fingerprinting and DNA sequencing. Results emphasize the significance of the history and biological features on the genetic diversity and differentiation within D. austriacum. They confirm the phylogeographical break between the Western and South-Eastern Carpathians 1 Institute of Botany, Jagiellonian University, Kopernika 27, 31-501 Kraków, Poland. 2 Molecular Biogeography Group, W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, 31-501 Kraków, Poland.  Corresponding author: Alina Stachurska-Swakoń, Institute of Botany, Jagiellonian University, Kopernika 27, 31-501 Kraków, Poland, E-mail: [email protected].pl STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 79 === ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT === Biogeographical limitations of alpine and arctic-alpine species in the Carpathians and Balkans Zoltán Varga1, Less mobile Alpine species (e.g. flightless females) are much more represented in the Carpathians than in the Balkanic high mountains (e.g. genera of the tribe Gnophini: Charissa, Elophos, Glacies). Species of humid subalpine-alpine grasslands are also much more represented in the Carpathians (examples of Erebia). The more mobile Alpine and Arctic-Alpine species (Erebia spp., Noctuidae) are, however, more represented in the highest Balkanic mountains with extended alpine zone. Thus, they may be seriously threatened by climate warming. The southern limit of such species is nearly without exception the Adamovic-line, i.e. the southern limit of the vertical zonation of Alpine type. Some Balkanic oreal species show close connections with parts of the Southern and/or Eastern Carpathians. While the Alpine and ArcticAlpine species were connected also during the glaciations to the higher elevations (see: West-East subspecific differentiation), the Balkanic oreal species were more widely „downslope” distributed during the cold phases. 1 Dept. Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Hungary.  Corresponding author: Zoltan Varga, Dept. Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Hungary, E-mail: [email protected]ideb.hu STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 80 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Validation of the taxonomic status of Onobrychis transsilvanica Simk. (Fabaceae) through genomic SSR fingerprinting Ioan Băcilă1,, Dana Şuteu1 and Gheorghe Coldea1 Onobrychis transsilvanica (syn. Onobrychis montana DC. var. transsilvanica (Simk.) Beck syn. Onobrychis montana DC. subsp. transsilvanica (Simk.) Jáv.) (Fabaceae) is an endemic high-mountain plant, confined to the Southeastern Carpathians. It shares close, yet controversial, taxonomic relationships and a strong morphological resemblance with the alpine allopatric species Onobrychis montana DC. Its unclear taxonomic status derives from the fact that, so far, many authors have considered, based solely on the morphological traits, this taxon to be either a valid species or a subspecies of O. montana. Our previous study (Băcilă et al., 2015) represented the first attempt based on molecular markers to provide both phylogeographic and phylogenetic insights for this Carpathian controversial endemic species. The present study employs seven SSR markers (initially developed for other legume species, but later successfully used for species from Onobrychis genus) to in-depth explore the taxonomic boundaries between the O. transsilvanica and O. montana populations. When compared to the cpDNA and AFLP previously performed analysis, the SSR markers conferred a higher resolution of taxa groupings, adding two more clusters to the previous assorting of O. transsilvanica populations. Another element of novelty resides in the intriguing grouping of O. montana populations from the Western Carpathians together with O. transsilvanica in the Neighbour-joining analysis. Nevertheless, despite those new uncoverings, the results led essentially to the same general conclusions. The taxonomic split between O. transsilvanica and O. montana does not concur with the major break in the genetic structure of the studied populations. Thus, the main differentiation was attributed to the geographical defined groups of 1 Institute of Biological Research Cluj-Napoca, branch of National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Department of Experimental Biology and Biochemistry.  Corresponding author: Ioan Băcilă, 48 Republicii St., Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 81 populations. The SSR genetic data may suggest either recent postglacial speciation with incomplete lineage sorting of ancestral polymorphisms, or a genetic divergence followed by a continuous glacial gene flow that ceased in the postglacial period. Altogether, these data do not support species recognition for O. transsilvanica apart from O. montana. Therefore, and also in agreement with the most recent classifications, we consider appropriate its taxonomic rank as a subspecies of O. montana. Acknowledgements. This work was financially supported by a grant from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNDI–UEFISCDI, project number PN–II–RU– PD–2012–3–0005; 15/26.04.2013. REFERENCES Băcilă, I., Şuteu, D., Coldea, G. (2015) Genetic divergence and phylogeography of the alpine plant taxon Onobrychis transsilvanica (Fabaceae) Simk., Botany, 93: 257266, dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjb-2014-0175 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 82 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Ecological aspects and genetic diversity of Cypripedium calceolus L. populations from Transylvania, Romania Zoltan R. Balázs1,2, Roberta Gargiulo3, Michael F. Fay3 and Dorina Podar1,2, The spectacular orchid Cypripedium calceolus L. once widespread through Eurasia, has suffered important decline with countries where it completely disappeared (Luxembourg) or with only one (UK) or two (Netherlands) populations still present. In Romania, many populations of C. calceolus L., previously described within the Romanian Flora (1972), are no longer found. Recently, a population of C. calceolus near the city of Cluj-Napoca was rediscovered by the authors (Balazs et al., 2016). With the aim of contributing to the conservation of this rare and endangered orchid species, four populations of C. calceolus L. identified within Transylvania, Romania (Sovata – Mureș County and Vălul Miresei, Făget 1 and Făget 2 Cluj county) were investigated under ecological and genetic diversity aspects. Individuals within Făget 1 and 2 populations are spread as group of clumps, whereas within Vălul Miresei and Sovata they are randomized. Molecular diversity was evaluated at eleven microsatellite loci (Minasiewicz and Znaniecka, 2014), final dataset being composed of 76 individuals. The four analysed populations of C. calceolus from Transylvania showed a high level of genetic diversity, both in terms of heterozygosity and allelic diversity, compatibly with all the previous studies on C. calceolus (Brzosko et al., 2002; Fay et al., 2009). Differentiation among populations is not very high, as found in Poland using allozymes (Brzosko et al., 2002) and even on wider geographical scales (Fay et al., 2009). In general, low differentiation might be due to effective gene flow 1Babeş-Bolyai University, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, 1 Kogălniceanu St, Cluj-Napoca, 400084, Romania. 2Babeş-Bolyai University, Centre of Systemic Biology, Biodiversity and Bioresources (3B), 5-7 Clinicilor St., Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 3Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3DS, UK.  Corresponding author: Dorina Podar, 1 Kogălniceanu St, Cluj-Napoca, 400084, Romania, E-mail: [email protected]o POSTER ABSTRACT 83 and/or dispersal among populations, or to persistence of ancestral variation. However, it is worth noting that when heterozygosity is very high, FST is biased downwards. Admixture in Romania is quite high in comparison to other European populations (data not shown), suggesting mixed ancestry, possibly from different post-glacial colonisation routes. In order to infer the dynamics within C. calceolus populations more precisely, it is important to consider demographic factors and the complex ecology of clonal reproduction. Consequently, perspective studies on Romanian populations should be focused on combining genetic data with demographic observations. REFERENCES Balázs, Z. R., Roman, A., Balázs, H. E., Căpraș, D., Podar, D. (2016) Rediscovery of Cypripedium calceolus L. in the vicinity of Cluj-Napoca (Romania) after 80 years, Botanical Contribution, LI: 43-53 Brzosko, E., Ratkiewicz M., Wróblewska, A. (2002) Allozyme differentiation and genetic structure of the lady’s slipper (Cypripedium calceolus) island populations in northeast Poland, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 138: 433-440 Fay, M. F., Bone, R., Cook, P., Kahandawala, I., Greensmith, J., Harris, S., Pedersen, H. Æ., Ingrouille, M. J., Lexer. C. (2009) Genetic diversity in Cypripedium calceolus (Orchidaceae) with a focus on northwestern Europe, as revealed by plastid DNA length polymorphisms, Annals of Botany, 104: 517-525 Flora Republicii Socialiste România (1972) volume XII, Ed. Acad. R.S.R., Bucureşti [in Romanian] Minasiewicz, J., Znaniecka, J. M. (2014) Characterization of 15 novel microsatellite loci for Cypripedium calceolus (Orchidaceae) using MiSeq sequencing, Conservation Genetic Resources, 6: 527-529 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 84 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Comparative plastid phylogeography of two deciduous forest geophytes (Scilla bifolia and Galanthus nivalis): implications to their glacial survival in the Carpathian Basin László Bartha1,, Kunigunda Macalik1, Emerencia Szabó1, Dimitri Zubov2, Filip Jovanović3, Hasan Yildirim4, Bohumil Trávníček5, Horia L. Banciu1, Sırrı Yüzbaşıoğlu6, Levente Laczkó7 and Lujza Keresztes1 We attempted to explore the plastid DNA-based phylogeography of two widespread plant taxa (Scilla bifolia and Galanthus nivalis) in the context of the growing body of evidence for extra Mediterranean glacial refugia of deciduous forest species. One sample was analysed from more than 150 populations of both taxa by sequencing the ndhF-rpl32 and rpl32-trnL noncoding plastid DNA regions. The combined analysis of sequences under a Maximum Likelihood criterion provided moderately resolved but biogeographycally rather meaningful phylogenies. In case of Scilla bifolia the phylogenies recovered the so-called Anatolian, Caucasian, Transylvanian and ’non-Transyilvanian’ lineages whereas in case of Galanthus nivalis the so-called Transylvanian, ’non-Transyilvanian’ and ’northern Italian’ clades could be circumscribed. Geographic distribution of lineages is more clear-cut in Scilla when compared with Galanthus. The Transylvanian Scilla clade is restricted almost exclusively to the northeastern part of the Carpathian Basin whereas the Transylvanian Galanthus clade is present westward of the Alps, in the Balkan Peninsula and also eastward of the Carpathian Basin. Our results highlight the barrier role of the Carpathians that should have been more emphasized during the Quaternary glaciations as well as the importance of the Eastern Carpathian Basin as a ’general’ refugium for deciduous forest species. Acknowledgements. This work was supported by a grant of the Ministry of National Education, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2012-4-0595. 1 Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 2 M.M. Gryshko National Botanic Garden, Kiev, Ukraine. 3 Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia. 4 Faculty of Science, Ege University, Bornova-Izmir, Turkey. 5 Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic. 6 Faculty of Pharmacy, İstanbul University, İstanbul, Turkey. 7 Department of Botany, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.  Corresponding author: Bartha László, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 85 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Towards clarifying the phylogenetic position and taxonomy of Pedicularis baumgartenii Simonk., a rare endemic species of the Southern Carpathians (Romania) Attila Bartók1,, Emerencia Szabó2, Tatiana Eugenia Șesan1 and László Bartha2 Pedicularis L. (louseworts) represents the largest genus of the family Orobanchaceae. It comprises 600-800 species distributed mainly in the alpine, subalpine and arctic habitats of the Northern Hemisphere. Ten species are mentioned as occurring in the South-Eastern Carpathians, with P. baumgartenii being recognized as endemic. P. baumgartenii is a high mountain species and was described by Lajos Simonkai in the late XIXth century (Simonkai, 1886) based on a herbarium specimen collected by Johann C. Baumgarten (1765-1843) in the Retezat Mountains (Mts.). The species was traditionally regarded as endemic of the South-Eastern Carpathians with the following massifs mentioned as places of occurrences: Ceahlău, Postăvaru, Făgăraş, Retezat, Ţarcu Mts. (Sârbu et al., 2013) and Căpăţânii Mts. (Pócs, 1963). Intensive floristic surveys of the past years confirmed the presence of the species in the Căpăţânii and Retezat Mts. and we seriously question its occurrence in the remaining massifs from where floristic data within the past century or any herbarium records are lacking. We have sequenced the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA in two samples of P. baumgartenii originating from the Retezat and Căpățânii Mts., respectively. The newly generated sequences were placed in the publicly available, ITS-based broad phylogenetic context of Tkach et al. (2014). Beyond finding unprecedented evidence for the phylogenetic position of P. baumgartenii, we 1 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Biology, 91-95 Splaiul Independenței Blvd, 050095 București, Romania. 2 Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Bio-Nano Sciences, Babeş-Bolyai University, 42 August T. Laurean Street, 400271 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  Corresponding author: Attila Bartók, University of Bucharest, E-mail: [email protected] ORAL PRESENTATION ABSTRACT 86 also identified a relatively high, eight-nucleotide difference between the two samples analysed, although they were resolved as sister with maximal statistical support in our maximum likelihood phylogeny. The surprising genetic difference between populations of “P. baumgartenii” from the Retezat and Căpățânii Mts. are apparently followed by morphological differences. Ongoing analysis of them will help to ultimately resolve the potential taxonomic differentiation within this species. REFERENCES Pócs, T. (1963) Adatok a Déli-Kárpátok növénytakarójának ismeretéhez, Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis, 1: 229-247 Sârbu, I., Ştefan, N., Oprea, A. (2013) Plante vasculare din România: determinator ilustrat de teren, Ed. VictorBVictor, Bucureşti, pp. 720-722 Simonkai, L. (1886) Erdély flórájának néhány új faja, Természetrajzi füzetek, 10(2-3): 179184 Tkach, N., Ree, R. H., Kuss, P., Röser, M., Hoffmann, M. H. (2014) High mountain origin, phylogenetics, evolution, and niche conservatism of arctic lineages in the hemiparasitic genus Pedicularis (Orobanchaceae), Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 76:7592 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 87 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Patterns of invertebrate diversity in several saline lakes from the Transylvanian Basin Karina Paula Battes1, Mirela Cîmpean1,, Laura Momeu1, Vasile Muntean2, Adrian-Ștefan Andrei2 and Horia Leonard Banciu2 Numerous saline lakes formed by salt dissolution of halite (NaCl) deposits are found in the Transylvanian Basin. These lakes are dispersed inside the Eastern Carpathian arc and clustered in three different groups: (i) in the east: lakes located in Sovata (lakes Ursu, Aluniș, Verde, Roșu, Mierlei); (ii) in the south, in the Ocna Sibiu area; and (iii) in the west: lakes located in Coștiui, Ocna Șugatag, Ocna Dej, Cojocna, Sic, Turda and Ocna Mureș. Their origin can be either natural (“karstosaline”) or as a result of salt mining activities (“anthroposaline”) (Bulgăreanu, 1996). The Transylvanian salt lakes do not exhibit homogeneous morphometric and abiotic characteristics. Even if the majority has small lake areas and great depths (Alexe, 2010), they differ in salinity, from brackish (total dissolved solids - TDS: 0.5 - 30 g L-1) to moderately saline (TDS: 30 - 40 g L-1) and hypersaline waters (TDS > 40 g L-1). Lakes with significant depths develop stable density stratifications with steady vertical gradients of water temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity etc. Overall, most permanently stratified Transylvanian salt lakes are best known for their heliothermal characteristic and for massive deposits of sapropelic mud with therapeutic value. The invertebrate diversity of these salt lakes was poorly studied. Several species characteristic for these habitats were first cited in the taxonomical keys of the Romanian invertebrate fauna (Botnariuc and Orghidan, 1953; Damian-Georgescu, 1963, 1966, 1970; Negrea, 1962, 1983). More recent literature refers to a review on biota of several saline lakes from Romania, including invertebrates (Ionescu et al., 1998) and a list of microcrustaceans from Maramureș (Forró and Kovács, 2008). 1 Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, 5-7 Clinicilor Str., 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 2 Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, 5-7 Clinicilor Str., 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  Corresponding author: Mirela Cîmpean, Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 88 The purpose of the present study was to analyze the invertebrate diversity in pelagic and benthic areas of several salt lakes from the Transylvanian Basin and to depict the patterns of diversity variance between these lakes. The following factors were hypothesized to influence the diversity differences in the lakes: (1) geomorphological factors such as lake surface, depth, origin, bank sinuosity; (2) abiotic factors (physical and chemical gradients, stratification); (3) biotic factors: presence of bank vegetation, total chlorophyll concentration; (4) time: seasonal dynamics and lake age; and (5) human impact: bathing, therapeutic mud exploitation, tourism. Acknowledgments. This work was partially supported by grant CNCS – UEFISCDI, project numbers PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0546 REFERENCES Alexe, M. (2010) Study of salt lakes in the Transylvanian Basin [in Romanian], Cluj University Press, Cluj-Napoca, pp. 241 Botnariuc, N., Orghidan, T. (1953) Crustacea, Phyllopoda, Fauna Republicii Populare Române [in Romanian], IV(2), Ed. Acad. RPR, București, pp. 99 Bulgǎreanu V. A. C. (1996) Protection and management of anthroposaline lakes in Romania, Lakes Reserv. Res. Manag., 2:211-229 Damian-Georgescu, A. (1963) Crustacea, Copepoda, Fam. Cyclopidae (forme de apa dulce), Fauna Republicii Populare Române [in Romanian], IV(6), Ed. Acad. R.P.R., București, pp. 205 Damian-Georgescu, A. (1966) Crustacea, Copepoda, Calanoida (forme de apă dulce), Fauna Republicii Socialiste România [in Romanian], IV(8), Ed. Acad. R.S.R., București, pp. 130 Damian-Georgescu, A. (1970) Crustacea, Copepoda, Harpacticoida (forme de apă dulce), Fauna Republicii Socialiste România [in Romanian], IV(11), Ed. Acad. R.S.R., Bucureşti, pp. 248 Forró L., Kovács, K. (2008) Contributions to the microcrustacean fauna (Crustacea: Cladocera and Copepoda) of Maramureș, Romania, Studia Universitatis “Vasile Goldiş”, Life Sciences Series, 18 suppl.: 171-175 Ionescu, V., Năstăsescu, M., Spiridon, L., Bulgăreanu, V. A. C. (1998) The biota of Romanian saline lakes on rock salt bodies: a review, Int. J. Salt Lake Res., 7: 45-80 Negrea, Ş. (1983) Cladocera, Fauna Republicii Socialiste România [in Romanian], IV(12), Ed. Acad. R.S.R., Bucureşti, pp. 399 Negrea, Ş. (1962) Conspectul faunistic şi chorologic al cladocerilor (Crustacea, Cladocera) din R.P.R., Probleme de biologie [in Romanian], Edit. Acad. Rep. Pop. Române, pp. 403-511 POSTER ABSTRACT 95 populations from the Western and the High (Eastern) Tatras, which could indicate a past isolation in the two areas (presently divided by a gap in the species’ distribution). Apart from this, the main factors influencing genetic variation of Cochlearia tatrae seem to be of biological nature, e.g. hybrid origin, outcrossing, long-lived individuals or overlapping generations. Lack of stronger genetic differentiation may support a relatively recent (neoendemic) origin of Cochlearia tatrae in the Carpathian flora. This additionally goes in line with the results of sequencing analysis, which did not reveal any haplotype diversity within the species and also a very weak differentiation between several Central European Cochlearia species indicating that the whole group of local polyploid taxa is evolutionarily young, likely formed in Pleistocene. Acknowledgements. The study was supported by grant of MSHE No. 3 P04G00724. STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 96 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Floristic analysis for the plant community growing on gypsum from the area of Sfăraș-Jebucu Cristina-Mirela Copaci1,, Paul-Marian Szatmari1, Marin Căprar1, Oana Sicora1, Lia Mladin1, Tünde-Éva Jakó1 and Cosmin Sicora1 The gypsum from Sfăraș-Jebucu area is situated in the south-eastern part of Sălaj County and is considered one of the most important biological hotspots in Transylvania. The floristic richness of this area is due to the calcareous and gypsum substrate. The landscape is mostly natural, archaic and represents a refugium for some Carpathian and Transylvanian endemic species (Thymus comosus Heuff. ex Griseb. & Schenk., Sesleria heufleriana Schur., Jurinea transylvanica (Spreng.) Simonk., Cephalaria radiata Griseb. & Schenk, Onosma pseudoarenaria Schur.) and also for rare species encountered in Romania (Gypsophila collina Steven ex Ser., Daphne cneorum L, Artemisia alba Turra, Salvia nutans L, Plantago argentea Chaix, Echinops ritro subsp. ruthenicus (M.Bieb.) Nyman, Astragalus monspessulanus L., Seseli gracile Waldst. & Kit.). The most representative species for this area is Gypsophylla collina, which, according to Flora Europaea, is present in only a few spots in Romania, Moldavia, and Crimea. In this area, we recorded until this moment 293 species, belonging to 46 plant families according to APG III classification system. A large number of these species belong to six families: Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, Apiaceae, and Rosaceae. The floristic analysis for the xerothermic flora growing in this area revealed some interesting aspects. From the bioforms analysis we found out that the most prevalent species are hemicryptophytes (53.58%), followed by annual (17.40%) and biannual therophytes (8.53%). The predominance of hemicryptophyte species suggest that the studied area is situated in a temperate climate. 1Biological Research Center Jibou, Romania.  Corresponding author: CristinaMirela Copaci, Wesselenyi Miklos Street, No 16, 455200 Jibou, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 97 The geo-element analysis reveals the predominance of Eurasian species (44.48%), followed by European species (12.41%) and Central European species (10%), indicating the Central Europe geographic character of the studied area. Taken together, about 22% of the species encountered here are coming from southern regions and the presence of these geo-element categories highlights the particularity of gypsum rendzina soil which offers a favorable microclimate for these species. The analysis of the ecological indices reveals that 47% of the species are xeromesophyle followed by mesophyle species (24.23%) and xerophyle species (19.11%). According to the temperature preferences, 58.7% of the species are mesotherms suggesting that they are better adapted to low temperature during the cold season. According to the soil pH reaction, the flora in this region has a low-acid neutrophilous character (56.65%). Due to the richness and the peculiarity of the vascular flora encountered on the gypsum sediment from Sfăraș-Jebucu it would be justified to promote its official conservation. STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 98 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Important drivers for lignicolous fungal diversity in beech and oak forests in North-Eastern Romania Ovidiu Copoț1,, Tiberius Balaeș1, Constantin Mardari1, Ciprian Bîrsan1 and Cătălin Tănase1 Lignicolous fungi are critical players in nutrient cycles in temperate forests (Juutilainen et al., 2014; Kűffer et al., 2004; Lonsdale et al., 2008; Zhou and Dai, 2012). In North-Eastern Romania, as well as in temperate Europe (Kűffer et al., 2004), beech and oak forests are one of the most important ecosystems as they support a great fungal diversity. Fungal diversity is a key component of forest total diversity (Blaser et al., 2013; Sefidi and Etemad, 2015). Many researches highlighted different factors that influence the fungal lignicolous diversity, factors that varies from wood characteristics (Bîrsan et al., 2014; Heilmann-Clausen et al., 2005; Junninen and Komonen, 2004; Lassauce et al., 2011; Sefidi and Etemad, 2015; Shi et al., 2014) and climate (Salerni et al., 2002; Shi et al., 2014) to forest management history (Juutilainen et al., 2014; Kűffer et al., 2004; Zhou and Dai, 2012). The purpose of our research was to identify the main drivers of fungal lignicolous diversity. Therefore, we studied the relation between some biotic and abiotic drivers for lignicolous fungi from beech and oak dominated forests in plots of 2000 m2 area. In order to identify the most influential drivers for fungal diversity we used generalized linear models. The most important factors influencing the diversity of lignicolous fungi were related with dominant trees, stumps and wood dimensions. Therefore, in order to keep and enhance the diversity of this trophic fungal group, it is important to apply good silvicultural measurements (Lonsdale et al., 2014), focused on deadwood and old trees management. 1 Botanical Garden Anastasie Fătu, University Alexandru Ioan Cuza from Iași.  Corresponding author: Ovidiu Copoț, str. Dumbrava Roșie, Str. No. 7-9, 700487, Iași, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 99 REFERENCES Bîrsan, C., Tănase, C., Mardari, C., Cojocariu, A. (2014) Diversity and ecological determinants of dead wood fungi in tree natural reserves of broad leaved forests from Suceava county, Journal Plant of Development, 21:153-160 Blaser, S., Prati, D., Senn-Irlet, B., Fischer, M. (2013) Effects of forest management on the diversity of deadwood-inhabiting fungi in Central European forests, Forest Ecology and Management, 304:42-48 Heilmann-Clausen, J., Aude, E., Christensen, M. (2005) Cryptogam communities on decaying decidous wood-does tree species diversity matter? Biodiversity and Conservation, 14:2061-2078 Junninen, K., Komonen, A. (2011). Conservation ecology of boreal polypores: A review, Biological Conservation, 144:11-20 Juutilainen, K., Mönkkönen, M., Kotiranta, H., Halme, P. (2014) The effects of forest management on wood-inhabiting fungi occupying dead wood of different diameter fractions, Forest Ecology and Management, 313:283-291 Kűffer, N., Lovas, P. S., Senn-Irlet, B. (2004) Diversity of wood-inhabiting fungi in natural beech forests in Transcarpathia (Ukraine): a preliminary survey, Mycologia Balcanica, 1:129-134 Lassauce, A., Paillet, Y., Jactel, H., Bouget, C. (2011) Deadwood as a surrogate for forest biodiversity: Meta-analysis of correlations between deadwood volume and species richness of saproxylic organisms. Review, Ecological Indicators, 11:1027-1039 Lonsdale, D., Pautasso, M., Holdenrieder, O. (2008) Wood-decaying fungi in the forest : conservation needs and management options, European Journal of Forest Research, 127(1):1-22 Salerni, E., Laganà, A., Perini, C., Loppi, S., De Domonicus, V. (2002) Effects of temperature and rainfall on fruiting of macrofungi in oak forests of the Mediterranean area, Israeli Journal of Plant Sciences, 50:189-198 Sefidi, K., Etemad, V. (2015) Dead wood characteristics influencing macrofungi species abundance and diversity in Caspian natural beech (Fagus orientalis Lispky) forests, Forest Systems, 24(2):1-9 Shi, L. -L., Mortimer, P. E., Slik, J. W. F., Zou, X. -M., Xu, J., Feng, W. -T., Qiao, L. (2014) Variation in forest soil fungal diversity along a latitudinal gradient, Fungal Diversity, 64:305-315 Zhou, L. -W., Dai, Y. -C. (2012) Recognizing ecological patterns of wood-decaying polypores on gymnosperm and angiosperm trees in northeast China, Fungal Ecology, 5:230235 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 100 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Culturable diversity of heterotrophic bacteria isolated from Transylvanian salt lakes Adorján Cristea1, Andreea Baricz1, Adrian-Ștefan Andrei 1, Vasile Muntean1 and Horia L. Banciu1, More than forty salt lakes with natural or anthropic origin are found at the periphery of the Transylvanian Basin (Central Romania). Despite their extreme salinity, these aquatic ecosystems appear to harbor diverse microbial communities that may drive full biogeochemical cycling of main elements (C, N, P, S). The aim of this research was to explore the diversity of chemoorganoheterotrophic, aerobic bacteria isolated from surface water or sediment of five Transylvanian salt lakes. Water and sediment samples collected from salt lakes located in Ocna Sibiului (Fără Fund, Brâncoveanu) and Turda (Ocnei, Rotund, Tarzan) were used for the bacterial strain isolation. Sampling and strain identification followed the steps described by Baricz et al. (2015) for the analogous archaeal strain isolation. Thirty two bacterial strains belonging to 8 genera (Salicola sp., Salinivibrio sp., Halomonas sp., Chromohalobacter sp., Salimicrobium sp., Halobacillus sp., Staphylococcus sp., Marinococcus sp.) were isolated from the sampled lakes. Highest number of bacterial isolates were retrieved from Fără Fund and Tarzan lakes and assigned to Halomonas sp., whereas Marinococcus spp. – the second most often isolated genus was obtained from Rotund Lake. Overall, the isolated bacterial strains were able to grow at 10% w/v NaCl on organic substrate under aerobic conditions. It was inferred that members of microbial communities dwelling the surface and sediments of the sampled lakes possess heterotrophic metabolism with implication in the aerobic step of biogeochemical C cycling in these saline systems. Acknowledgements. This work was supported by grant CNCS – UEFISCDI, project numbers PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0546. 1 Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, 5-7 Clinicilor str., 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  Corresponding author: Horia L. Banciu, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, 5-7 Clinicilor str., 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 101 REFERENCES Baricz, A., Cristea, A., Muntean, V., Teodosiu, G., Andrei, A. -Ş., Molnár, I., Alexe, M., Rakosy-Tican, E., Banciu, H. L. (2015) Culturable diversity of aerobic halophilic archaea (Fam. Halobacteriaceae) from hypersaline, meromictic Transylvanian lakes, Extremophile, 19:525-537 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 102 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Cultivation of einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum L. ssp. monococcum) in the Carpathian Basin Edina Csákvári1,, Boglárka Vásárhelyi1 and Ferenc Gyulai2 We examine history and spread, current use, breeding and cultivation of einkorn wheat (Tirticum monococcum L. subsp. monococcum), furthermore we would like to compare nutritional values of traditional and modern varieties of grain as well. The experiments have been taken in microparcels, in NagygombosHungary. On the experimental area were sown 4 types of einkorn, 3 types of winter wheat, 1 type of spelt and 2 types of emmer. For measurement of nutritional values was used Mininfra-ScanT NIT Analyzer spectrometer in Szent István Univesity, Gödöllő. Triticum monococcum species is subdivided into a wild (ssp. aegilopoides) and cultivated (spp. monococcum) subspecies (Hanelt, 2001). The demographic expansion has started with the warming, followed the last ice age about 13000 BP. The Old World agriculture was probably born in the Fertile Crescent between 12000 and 9500 BP because the natural resources were rare as a result of climate change and demographic pressure (Charmet, 2011). According to grain remains, T. monococcum subsp. monococcum was domesticated approx. from 10600 to 9900 BP during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A or B periods in South-East Turkey – Karcadag Montains (Salamini et al., 2002). Einkorn spread from Middle-East to Caucasus, Balkans, Central and Mediteranean Europe, North-Africa and finally to Western and Northern Europe throughout the Middle Ages until the early part of the 20th century. In Romania, historical sources document significant einkorn cultivation during the 15th century (Péntek and Szabó, 1981). As a consequences of replacement by free-threshing wheat einkorn was completely disappeared in the Carpathian Basin during the 17th century except for mountainous and isolated regions in Transylvania where its cultivation was maintained until the 20th century (Szabó, 1976). 1 Szent István University, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Environmental Doctoral School, Gödöllő. 2 Szent István University, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Gödöllő.  Corresponding author: Edina Csákvári, Szent István University, Environmental Doctoral School, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 103 Nowadays the re-introduction of its cultivation has been promoted by organic farming among due to its high adaptation to low-input agriculture. Although it has a lower yield, but thanks to rusticity and adaptation to harsh climate can survive on poor, dry, marginal soils where other varieties of modern wheat can not. The species has a good tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress factors, being resistant to diseases and pests (Zaharieva and Monneveux, 2014). It was re-discovered as a healthy food because its nutritional benefits. The wild ancestor and landraces are valuable potential reservoir sources of genetic diversity, being useful for modern breeding methods. In Hungary, thanks to breeding programs, several cultivars (‘Mv Alkor’ and ‘Mv Menket’) have been developed by the Agricultural Research Institute in Martonvásár. We need to preserve the reservoir of wild species and landraces by gene banks and by in situ conservation as well as by recultivating the historical local varieties. REFERENCES Charmet, G. (2011) Wheat domestication: Lessons for the future, Comptes Rendus Biologies, 334 (2011): 212 – 220 Hanelt, P. (2001) Mansfeld’s Encyclopedia of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops. Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Springer Science+Business Media, pp. 3641 Péntek, J., Szabó, T. A. (1981) Az alakor (Triticum monococcum) Erdélyben, Ethnographia XCII 2 – 3: 259 – 277 Salamini, F., Ozkan, H., Brandolini, A., Schafer-Pregl, R., Martin, W. (2002) Genetics and geography of wild cereals domestication in the near east, Nature Reviews/Genetics, Volume 3, pp. 429 – 441 Szabó, T. A. (1976) On the borderline of natural science and ethnology, Kriterion Verlag, Bucuresti, pp. 36 – 40 Zaharieva, M., Monneveux, P. (2014) Cultivated einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum L. subsp. monococcum): the long life of a founder crop of agriculture, Genetic Resource and Crop Evolution, 61(3): 677–706 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 104 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Fire regime dynamics in south-eastern European grasslands (Romania) Andrei D. Diaconu1, Roxana Grindean1, Ioan Tanțău1 and Angelica Feurdean1,2,  Fire drives significant changes in ecosystems structure, diversity and functions. While disturbances by fire are widely acknowledge to benefit tropical and North America temperate grasslands and dry woodlands, the effect of fire on temperate European grasslands and tree-grass dynamic is poorly understood. Prescribed burning has been proposed as a tool to manage European grasslands that are in markedly decline due to the afforestation of abandoned farmlands. However, little is known about the past fire regime, as this is limited to a few decades of observational studies derived from remote sensing. Moreover, in place with long human history, humans have greatly impacted global land cover through biomass burning and deforestation, contributing considerably to the grassland extension. To better understand the effect of fire on temperate European open grassy systems and land cover changes we performed macrocharcoal (counts and morphologies) and pollen analysis on a-10 meter long core profile extracted in Lake Oltina, the southeast Romania, and present the first record of Holocene variability in fire regime, fuel sources and fire types in grasslands from south-eastern Europe. We also aim to determine which grassland / vegetation types in this region are more resilient to fire and how traits relate to fire resistance and regeneration affect species persistence. Our study aims to advance the knowledge of ecosystems behavior to fire dynamics in south-eastern Europe, a poorly studied region. 1 Department of Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, 1 M. Kogâlniceanu str. Cluj-Napoca 40084, Romania. 2Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre BiK-F, 25 Senckenberganlage, D-60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.  Corresponding author: Angelica Feurdean, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre BiK-F, 25 Senckenberganlage, D-60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 111 === POSTER ABSTRACT === The effects of Holocene land use on habitat diversity and slope erosion in the subalpine landscapes of Northern Carpathians, Romania Gabriela Florescu1,2,, Simon M. Hutchinson3 and Angelica Feurdean2,4 Land use in the subalpine areas, particularly grazing and fire, influences vegetation structure and composition parallel to the climate. Designated as biologically outstanding ecosystems in the Global 200 Initiative for their species endemism and habitat diversity, the Carpathian Mountains are among the terrestrial ecoregions most critically endangered by the impacts of human activities and climate change (KEO, 2007). Such threats are likely to result in a dramatic loss of biodiversity and habitat change, particularly affecting the highly diverse, endemic species rich subalpine pastures (Pauli et al., 2012). Here we employ a high resolution, multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental reconstruction (pollen, dung fungal spores, micro and macro-charcoal, sediment mineral magnetic properties and geochemistry) in two mid to late Holocene sedimentary sequences located in the present subalpine belt in the Rodna and Maramureș Mts, Northern Carpathians (Romania). We aim to: i) determine what aspects of human activity (e.g. burning, clearing, grazing) have shaped these subalpine landscapes; and ii) use this information to facilitate their environmental management and optimize ecosystem restoration strategies. Results show that throughout the last 6000 years the current subalpine belt was subjected to anthropogenically - induced change, characterised by: i) enhanced catchment erosion induced by natural and anthropogenic fire between 5000 and 3000 cal yr BP, and over the last 1000 years; ii) increases in landscape openness after ca. 3000 cal yr BP, and particularly over the last millennium; iii) decrease in pollen richness/diversity during intervals with maximum grazing pressure and/or moderate to 1 Department of Geography, Stefan cel Mare University, 13 Universității str., Suceava, Romania. 2 Department of Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, 1 M. Kogâlniceanu str. Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 3 School of Environment & Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, Greater Manchester, UK. 4 Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre BiK-F, 25 Senckenberganlage, D-60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.  Corresponding author: Gabriela Florescu, Stefan cel Mare University, Suceava, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 112 high biomass burning. Our results also suggest that low-intensity land-use practices (fire, grazing) on mountain pastures appear to be beneficial for subalpine grasslands resulting in the formation of rich mountain communities. Fire activity was further identified as a key driver of vegetation change at high elevations, mainly due to its use as a tool to enlarge and maintain subalpine grassland areas used for grazing. Our reconstruction offers a greater understanding of the legacy of traditional land use management for vegetation and habitat change to improve our predictive capacity of future environmental changes in the subalpine and alpine areas of the Carpathian Mountains. Based on our findings, we argue that an effective strategy to maintain grassland openness and likely diversity in the subalpine areas of the Northern Carpathians is to promote low intensity grazing and burning. REFERENCES KEO (2007) Carpathians Environment Outlook. United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Early Warning and Assessment http://www.unep.org/geo/pdfs/KEO2007_final_FULL_72dpi.pdf Pauli, H., Gottfried, M., Dullinger, S., Abdaladze, O., Akhalkatsi, M., Alonso, J. L. B. et al. (2012) Recent plant diversity changes on Europe’s mountain summits, Science, 336 (6079): 353-355 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 113 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Subalpine species Oreojuncus trifidus (L.) Záveská Drábková & Kirschner in the Ukrainian Carpathians Oksana Futorna1,2 and Igor Olshanskyi1, The genus Oreojuncus was described not long ago (Záveská Drábková and Kirschner, 2013). This genus includes two species: Oreojuncus trifidus (L.) Záveská Drábková & Kirschner (= Juncus trifidus L.) and Oreojuncus monanthos (Jacq.) Záveská Drábková & Kirschner (= Juncus monanthos Jacq.). The first of them grows in Europe, Western Siberia and eastern part of North America. In the Carpathians only Oreojuncus trifidus is widespread. Oreojuncus monanthos grows in Central Europe (Alps, the Balkans and the Apennines). In Ukrainian Carpathians Oreojuncus trifidus occurs in the subalpine zone of both Chornohora and Maramureș (Hutsulski Alpy). At the same time, researchers pay a significant attention to features of the micromorphology of leaf and stem as a diagnostic criterion for distinguishing between taxons, identifying ecological characteristics of species. For the first time the anatomy structure of the leaf and stem of species of Oreojuncus trifidus in the flora of Ukrainian Carpathians was studied. Herbarium material collected during expeditions, samples from herbaria of the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany (KW) were used for the research. We have identified common features of leaf and stem for the studied species (types leaves, stomata paracitic regularly located, upper and lower epidermis of leaves and stems have well-developed cuticle, a common type of relief, single-cell papillae that are formed by outer periclinal walls are present on adaxial epidermis etc.). Thus, the anatomical structure of the stem is characterized by the well-developed 1 O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden, “Institute of Biology and Medicine” of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 01032, Ukraine, Kyiv, Symon Petlura St., Ukraine. 2M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Department of Systematics and Floristics of Vascular Plants, Tereschenkivska Str., 2, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine.  Corresponding author: Oksana Futorna, O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden, “Institute of Biology and Medicine” of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 01032, Ukraine, Kyiv, Symon Petlura St., Ukraine, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 114 core, chlorenchyma and thick-walled epidermal cells. Following anatomical features of leaf are of considerable interest: unimmersed stomata, compact arrangement of mesophyll cells, small cells of all tissues. REFERENCES Záveská Drábková L., Kirschner J. (2013) Oreojuncus, a new genus in the Juncaceae, Preslia, 85: 483–503 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 115 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Eastern Carpathians – a host for the red listed bryophytes Irina Goia1, and Alexandra Șuteu2 Romanian red list of bryophytes comprises 374 species: 2 hornworts, 71 liverworts and 301 mosses (Stefanuț and Goia, 2012). A large part of these species (87.70%) are occuring in the Carpathians: 128 species are Critical Endangered, 104 species are Endangered and 96 species are Vulnerable. Liverworts and hornworts represent 21% of the Carpathian red listed bryophytes and 79% are represented by mosses. We expected a higher number of red listed species in the southern Carpathians, due to higher elevation and variety of microclimatic condition, but they host 59.15% of the red listed bryophytes. A higher value (63.41%) was found in the Eastern Romanian Carpathians. Apuseni Mountains host 33.54% of the red listed bryophytes, almost half comparing with eastern part of this mountain chain. This finding can be explained by their lower elevation, the lack of the alpine belt and the presece of small islands of subalpine vegetation only on two summits (Biharia and Vlădeasa Peak). Southern Carpathians host 78.26% of the hepatics. As expected, most of the species prefer habitats with a low human impact (74.69% ahemerobous, 80.31% oligohemerobous). This dependence of undisturbed habitats is higher for hepatics (82.61% ahemerobous, 86.96% oligohemerobous) than for mosses (73.68% ahemerobous, 79.75% oligohemerobous), perhaps as a consequence of their higher sensitivity. A percentage of 33.3% of the Romanian red listed hepatics and 28.57% of the red listed mosses are distributed in alpine and subalpine area, and cca. 4% of them are dependent of snow beds. Most of the red list species are recorded from the saxicolous substrate, followed by the terricolous species. Short lasting substrates (decaying wood, dung, dead bodies), usually display a lower species richness, with few stenotopic species. 1 Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, 42 Republicii Street, RO-400015, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 2”Alexandru Borza" Botanical Garden, Babeș-Bolyai University, 42 Republicii Street, RO-400015, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  Corresponding author: Irina Goia, Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, 42 Republicii Street, RO-400015, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 116 The species number is dynamic since new species are recorded for Romania every year and many areas are still white spots for the bryological inventories. On the other hand, the climate changes will impact alpine species, especially those dependent of late snow-beds, by decreasing the area of their suitable habitats. The monitoring of such habitats should bring new information about the bryophyte species strategies and will allow development of species - climate models as a tool for their conservation. REFERENCES Ştefănuţ, S., Goia, I. (2012) Checklist and Red List of Bryophytes of Romania, Nova Hedwigia, 95 (1-2):54-104 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 117 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Impact of climate change on the biodiversity of rare and protected vascular plants occurring in the high mountain areas of the Ukrainian Carpathians Liudmyla Gynda1,, Volodymyr Bilonoha1, Rostyslava Dmytrakh1, Volodymyr Kyyak1 and Vitalij Shtupun1 Biodiversity protection is an issue of particular relevance in the Ukrainian Carpathians (UC), where the high mountain areas have a limited extent. During the years 2003-2016 the average daily temperature rose about 1,3 °C in the high mountain area of the UC. According to the altitudinal temperature coefficient (0.5-0.8°C per 100m) summer isotherms moved upward for approximately 200 m. As a direct effect, the air temperature increased, reducing the depth and duration of snow cover, increasing the length of the growing season and reducing precipitation during the year as well as the growing season. All these effects provide evidence of the climate change influence in the high-mountain areas of the UC. As climate warming causes accelerated vegetation zones shifts, the treeline and the limits of subalpine and alpine communities move upward. Consequently, low-competitive rare plant species are displaced by trees, shrubs and high-competitive common herbaceous species at the subalpine and the lower limit of alpine zones. We found that in the high-mountain areas of the UC the trees, shrubs and dwarf shrubs significantly increased their covered area, numbers and population density. Among the investigated species were the following: Picea abies, Pinus mugo, Alnus viridis, Juniperus sibirica, Rhododendron myrtifolium and several Vaccinium species. Under the influence of climate change, populations of many rare and endemic Red List plants are threatened degradation and extinction: Aconitum jaquinii, Astragalus krajinae, Dichodon cerastoides, Erigeron alpinus, E. atticus, Festuca porcii, Gentiana laciniata, Leontopodium alpinum, Minuartia pauciflora, Primula halleri, Saxifraga 1 Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians NAS of Ukraine, Kozelnytska 4, 79026 L’viv, Ukraine.  Corresponding author: Liudmyla Gynda, Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians NAS of Ukraine, Kozelnytska 4, 79026 L’viv, Ukraine, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 118 androsacea, S. carpatica, Saussurea alpina, Ptarmica lingulata, P. tenuifolia and others. In addition, negative population dynamics were recorded for petrophytes, heliophytes, hygrophilous and chionophilous species. A high variety of rare and endemic herbaceous species in the subalpine zone occurs in rocky habitats and on abrupt slopes. These habitats were recently overgrown by shrub vegetation between 1400-1800 m asl in all high mountain ranges of the UC. In addition, in meadow openings, an increase of plant density and swarding of highcompetitive common herbaceous species was observed. Moreover, a significant increase in shrub projective cover in the subalpine and lower alpine zones may have led to a massive reduction of populations of rare meadow species: Anemone narcissiflora, Gentiana acaulis, G. punctata, Pulsatilla alba. Similarly, there was a decrease in population density and covered area of several endemic species: Heracleum carpaticum, Dactylis glomerata subsp. slovenica, Festuca carpatica, F. рorcii. Coverage increase and altitude shift of Alnus viridis (green alder) presumably led to fragmentation of D. glomerata subsp. slovenica populations and isolation among groups of individuals. Conversely, Pulmonaria filarszkyana populations in the green alder community were putatively facilitated by this process, increasing their density and occupied area. When vegetation recovers and competition between species increases, Galium album subsp. suberectum, an endemic of the Eastern Carpathians, occurred only in the most suitable habitats, while the number of populations decreased. Another endemic, Galium pawlowskii, is found in the Chyvchyny Mts. at the margin of its range, thus being more sensitive and vulnerable to rapid changes. Since the years 1995–1997 grazing in the subalpine meadows of the Chyvchyny Mts. was stopped and as a result of restoration of natural vegetation this species population regained their initial coverage and density. Due to climate changes and vegetation dynamics, the amount of suitable habitats for many rare and endemic species in the high mountain areas of the UC is expected to gradually decrease as a result of grass displacement, tall forbs overgrowth and treeline upshift. STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 119 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Chloroplast trnL-F region reveals several diversity hot spots for the arctic-alpine Rhodiola rosea Zsuzsanna György1,, Norbert Incze1,2, Endre G. Tóth3 and Mária Höhn3 Our study describes genetic lineages and historical biogeography of Rhodiola rosea, a widely distributed arctic-alpine perennial species of the Northern Hemisphere based on sequence analysis of the chloroplast trnL-F region, which is frequently used in phylogeography (Taberlet et al., 1991). Specimens of 44 localities from the Northern Hemisphere including the Alps, the Carpathians, the Pyrenees, Scandinavia, the British Isles, Central-and Eastern-Asia, have been sequenced and compared with those available in the Genebank. Altogether five indels were identified at 4 sites of the trnL-F region. Indels of 23 and 19 bp detected in this study were already known from this region (Cuerrier et al., 2015). Furthermore an indel of 12 bp was found close to the 3’ end, which is a duplication and an insertion of 67 bp was detected alone or duplicated at the 5’ end of this region. Our results support the migration of the species into Europe via the Central Asian highland corridor, reaching the European Alpine System (EAS) and also the western European edge, the British Isles. The EAS proved to be an important diversification centre of high genetic variation, specially the region of the Eastern Carpathians, the Eastern Alps and the Dolomites where glacial refugia might have had existed. Apart from those of the EAS, a common lineage was detected along the Atlantic coast from the British Isles towards Scandinavia as well as Iceland and the eastern parts of North America. Accordingly, the British Isles represent a main link between the northern Atlantic and southern EAS lineages. 1 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Szent István University, 29-43 Villányi út, Budapest, 1118, Hungary. 2 Applied Genomics Department, Agricultural Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2 Brunszvik u. Martonvásár, 2462, Hungary. 3 Department of Botany, Szent István University, 29-43 Villányi út, Budapest, 1118, Hungary.  Corresponding author: Zsuzsanna György, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Szent István University, 29-43 Villányi út, Budapest, 1118, Hungary, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 120 Acknowledgements. Z. György is grateful for the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The following people are acknowledged for their assistance in collecting the plant material: Dr. Andreas Pleschenk, Dr. José Vouillamoz, Dr. Iban Eduardo, Dr. Ádám Gutermuth, Dr. Bertalan Lendvay, Dr. Tibor Baranyec, Bertalan Galambosi, Dr. Paul Erik Aspholm, Erling Fjelldal, Dmitry Bacharov. REFERENCES Cuerrier, A., Archambault, M., Rapinski, M., Bruneau, A. (2015) Taxonomy of Rhodiola rosea L., with special attention to molecular analyses of Nunavik (Québec) populations, In: Cuerrier, A., Ampong-Nyarko, K. (eds) Rhodiola rosea, CRC Press Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, pp. 1-33 Taberlet, P., Gielly, L., Pautou, G., Bouvet, J. (1991) Universal Primers For Amplification Of 3 Noncoding Regions Of Chloroplast DNA, Plant Molecular Biology, 17: 11051109 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 127 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Centipede species diversity and distribution in the Romanian Carpathians – state of knowledge Mihaela Constanta Ion1,2,, Cristian-Mihai Munteanu3 and Dumitru Murariu1 The first record of a centipede species (Clinopodes flavidus) from the Romanian Carpathians was mentioned in the Banat Mountains, in the 19th century. However, records number rose to the highest only after the middle of the 20th century, when a few Romanian zoologists started to study this group of invertebrates in this area. In order to understand the factors influencing centipedes’ occurrence and dispersal, gathering knowledge on their presence, distribution and taxonomic status is of first importance. National georeferenced database, summing up previous literature and own records, indicates that the centipede fauna of the Romanian Carpathians comprises 99 species, representing roughly 83% of the species in Romania, and more than 70% of all entries. Out of these, 29 species are reported only in the mountain area of the country, but just 11 species are strictly endemic. Our study revealed that the species richness is significantly higher in the Southern Carpathians (70 species) and in Banat (58 sp.). The distribution of endemics among different areas seems to be also uneven. Areas with high endemic species richness are located in the Retezat-Godeanu Mountains group and in the Anina Mountains, but these findings could be biased by the historical sampling effort. While some of the most frequent endemics are restricted to the Southern Carpathians (Lithobius decapolitus, with 80 localities), others have extended distribution also to the Apuseni Mountains (Harpolithobius banaticus), or even to the whole South-Eastern Carpathian range in Romania (Clinopodes rodnaensis). Acknowledgements. This study was partially funded by project no. RO1567-IBB04/2017. 1 Institute of Biology Bucharest of Romanian Academy, 296 Splaiul Independenței, 060031 Bucharest, P.O. Box 56-53, Romania. 2 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Biology, 91-95 Splaiul Independenței, Bucharest, R-050095, Romania. 3 “Emil Racoviță” Institute of Speleology of Romanian Academy, 13 13 Septembrie Road, Sector 5, 050711 Bucharest, Romania.  Corresponding author: Mihaela Constanta Ion, Institute of Biology Bucharest of Romanian Academy, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 128 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Combining resource selection functions, home range data, and systematic conservation planning to identify conservation priorities for brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Carpathians Ruben Iosif 1,, Mihai I. Pop1,2, Iulia V. Miu1, Laurentiu Rozylowicz1 and Viorel D. Popescu1,3 The recovery of large carnivores in the human-dominated landscapes of Europe has sparked a debate regarding the optimal landscape conditions in which carnivores can thrive and coexist with humans, with conservation planning as a key component for broad scale management of large carnivore populations. Here, we use brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Romanian Carpathians as a test case to develop a framework for identifying habitat conservation priorities based on a novel integration of resource selection functions, home range data, and systematic conservation planning. We used a comprehensive GPS telemetry dataset from 18 individuals in the Eastern Carpathians to (1) calculate seasonal home ranges using Brownian Bridge Movement Models, and (2) characterize seasonal population-level habitat selection using Manly’s selection ratios. We then used the systematic conservation planning software Zonation to identify habitat conservation priorities combining Manly’s selection ratios as weights for their respective habitat layers, and seasonal home range information as a smoothing parameter for habitat connectivity, and identified contiguous areas of high conservation value. Seasonal home ranges were smallest during winter (NovemberFebruary: 18.5 ± 4.6 km2), and largest during the Intense-feeding season (SeptemberNovember: 102.5 ± 28.4 km2). Bears selected for mixed forest during winter and intense-feeding seasons, and for transitional woods and shrubs during Low-feeding / reproduction and Wild berries seasons. We identified large tracts of relatively undisturbed habitat selected across seasons as key habitats for brown bear conservation 1 Centre for Environmental Research (CCMESI), University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania. 2 Asociatia pentru Conservarea Diversitatii Biologice (ACDB), Focsani, Romania. 3 Department of Biological Sciences and Sustainability Studies Theme, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.  Corresponding author: Ruben Iosif, Centre for Environmental Research (CCMESI), University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 129 in the Carpathians (~15% of the landscape). Spatially, high-value winter habitat was the most dissimilar, suggesting that conservation actions should focus on protecting contiguous denning habitat. We developed a framework that integrates basic knowledge on habitat selection and movement ecology with systematic conservation planning to identify biologically meaningful spatial conservation priorities. Our novel approach can be readily applied in any management system, including those particularly characterised by low resource allocation for wildlife research. Lastly, our findings can enable transboundary management of the Carpathian brown bear population, and contribute to maintaining Favourable Conservation Status, an important target of European Union Strategy for Biodiversity. STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 130 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Comparison of microfungal diversity on the Salix herbacea and Juncus trifidus in the isolated localities of the Carpathians and Sudetes Brayan Jacewski1,, Jacek Urbaniak1, Wojciech Pusz2 and Paweł Kwiatkowski3 Results of phylogeographical research on current distribution and molecular differentiation of arctic-alpine plant species usually pointed on strong impact of quaternary climatic fluctuations. During the cold periods many plants, called presently as “relict species” or “glacial relicts”, migrated from the boreal – arctic area (Scandinavia, Siberia) into the South and inhabited different mountain ranges in Europe. However, together with the relict plants, also some microfungi migrated and inhabited the new non-colonized areas. Therefore, we decided to compare the diversity and distribution of microfungi present on two relict plants: Salix herbacea and Juncus trifidus. Fungi were collected in 2017 in Karkonosze Mts, Śnieżnik Mts (Sudetes), Pilsko Mt., Babia Góra Mt. and Tatry Mts. (Carpathians). Field observations included all parts of the plants (except roots). Fungi were isolated and identified with the percentage of infected plants at selected locations, as well as the percentage of infected foliage. In total, c. 30 microfungi species were found in examined localities, that represented several genera. Summarized results were presented in tables and on a map. Our study shows, that natural alpine communities offer relatively stable conditions for microfungi inhabiting communities of S. herbacea (Salicetum herbaceae) and J. trifidus (Oreochloo distichae-Juncetum trifidi) which seems to be similar to results obtained previously (Pusz and Urbaniak, 2017; Chlebicki, 2002). Although the study of plant – fungi relations are not novel, the presented results are part of further phylogeographical studies, that should explain history and migrations of not only 1 Department of Botany and Plant Ecology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland. 2 Department of Plant Protection, Division of Plant Pathology and Mycology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland. 3 Department of Botany and Nature Protection, University of Silesia in Katowice.  Corresponding author: Brayan Jacewski, Plac Grunwaldzki 24a, 50-363 Wrocław, Poland, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 131 plants, but also microfungi connected with them. We hope that this will allow for a better understanding of influences in boreal – arctic areas on the flora of European mountains. Acknowledgements. The study was financed by the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences as part of individual research grants. REFERENCES Chlebicki, A. (2002) Biogeographic relationships between fungi and selected glacial relict plants, Monographiae Botaniceae, 90:1-230 Pusz, W., Urbaniak, J. (2017) Foliar diseases of willows (Salix spp.) in selected locations of the Karkonosze Mts. (the Giant Mts), Eur. J. Plant Pathol., 148:45-51 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 132 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Ecology and chorology of Pulmonaria mollis Wulfen ex Kern. s.s. – spying migration routes? Maria Janicka1, The aim of the study was to find out if vegetation type and specific local conditions characterizing known stands of Pulmonaria mollis may explain contemporary range of this taxon and bring information about its possible migration routes during Holocene. P. mollis s.s. from the Boraginaceae family is a relatively young taxon with chromosome number 2n=18 (dyploid). Its main range is limited to C Europe, but P. mollis s.l. is dispersed in a larger area of the Euro-Asian continent (Sauer 1987, Janicka & Kasjaniuk 2013). P. mollis s.s. has probably evolved from aggregate ancestors during the Pleistocene and might have migrated with oak woodland communities from SE to C Europe (Sauer 1987). Precise routes and directions are unknown. Analyze of 210 phytosociological relevés made in C and SE Europe, and Russia in the years 1929–2017, shows that P. mollis s.s. occurrs in many different types of plant communities, similar to P. mollis s.l. Data analyze suggests relatively wide ecological amplitude of P. mollis s.s., but its presence in particular place is connected rather with special type of habitat than with a type of plant community. Irrespectively of vegetation type, stands of P. mollis s.s. are always characterized by specific combination of local/microsite conditions, as it occurres in thermo-privileged places on nutrient rich, fresh/wet soils with CaCO3. P. mollis s.s. could be consider as an indicator of such habitats. It is observed only in unmanaged or extensively used places, since it does not prefer regular mowing. Ecology of P. mollis s.s may explain its contemporary dispersed range, but it brings only indirect information about migration occupying the new areas of C Europe, but agriculture management has stopped or modified this process. Analyze of chorological data (272 herbarium specimens: KRA, WA, LOD, KTC, BSG, BIL) from C Europe suggests the existence of a few migration routes. The main are: (1) from White Carpathians through Moravian Karst and Moravian 1 Ojców National Park, Ojców 9, 32-045 Sułoszowa, Poland.  Corresponding author: Maria Janicka, Ojców National Park, Ojców 9, 32-045 Sułoszowa, Poland, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 133 Gate to Silesia (Pszczyna Forests) and Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, (2) from Slovakia through Dunajec valley to Beskid Wyspowy Mts. and Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, then to Sandomierz Basin and Świętokrzyskie Mts., (3) from Slovakia through Dukla Pass to Foothills macroregion, then to Ukraine in the east, Niepołomice Primeval Forest in the west, Lublin Upland, Bielany Primeval Forest (remnants of the Mazowiecka Primeval Forest), Inowrocław environs, and Białowieża Primeval Forest in the north, then to Belarus Upland. Distribution of P. mollis s.s. is strightly connected with presence of large river valleys, so migration from upland to upland along rivers and streams on the north of Carpathians is possible. To set migration routes, especially their directions, molecular analyzes are needed. Further studies could also precise genesis (e.g. specific habitat requirements, climate changes during Holocene, effect of agriculture management during last 8,000 years) and age of contemporary dispersed P. mollis s.s. range. Acknowledgements. I am honoured to thank Zygmunt Kącki for share data from Polish Vegetation Database. I thank also Grzegorz Łazarski and Tomasz Wójcik for their phytosociological relevés. REFERENCES Janicka, M., Kasjaniuk, M. (2013) Chromosome numbers in Pulmonaria mollis Wulfen ex Kern. in relation to geographic distribution in Poland, Acta Biologica Cracoviensia Ser. Botanica, 55(suppl. 1): 47 Sauer, W. (1987) The Pulmonaria dacica group: its affinities with central and south-east European allies and with the genus Paraskevia (Boraginaceae), Plant Systematics and Evolution, 155: 257-276 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 134 === POSTER ABSTRACT === New and rare species of lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi for Ukraine from the Carpathian Mountains Nadiia Kapets1, The first data about lichen-forming fungi from the Ukrainian Carpathians (UC) were mentioned in the late 19th century by Fr. Hazslinszky. Further information on this subject was published by famous lihenologists such as M. Makarevych, J. Nadvornik, A. Hilitzer, J. Hruby, A. Oxner, J. Suza, O. Szatala, and A. Vezda et al. Further valuable data in the study of lichen-forming fungi from the UC were presented by A. Khodosovtsev, S. Kondratyuk, S. S. Postoyalkin, O. Roms, and Zelenko et al. (Makarevich et al., 1982; Oxner, 2010). Our investigation focused on the lichenforming and lichenicolous fungi form this region were conducted in 2014–2016 using classical methods of field sampling and light microscopy. As results, information on three species of lichen-forming fungi (Arctoparmelia incurva (Pers.) Hale, Lichenomphalia hudsoniana (H.S. Jenn.) Redhead, Lutzoni, Moncalvo & Vilgalys, Lichenomphalia umbellifera (L.) Redhead, Lutzoni, Moncalvo & Vilgalys) and two species of lichenicolous fungi (Phaeopyxis punctum (A. Massal.) Rambold, Triebel & Coppins, Marchandiomyces corallinus (Roberge) Diederich & D. Hawksw.) occurring in the UC are given. A. incurva and P. punctum are hereby firstly mentioned from Ukraine, while M. corallinusis is first mentioned from the UC. Moreover, the genus Phaeopyxis Rambold & Triebel is reported for the first time from Ukraine. New habitats of some rare species for Ukraine of basidial lichenized fungi such as L. hudsoniana and L. umbellifera (L.) Redhead, Lutzoni, Moncalvo & Vilgalys Hale are hereby reported too. Finally, details on their localities are given. Arctoparmelia incurva – Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Kosiv District, PokutskoBukovynski Carpathians, National Nature Park Hutsulshchyna, at the top of mount Lysyna Kosmatska, 48°18'07”N / 24°43'53”E, 1466 m alt., on rocks, 17.08.2016, O.O. Barsukov, N.V. Kapets. 1 M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2, Tereshchenkivska Str., Kyiv, 01004, Ukraine.  Corresponding author: Nadiia Kapets, M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2, Tereshchenkivska Str., Kyiv, 01004, Ukraine, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 135 Lichenomphalia hudsoniana (H.S. Jenn.) Redhead, Lutzoni, Moncalvo & Vilgalys – Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Verkhovyna District, Chornohora Mountains, Carpathian National Nature Park, on top of Mt. Pip Ivan, 48°02'52”N / 24°37'40”E, 2018 m alt., on rocks, 19.08.2016, N.V. Kapets. Lichenomphalia umbellifera (L.) Redhead, Lutzoni, Moncalvo & Vilgalys – Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Kosiv District, Pokutsko-Bukovynski Carpathians, National Nature Park Hutsulshchyna, on the trail to the top of Mt. Lysyna Kosmatska, on moss growing between rocky outcrops, 17.08.2016, N.V. Kapets; Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Verkhovyna District, Chornohora Mts., Carpathian National Nature Park, Mt. Vykhatyi Kamin, on rocks, 18.08.2016, N.V. Kapets, T.I. Brynda. Marchandiomyces corallinus (Roberge) Diederich & D. Hawksw. – IvanoFrankivsk Region, Kosiv District, Pokutsko-Bukovynski Carpathians, National Nature Park Hutsulshchyna, Kamianystyi Khrebet, 48°18'50”N / 25°02'48”E, on thallus Parmelia saxatilis (L.) Ach., 16.08.2016, N.V. Kapets; Ivano-Frankivsk Region, Kosiv District, Pokutsko-Bukovynski Carpathians, National Nature Park Hutsulshchyna, top of Mt. Lysyna Kosmatska, 48°18'07”N / 24°43'53”E, 1466 m alt., on thallus of Melanelia stygia (L.) Essl., 17.08.2016, N.V. Kapets. Phaeopyxis punctum (A. Massal.) Rambold, Triebel & Coppins – IvanoFrankivsk Region, Kosiv District, Pokutsko-Bukovynski Carpathians, National Nature Park Hutsulshchyna, at the foothills of Mt. Lysyna Kosmatska, on thallus of Cladonia sp., growing on rotten stump, 17.08.2016, N.V. Kapets. REFERENCES Makarevich, M. F., Navrotskaya, I. L., Yudina, I. V. (1982) Atlas of the Geographical Distribution of Lichens in Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains, Naukova Dumka, Kyiv, pp. 403 Oxner, A. M. (2010) Flora of the lichens of Ukraine, Vol. 2 (3), Naukova Dumka, Kyiv [In Ukrainian], pp. 500 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 136 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Unused genetic resources – The genetic potential of genus of wild fruits Viktor Kerényi-Nagy1, and Károly Penksza2 It may be a fundamental issue for everyone: why is it necessary to expand fruit, ornamental and herbaceous crops which are still existing and rich in varieties? We believe that XXI century will bring many new challenges to the everyday life of horticultural profession, therefore we have determined 6 main direction of possible innovations which may lead to improvements: 1. Production technology; 2. Instead of quantitative cultivation, it is necessary to produce quality nutrition or special medicinal products; 3. New pomology research is needed due to adapting to the developing industry; 4. These new species could be grown in depleted sites; 5. Providing seasonal work to reduce social inequalities 6. Nature conservation functions. In this presentation we would like to point out religious and mythological bonds of Roses (Rosa, Kerényi-Nagy, 2012, Margittai – Kerényi-Nagy 2017) and hawthorns (Crataegus, Kerényi-Nagy, 2015). These species pervade our everyday lives from ancient times. Nomenclature and taxonomy questions are often referred to as self-intended. However these characterization become more understandable during biodiversity and evolutionary pathways, since well-known and named taxa can already be collected into a living collection such as gene bank and further phenological and nutritional content examinations ca be made. These may create 1 Hungarian Agricultural Museum and Library, 1146 – Budapest, Városliget, Vajdahunyadvár, Hungary. 2 Szent István University Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Department of Botany, 2100 – Gödöllő, Páter K. u. 1., Hungary.  Corresponding author: Viktor Kerenyi-Nagy, Hungarian Agricultural Museum and Library, 1146 – Budapest, Városliget, Vajdahunyadvár, Hungary, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 143 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Evaluation of hypogeous fungi diversity in the Western Carpathians based on the analysis of rodent and carnivore faeces Patryk Komur1,, Izabela Wierzbowska2, Piotr Chachuła3, Marcin Matysek4 and Piotr Mleczko1 Hypogeous fungi are the members of Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Mucoromycota characterised by gasteroid sporocarps that form and mature underground. The main means of dispersal of their spores are vector organisms such as invertebrates and mammals, i.e. rodents, for which fungal sporocarps are often important supplements of the diet. Most hypogeous fungi form ectomycorrhizal symbiosis mainly with trees. Close relationships between hypogeous fungi, plants and animals create a complex net of ecological connections. The aim of the research was to investigate the diversity of hypogeous fungi consumed by small mammals in the three contrasting Western Carpathian mountain ranges: the Gorce, the Pieniny and the Tatra Mts. Additionally, we examined the possibility of spore dispersal by carnivores feeding on the rodents. We collected droppings from rodents during live trapping sessions in 36 line transects set in forests and meadows in three study areas. The trapping was performed twice a season, in the years 2014 (the Gorce and the Tatra Mts.) and 2016 (the Pieniny). The faeces were analysed microscopically for the presence and identity of fungal spores. In total, during trapping sessions we identified 11 animal species including rodents and soricomorphs, with bank vole, yellow-necked mouse and the common vole being most commonly trapped. In the Gorce Mts. spores of hypogeous fungi were noticed in 75% of bank vole and 55% of yellow-necked mouse dropping samples. In the Tatra Mts. spores were present in 72% of bank vole and 60% of yellow-necked mouse, but also in 50% of 1 Institute of Botany, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. 2 Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. 3 Pieniny National Park, Krościenko n/Dunajcem, Poland. 4 Institute of Nature Protection, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland.  Corresponding author: Patryk Komur Institute of Botany, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Kopernika 27 str., PL-31-501 Kraków, Poland, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 144 field vole and 80% of European pine vole samples. In the Pieniny Mts. spores were identified in faeces of 85% of bank voles, 73% of yellow-necked mice, 50% of field voles, 16% of wooden mice, 10% of common voles and 40% of shrews. Altogether spores of 22 hypogeous fungal taxa (species or genera) were identified, with 14, 17 and 20 taxa present in the Gorce, the Tatra and the Pieniny Mts., respectively. The most commonly encountered genera were Chamonixia, Genea, Hymenogaster, Hysterangium, Melanogaster and Octaviania, however, the differences in fungal diversity was noted between mountain ranges. In the Tatra and the Pieniny Mts. higher numbers of fungal taxa were recorded in autumn, whereas in the Gorce Mts. in summer. The concentration of spores and the number of taxa per sample was higher in autumn than in summer in all study areas. In all studied sites the spores of hypogeous fungi were identified in samples collected both in forests and meadows. This proves the role of small mammals in dispersal of ectomycorrhizal inoculum to non-forest habitats. The analysis of faeces of carnivores from the Gorce Mts. revealed the presence of spores of 8 hypogeous fungal taxa in 45% of the examined samples from red foxes and martens, and from one individual of badger. The most probable sources of spores were consumed rodents. This finding indicates the possible role of carnivores in a long-distance transport of spores. Acknowledgements. We are greatful to the authorithes of the Pieniny, the Gorce and the Tatra National Parks for the permission to perform the research and for logistical support. The project was financially suportted by the grant number DSC 003930 from the Institute of Botany of the Jagiellonian University. STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 145 === POSTER ABSTRACT === A transfer zone between Yellow-bellied and Fire-bellied Toads in Hungary and Slovakia Tibor Kovács1,, Zoltán Gál2, Orsolya Hoffmann2, János Ujszegi5, Tímea Bozsóky3 and Balázs Vági4 The up till now known distribution areas of Fire-bellied (Bombina bombina, Bb) and Yellow-bellied Toads (Bombina variegata, Bv) meet in the Carpathian Basin. Bv occurs mainly in higher elevation with mountainous or submountainous climate while Bb prefers lowlands. The contact zones, where hybrids often appear, are established usually around the foothills of larger mounts or mountains. However, studies in two neighbouring mountains, the Börzsöny Hills in Hungary and Krupinska Planina in Slovakia show a different picture which may indicate the spreading of Bb to the North and at the same time the colonisation of Bv habitats in these areas. We collected specimens from several locations in both areas. In order to apply the most certain identification of these species we used two methods. Tissue samples were taken for further molecular analysis and also the abdominal patterns were photographed of each individual. We found an unexpected result in the geographical distribution pattern of these two species. Bb almost completely colonised the Börzsöny Hills including habitats which can be classified as originally Bv habitats (ie ponds and pools above 400 m asl). No animals with Bv abdominal patterns nor with Bv genetical markers were found here. In Krupinska Planina large numbers of locations were colonised by Bb, even ponds located above 400 m asl. However, the most remote sites still harbour Bv populations and in a few cases we found hybrid individuals in Slovakia. 1 Hungarian Biodiversity Research Society, Budapest, Hungary. 2 NARIC, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Gödöllő, Hungary. 3 University of Debrecen, Department of Hidrobiology, Debrecen, Hungary. 4 University of Debrecen, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, Debrecen, Hungary. 5 Lendület Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Plant Protection Institute, CAR, HAS, Budapest, Hungary.  Corresponding author: Tibor Kovács, 1165 Budapest, Hunyadvár u. 43/a, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 146 Given these results, it can be assumed that Bb might push the transfer zone of the two species towards the North and the higher and cooler areas. Acknowledgements. We thank our Slovakian colleagues who helped with the collections in Slovakia; Peter Mikuliček and Daniel Jablonski as well as those international participants who contributed to the field work; Márta Egyed, Barbara Sallee, Attila László Péntek, Ida Wollent and several students from the United Kingdom. REFERENCES Fijarczyk, A., Nadachowska, K., Hofman, S., Litvintchuk, S., Babik, W., Stuglik, M., Gollmann, G., Cogâlniceanu, D., Vukov, T., Džukić, G., Szymura, J. (2011) Nuclear and mitochondrial phylogeography of the European fire-bellied toads Bombina bombina and Bombina variegata supports their independent histories. Molecular Ecology, 20:3381–3398 Gollmann, G. (1987) Bombina bombina and Bombina variegata in the Mátra Mountains (Hungary): New data on distribution and hybridization (Amphibia, Anura, Discoglossidae), Amphibia-Reptilia, 8: 213-224 Gollmann, G., Roth, P., Hijdl, W. (1988) Hybridization between the fire-bellied toads Bombina bombina and Bombina variegata in the karst regions of Slovakia and Hungary: morphological and allozyme evidence, J. Evol. Biol., 1:3-14 Hofman, S., Spolsky, C., Uzzell, T., Cogâlniceanu, D., Babik, W., Szymura, J. (2007) Phylogeography of the fire-bellied toads Bombina: independent Pleistocene histories inferred from mitochondrial genomes, Molecular Ecology, 16: 2301–2316 Vörös, J., Korsós, Z., Szalay, F. (2003) A comparative morphological study on the two Hungarian discoglossid toad species (Bombina spp.), Biota, 3 (1-2): 173-179 Vörös, J., Alcobendas, M., Martínez-Solano, I., García-París, M. (2005) Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of Bombina species in Hungary, New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 32: 231 Yanchukov, A., Hofman, S., Szymura, J., Mezhzherin S. V., Morozov-Leonov, S. Y., Barton, N. H., Nürnberger, B. (2006) Hybridization of Bombina bombina and B. variegata (Anura, Discoglossidae) at a sharp ecotone in Western Ukraine: Comparisions across transects and over time, Evolution, 60(3): 583–600 STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 147 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Variation in leaf morphology of Ribes petraeum (Grossulariaceae) in the West Carpathians and the Sudetes Paweł Kwiatkowski 1, and Jacek Urbaniak 2 Ribes petraeum Wulfen is an European species, limited in its occurrence to mountain ranges. It occurs from the Pyrenees through the Vosges, Alps, Dinarides, Sudetes, Carpathians, to the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula, where it grows in sycamore forests and subalpine scrub and tall-forbs. It was also noted in North Africa (the Atlas Mts.). Localities reported from the Caucasus and Asia Minor (Anatolia) presumably refer to another taxon and require separate studies. The purpose of the present study was to determine the intraspecific variability of selected populations located in the Western Carpathians and the Sudetes. Leaf morphology was chosen for the investigations since they are the most easily available plant organs, in which many of the specific traits can be distinguished. For detailed biometric analysis, samples were collected over several years between the end of September and the end of October, which guaranteed that the leaves were fully grown. The study was conducted on herbarium material collected by the authors, consisting of leaves from long shoots and short shoots. From each locality 40-50 large leaves from randomly selected shoots of different types were collected. Each leaf was imaged and characterized by a set of features (e.g. petiole length, midrib length, middle lobe length, middle lobe width at the base, angle between midrib and lateral nerve, number of lobes). The results obtained were analyzed using ANOVA with Tukey's post hoc test (p = 0.05) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) correlation. The material originated from 15 localities in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 1 Department of Botany and Nature Protection, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. 2 Department of Botany and Plant Ecology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Poland.  Corresponding author: Paweł Kwiatkowski, Department of Botany and Nature Protection, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 148 Quantitative data on variation of Ribes petraeum concerns mainly differences between the leaves of short and long shoots, and the diversity within samples from individual populations. The most variable are the two features: petiole length and the length of lateral nerve of short shoot leaves; the smallest variation is in the angle between the main and lateral nerves. The largest leaf blades and the longest petioles are those from the long shoot leaves. Within the investigated populations, local morphotypes (A, B, C) were distinguished, which are related to particular mountain ranges. Each of them is characterized by a specific combination of morphological traits. In the Sudetes (Karkonosze/Krkonose Mts., Śnieżnik Massive, Hruby Jesenik Mts. - morphotype A) the samples are characterized by a relatively short leaf petiole and generally small blade. In the Western Carpathians (Beskidy Mts, Pilsko and Babia Góra Massives, Velka Fatra Mts. - morphotype B) the leaves have long lateral nerves and dense venation. In the remaining mountain ranges (Tatras, Nizke Tatry Mts., Chocz Mts. - morphotype C) the leaves are distinguished by prominent middle lobes. The differences between populations from the Western Carpathians and the Sudetes, as well as within the Carpathian and Sudetes populations, result also from habitat and phytocoenoses variation. The present studies have confirmed the intraspecific variation within the Ribes petraeum. The alpine variety (subsp. alpinum) is represented by Sudetic populations, while other population are taxonomically associated with the Carpathian unit (subsp. carpaticum). STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 149 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Green algae (Chlorophyta) in the lakes of the highest Carpathian range – 150 years of phycological studies in the Tatra National Park (Poland) Joanna Lenarczyk1, The current knowledge about Chlorophyta, one of the most diverse algal group in the water bodies of the Tatra mountains, is still poor in this area despite a relatively long period of studies. Data on green algae are to be found in sixteen publications, including the most comprehensive one which dates back more than 100 years. Usually, floristic composition and taxonomy of the algae were described. Rarely, vertical distribution and seasonal changes of biomass were analysed. Twenty water bodies were sampled so far, especially in the two largest valleys, Gąsienicowa Valley and Five Polish Ponds Valley. Desmids (Desmidaceae), one-celled algae preferring low trophy habitats, were mainly identified. More than thirty taxa new for science were described from the water bodies. Pediastrum (Hydrodictyaceae) is the only green algal genus whose specimens were isolated from the Tatra lakes and analysed molecularly. Future research plans include a taxonomic revision and a critical list of taxa, similar to that already prepared for the desmid genera Euastrum and Micrasterias, as well as laboratory experiments on phenotypic plasticity of monoclonal strains. There is also a need for intensive molecular analyses to examine phylogenetic relationships between mountain and lowland populations, as well as migration history of the green algal flora. Acknowledgements. The study was funded by the statutory fund of the W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences in 2017. 1 W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Lubicz 46, 31-512 Kraków, Poland.  Corresponding author: Joanna Lenarczyk, W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Lubicz 46, 31-512 Kraków, Poland, E-mail: [email protected] STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 150 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Cosmarium species (Desmidiaceae) in the lakes of the Western and Eastern Carpathians – the Tatra Mountains (Poland) and the Chornohora Mountains (Ukraine) Joanna Lenarczyk1, Magdalena Łukaszek1, , Petro Tsarenko2 and Rupert Lenzenweger3 The microscopic green alga Cosmarium, forming cells composed of two symmetric halves usually prominently ornamented, is one of the most common desmid genera. Many species are typical of strongly acidic peat bogs, but the genus is to be found in neutral to light alkaline ponds and lakes, as well as in polluted waters. In order to describe floristic composition and distribution of the Cosmarium species in the mountain lakes of the Western and Eastern Carpathians, 8 water bodies in the Tatra Mountains (Długi Staw, Dwoisty Staw Wschodni, Czarny Staw Gąsienicowy, Kurtkowiec, Litworowy Staw, Troiśniak Pośredni, Wyżni Czerwony Stawek, Zmarzły Staw in the Gąsienicowa Valley) and 4 in the Chornohora Mountains (Cyclops, Nesamowyte, Nyzne Ozerne, Verchnie Ozerne) were sampled in 2011 and 2013, respectively. The highest number of species was found in Litworowy Staw (16), Kurtkowiec (14) and Wyżni Czerwony Stawek (11), which are relatively shallow oligo/mesotrophic water bodies situated at 1600-170 m a.s.l., having neutral or slightly alkaline pH and low conductivity. Single species were reported from Cyclops, Nesamowyte, Troiśniak Pośredni and Verchnie Ozerne lakes. In most studied lakes, only a few Cosmarium species were identified. Most species were recorded from 1-2 water bodies. Only 7 species, including C. bioculatum var. bioculatum, C. caelatum, C. dentiferum var. alpinum, C. difficile, C. pygmaeum var. pygmaeum, C. quadratum var. quadratum and C. subcrenatum, were found at 3 localities. Altogether, 32 species (36 taxa) were identified. About a half of them are common in both lowland, upland and mountain habitats and about one third is characteristic for upland and 1 W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences. 2 M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. 3 Schlossberg 16, A-4910 Ried/Innkreis, Austria.  Corresponding author: Magdalena Łukaszek, ul. Lubicz 46, 31-512 Kraków, Poland, E-mail: [email protected] POSTER ABSTRACT 151 mountain ones, including 7 rarely occurring taxa (C. norimbergense var. depressum, C. plicatum, C. pygmaeum var. pygmaeum, C. subspeciosum var. subspeciosum, C. undulatum var. minutum, C. variolatum var. variolatum and C. ventusum var. minus). Most species are mesotrophic and are to be found in acidic habitats, a few of them are also considered as oligotrophic and acidophilous (C. margaritiferum var. margaritiferum, C. obliquum, C. pseudoamoenum, C. regnesii, C. subcrenatum and C. subtumidum var. subtumidum), and almost a third is known from eutrophic water bodies. The obtained data will further help to revise the desmid flora of the studied region in spatial and temporal gradients. Acknowledgements. The study was funded by the statutory fund of the W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, including an in-house grant for young scientists in 2011. STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI, BIOLOGIA, LXII, Sp. Iss., 2017 152 === POSTER ABSTRACT === Contributions to the biodiversity of lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi of the Călimani Mountains (Eastern Carpathians, Romania) László Lőkös1,, Florin Crişan2, Edit Farkas3, Jae-Seoun Hur4 and Nóra Varga5 Exploration of the lichen flora of the Călimani Mts received less attention from lichenologists, comparing with other high mountain areas. Paul Cretzoiu published the first lichen records of 44 species in several papers between 1930 and 1950 from various localities in the Călimani Mts. Vasile Codoreanu visited the main peaks and the valley “Drâglele” in July 1949 and 1950, and reported 74 species in 1952 and 1954 (55 new to the lichen flora of the mountains among them). Another considerable study was done in 1998 by Stoie and Crişan who made a publication on 51 foliose and fruticose lichen species from some western areas of the Călimani Mts (with 33 new floristical records). Unfortunately, these latter results were not included in Ciurchea’s Romanian lichen flora (2004). Several species should be excluded due to erroneous citations, nomenclatural mistakes or misidentifications, therefore the number of species published from the Călimani Mts is 128 altogether. Further revisions on the available old specimens are also necessary and it is in progress. Our preliminary investigations in 2009 contributed further 30 species to the lichen flora of the Călimani Mts, increasing the number of the known species to 158. However, our knowledge of lichens and their lichenicolous fungi in the Călimani Mts is still limited. Further systematic and regular, fresh collections should be done to obtain new floristical results, which are essential also for the study of molecular genetic diversity. Nevertheless, ecological and evolutionary aspects can be studied 1 Department of Botany, Hungarian Natural History Museum. 2 Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University. 3 Institute of Ecology and Botany, MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. 4 Korean Lichen Research Institute, Sunchon National University. 5 Institute of Botany and Ecophysiology, Szent István University.  Corresponding author: László Lőkös, Department of Botany, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary, E-mail: [email protected]