Little bittern (Ixobrychus minutus) is a Palearctic species, widespread in Romania and greatly affected by drainage and habitat loss. The aim of this study was to reveal aspects of phenology and nest-site selection of the little bittern population in NW Romania. This study was conducted between 2003 and 2008 in three wetland complexes from Transylvania, differing in age, origin, size and the type of vegetation. Data regarding breeding phenology, clutch size, nest parameters and nesting sites were recorded from 171 active nests. The first clutch was initiated around 19th of May and the latest one on 8th of July. The clutch size ranged from three to seven eggs (5.21 +/- 0.77 SD) at all sites. Statistically significant differences were recorded among sites for all nesting habitat characteristics (except the water depth); a negative significant correlation was found between the distance to the open water and the nest depth. The depth of nests was related to the nesting materials, cattail nests being deeper than the reed ones. The nesting height was negatively correlated with the reed percentage and positively with the cattail. The little bittern showed high plasticity, occupying non-preferentially natural or anthropogenic and recent or old wetlands, covered with either reeds, either cattail or both. These results have conservation importance, as the little bittern seems indifferent to the origin or history of the habitats if they meet its microhabitat requirements.

"Vibrations generated by road traffic are considered to be a form of physical environmental pollution. Nonetheless, the effect of this disturbance in natural habitats, and in particular on the aquatic stage of amphibians, received very little attention from the scientific community. This study aims to assess the direct effect of mechanical waves and the consequent water turbidity on the aquatic larval stage of Rana temporaria by exposing an experimental group to laboratory-induced vibrations and comparison with a non-exposed control group. Our results show that this kind of pollution had no significant effect on the development rate, the length of the larval period, and the mortality of the larvae. However, we identified a significant effect on the size of animals, both during the larval period, and at metamorphosis. This result raises concern about the long-term risks to the amphibian population exposed to this type of low-profile pollution. Keywords: development, growth, metamorphosis, amphibian performance, traffic-related pollution"

Rails (family Rallidae) are adapted to wetland habitats, nesting in emergent vegetation where flooding is one of the main factors that contributes to nesting failure rates. We conducted an experiment to test the capacity of water rail and Japanese quail embryos to survive flooding. During the experiment, 52 water rail and 60 quail eggs were divided into three groups. One control group was artificially incubated in standard conditions and the other two groups were submerged during artificial incubation for 2 hours and 3 hours, respectively, in the third week of the incubation period in water at 21 degrees C. A total of 88.2% of water rail eggs hatched in the control group, 83.3% in the 2 h flooded group and 29.4% in the 3 h flooded group. For the quail eggs, 75% hatched in the control group, 10% in the 2 h flooded group and 5% in the 3 h flooded group. Water rail embryos were five times more resistant to 2 h flooding conditions, and approximately twice as resistant to a 3 h immersion compared to quail embryos. The elevated survival rate of water rail embryos may be related to their capacity to enter torpor.

ABSTRACT Capsule: In large and medium wetlands with extended reed beds Phragmites and cattail Typha dominated areas, Water Rails Rallus aquaticus and Little Crakes Zapornia parva show higher differences in nesting sites in contrast with other populations from small and fragmented wetlands, where the ranges of values for environmental variables at nesting sites overlap greatly. Aims: To investigate the nesting sites and nesting habitats of both species to a fine scale, on medium and large wetlands, to evaluate the potential overlapping of nesting habitat and to compare data with those obtained in small wetlands. Methods: In the study area, the Fizeş Basin, Romania, 17 wetlands, ponds and reed beds ranging from 11.78 to 252.68 ha were investigated. The species were present on 4 wetlands, which were subsequently surveyed for nests. Between April and August 2010–2012, a total of 83 Water Rail and 46 Little Crake nests were found, measured and analysed in terms of nesting habitat and nest features. Results: Principal component analyses suggest no overlap in nest site selection and a partial overlap in the nest features. An analysis of similarity confirmed significant nest structural differences. A discriminant function analysis highlights the main factors dividing the nest features of both species being: water depth and distance between the nest and a water surface. Little Crakes build their nests in cattail Typha sloped clumps, while Water Rails build their nests near reed Phragmites strains. Conclusion: In large and medium wetlands, Water Rails nest deep in the reed bed rather than in other types of habitats, contrary to what has been reported for small ponds areas. Little Crakes nest in cattail independently of the size of the wetland where they occur.

Species-area relationships (SAR) for aquatic invertebrates and phytoplankton were investigated in several shallow lakes from the Fizes River catchment area. The lakes differed in their morphometric, physical-chemical, biotic and habitat characteristics, with two constant distinctive clusters: the lakes from the main river course, highly exploited for fish farming and generally characterized by higher organic and nutrient loads, and the lakes from the river tributaries, with better environmental conditions, increased depth and lower exploitation intensities. Lake area was a poor predictor of taxon richness for lacustrine invertebrates. Low-intensity exploitation regime, the presence of submerged vegetation, lake depth and natural land use in the catchment area represented the most important independent variables explaining the number of taxa for both planktonic and benthic invertebrates. hi case of phytoplankton, however, lake area was an important predictor for taxon richness. Our results represent the first holistic approach to investigating SAR patterns of aquatic biota in natural and man-made lakes from the region.

The water rail, Rallus aquaticus, has no visible sexual dimorphism. In previous studies, where morphometric measurements and molecular data had been used, a sex-discriminating formula was described from a German water rail population. We tested this formula in 21 water rails from a Romanian population and found that 90% of them were correctly sexed. A new formula was calculated specifically for the new population, and this one had a 95 % correct discriminating score in our population and 67.7% in the German population. The data analysis had revealed that these two populations were significantly different in terms of body measurements and the reasons for this difference were discussed. We concluded that the formula calculated in the German population had a higher resolution, being established from a larger number of individuals with a lower degree of variance, and therefore it may have a high validity in sex discrimination in other populations. The formula developed for the Romanian population has a high discriminant level only in a local scale and a low resolution when used on a population with high variability.

Data were collected from Little Bittern, Water Rail and Little Crake nests located in North-Western Romania, between April and July of 2002 - 2006 and 2010 - 2012. The repeatability was calculated as intra-class correlation of length, breadth and egg volume coefficients. The total number of active nests considered for the present study was as follows: 43 for Little Bittern, 25 for Water Rail and 9 for Little Crake. The clutch size in Little Bittern ranged from 4 to 7 eggs, in Water Rail from 4 to 10 and in Little Crake from 4 to 8 eggs. The repeatability values of egg parameters varied between 0.844 to 0.860 in Little Bittern, 0.262 - 0.374 in Water Rail and 0.310 - 0.574 in Little Crake. Short-term environmental impact was strong in case of Water Rail and Little Cracke, while the genetic component had little influence. For these two species, the low repeatability could be explained by larger numbers of eggs in a clutch, reflecting in turn a longer laying period.

Traditional farming landscapes harbour high biodiversity worldwide, but are increasingly threatened by agricultural intensification. Here, we aimed to assess the impact of current and potential future land-use intensification on the avifauna in Transylvania, Romania, one of Europe's most notable traditional farming landscapes. We conducted repeated point counts for breeding birds in a randomly selected set of 30 forest, 60 grassland, and 60 arable sites. We first compared the overall bird richness and the richness of birds with different habitat specialization between the three main land-use types. Second, we examined the responses of bird richness to a gradient in woody vegetation cover and compositional heterogeneity in arable land and grassland to indicate changes in land-use intensity. Third, we examined at which spatial scales the effects occurred. All three land-use types contributed to the overall regional bird diversity, including several species of conservation concern. Overall species richness and richness of forest specialists was highest in forests, whereas the opposite was true for farmland birds. Within farmland, richness of forest specialists and farmland birds was most strongly positively affected by woody vegetation cover within one hectare. However, for farmland birds this effect was stronger in arable land compared to grassland. hi contrast, woody vegetation cover had a negative effect on the richness of open-country specialists within 50 hectares. Maintaining forest cover in farming landscapes will be important to conserve forest specialists. To conserve farmland species, individual farmers should be encouraged to maintain woody vegetation cover at the local scale. In contrast, open-country specialists would benefit from extensive grassland areas with low cover of woody vegetation. Thus, maintaining bird diversity in traditional farming landscapes requires a combination of small- and large scale conservation approaches. For this to be successful, cooperation among multiple stakeholders is necessary to achieve larger-scale conservation action.

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus) manifest strongly intraand interspecific aggressivity. In our study we test the Water Rail’s reaction to the calls of conspecifics neighbours and strangers, to conclude if they express the “neighbour-stranger discrimination” (NSD) and / or “the dear enemy effect” (DEE) behaviour as evolutionary attributes that would reduce the energy consumption. Ten points located 100 m apart inside the Sic Reedbeds wetland were selected. In each point the acoustic reactions to spontaneous and playback of territorial Water Rail’s call were counted for three days (18, 19 and 20 April 2011), between 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.. A statistically significant difference was found between the number of songs recorded after spontaneous activity and the number of calls recorded after playback. The results argues the hypothesis that individuals of this species recognize their neighbours and react less aggressively towards them. Moreover, our findings indicated that response to neighbours’ calls follows a constant trajectory during the first or second half of the minute while the reaction towards foreigners is significantly losing intensity during the second half of the minute. The results suggest that the NSD and DEE are expressed in the Water Rail behaviour.

We studied the response of Water Rails (Rallus aquaticus) to conspecific and heterospecific playback to reveal any variation in reaction to playbacks of rail and crake and if and how these reactions change in intensity. Ten observation points, 100 m from each other within a reedbed, were selected. We made our observations three times a day over three days in three sessions (Apr, Jun, and Sept). We quantified the response of Water Rails to the playback of conspecifics and the heterospecifics: Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), Corn Crake (Crex crex), Little Crake (Porzana parva), Spotted Crake (P. porzana), and Baillon's Crake (P. pusilla), in terms of phenological periods. We found that there is a difference in aggressive reaction between conspecific and heterospecific playbacks across all sessions and also within each session. The aggressive reaction decreases significantly in the direction (Water Rail = Common Moorhen). (Corn Crake = Little Crake = Spotted Crake). (Baillon's Crake), during the first session and (Common Moorhen). (Water Rail). (Corn Crake = Little Crake = Spotted Crake = Baillon's Crake) during the second session. We found that Water Rails react differently to conspecific and heterospecific calls. The reaction intensity changes from one session to another, and the level of reaction to different species also changes. Most of the aggressive reaction levels can be explained by nesting place and food competition but also nest parasitism behavior and body mass differences. Received 25 May 2016. Accepted 20 October 2016.

AbstractCultural landscapes all over the world harbor species communities that are taxonomically and functionally diverse. In Eastern Europe, but also in many other regions of the world, the conservation of this farmland biodiversity is threatened by land use intensification and abandonment. In order to counteract the negative effects of land use change in such landscapes, a thorough understanding of the functional relationships between species and their environment is crucial. In this study, we investigated the relationship of functional traits of butterfly and bird communities and environmental conditions in 120 sites in traditional farmlands of southern Transylvania, Romania. First, we compared taxonomic diversity (i.e., Shannon diversity) with functional diversity (i.e., functional dispersion), and second, we linked species traits to environmental variables by performing RLQ analyses. Functional traits indicating reproduction, movement, and feeding behavior related with environmental variables describing heterogeneity, amount of woody vegetation, and topography at three different spatial scales. We found positive relationships between taxonomic and functional diversity, as well as strong linkages between species traits and environmental conditions for both groups. Specifically, butterfly composition was most strongly influenced by land use type and life‐history strategies. Bird composition was most strongly related to the amount of woody vegetation and nesting and foraging strategies. We conclude that maintaining the typical features of traditional farming landscapes, especially a small‐scale heterogeneity in arable land and gradients of woody vegetation cover, would be desirable in order to sustain a high functional diversity in southern Transylvania in the future.

The Legii Lake and Valley area has been a protected nature reserve for the conservation of wetland bird species since 1966, established in order to preserve one of the last remaining natural wetlands in the Fizes Basin. Nevertheless, hydro-technical constructions in the area resulted in the gradual shrinking of the lake. In present days, the entire area is covered by reed. GIS techniques were used in order to estimate the area and depth of the lake after ecological restoration of the wetland. The calculations were based on a DEM (Digital Elevation Model), obtained using contours extracted from the topographical maps (1:25000 scale). Historical maps of the area were also used in order to determine the evolution of the river system and slopes to evaluate the consequences of human intervention in the area. The result was a complex model that allows multiple scenario evaluation. The model was used to predict the changes in the ecosystem and how suitable the area would became for protected bird species.

Water Rails (Rallus aquaticus) are a reliable indicator of overall habitat quality and are considered an umbrella species for reed bed habitat (Phragmites australis). Two methods of acoustic monitoring of Water Rails were tested. Ten observation points situated 100 m from each other inside a large reed bed were selected for acoustic monitoring. Observations were conducted in three sessions (end of April, June and September 2010) for three times a day, during 3 consecutive days. The number of individuals calling was quantified during spontaneous vocal activity for 5 min and then the number of Water Rails calling after exposure to digital playbacks of male and female territorial and courtship calls for 30 sec were recorded. To calibrate the data, all Water Rail nests within 100 m around three observation points were located. The number of nests found during the nest searches corresponded to the number of pairs estimated during spontaneous vocal activity, but was 63% larger than the number estimated after playback. A statistically significant difference was found between the number of calls recorded at different times in session 1; however, no significant differences were found between sessions 2 and 3. The highest numbers of individuals were recorded in the morning in session 1. The difference was statistically significant between morning and noon (P = 0.002), but not between morning and evening (P = 0.289). Population evaluation and monitoring of Water Rails in large reed beds should be done in the morning, during the breeding season, using point surveys and listening for 5 min for spontaneous vocalizations. This method can be used both for quantifying and monitoring populations of Water Rails and for evaluating the quality of its habitat.

A previous, geographically limited study, has found very little genetic structure in the water rail Rallus aquaticus based on cytochrome oxidase I sequences. Adding samples from Romania, Montenegro, Germany and Spain, we investigated whether the new data confirm the picture of genetic homogeneity or if there is more diverse structure, e.g. due to survival in different Pleistocene refuges. Among 75 studied individuals, there were 12 haplotypes, one of them very common, the others differing in only one or two positions. The high haplotype diversity in Kazakhstan suggested that diversification has been ongoing for a longer time than in the other areas, assuming similar substitution rates across the entire species. Only one rare haplotype was shared between Kazakhstan and another region, specifically Romania. All other rare haplotypes had narrow distributions and probably evolved after the range expansion towards the west. Apparently, gene flow has been restricted in the recent past. The Romanian population was genetically intermediate between Kazakhstan and the western populations. The genetic structure of the populations supported a post-glacial out-of-Central-Asia scenario.

Mild hyperprolactinemia is present in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) with a frequency of 20 – 30%. There is a controversy whether they have common mechanisms or are only coincidental. Some characteristic hormonal disturbances of PCOS can promote themselves the hypersecretion of PRL, primarily the persistent and unopposed estrogen secretion, a consequence of the frequent anovulation. We studied retrospectively the data of 123 PCOS-patients hospitalized in Endocrinology Clinic Târgu Mures between 2005 – 2008. The diagnosis was based on the Rotterdam consensus criteria (2003), but including the cases with hyperprolactinemia and hypothyroidism, too. About one third of the patients had hyperprolactinemia including 15 cases of microprolactinomas (12% of all patients). Among hyperprolactinemics 61% had microprolactinomas – in presence of different other hyperprolactinemia inducing factors, while only 15% – in absence of these. The incidence of microprolactinomas was 10 times higher in PCOS group having hyperprolactinemic factors compared to the group without such a factors (p < 0.0001). Most frequent hyperprolactinemia inducing factors were: oral contraceptives with estrogenic component, antidopaminergic medicines, as neuroleptics (clorpromazine, clozapine) and metoclopramide, while from associated endocrinopathies hypothyroidism and hyperestrogenism. Taking into account the incidence of microprolactinomas (12%), we consider necessary the imagistic investigation of the hypothalamic-pituitary region at patients having PCOS with evident hyperprolactinemia. At hyperprolactinemic patients must be avoided all the hyperprolactinemia inducing factors, and the hyperprolactinemic states, including microprolactinomas must be treated correctly and in time.

Currently, around a quarter of all rail species are globally threatened. Among these, the little crake (Porzana parva) is considered a conservation priority in Europe, and is listed in Appendix I of the EU Wild Birds Directive, Appendix II of the Bern Convention, and Appendix II of the Bonn Convention. In Europe, the main threat to little crake populations is represented by habitat loss. Our study demonstrates how habitat loss, defective management of habitats, and interspecific interactions with water rail (Rallus aquaticus) are collectively contributing to the decline of little crake effectives. We surveyed five wetlands from the Fizq Basin, a "Natura 2000" site, located in the central part of the Transylvanian Plane of Romania (24 degrees 10' E; 46 degrees 50' N). During May and August 2010 we located the nests, measured the water depth, and density of vegetation at each nest site. Also, we approximated the percentage occupied by cattail (Typha) and reed (Phragmites) around each nest and for all the marsh vegetation of each wetland. At little crake nest sites, the depth of the water varied from 40 to 91 cm, vegetation density ranged from 321 to 467 plant stems per square meter and the percentage of plant species was 100% for cattaiL By comparison, for water rail nest sites the depth of water varied between 8 to 45 cm, vegetation density ranged from 240 to 554 plant stems per square meter, and the percentage of the plants species ranged from 0 to 100% for cattail and in the same way for reed. From historical data we found that all of the five wetlands that we studied are undergoing sedimentation. This process leads to the replacement of cattail communities by reed communities and thus the loss of habitat preferred by little crake. In the context where the niches of water rail and little crake overlap, we assume that competition with Rallus aquaticus is another factor leading to the Porzana parva population decline. We highlight the importance of increasing the water level, reforesting the hills surrounding the wetlands, and maintaining the local habitat diversity as a solution for the conservation of Little Crake and other bird species.

In this paper, we present regional differences in pond area by focusing on species - pond area relationships between two groups of vertebrates differing in life cycles and ecological requirements: amphibians and birds. The study was conducted in two regions of Romania: the Târnava Basin and the Fizeş Valley. Ponds from Târnava were more vegetated with emergent aquatic plants ( Phragmites australis and Typha sp.). The amphibian species richness in ponds was higher in Târnava than in Fizeş and, conversely, Fizeş contained a higher number of bird species. The diversity of the amphibian species is not related to pond area, however, there was a positive relationship in both regions between amphibian species richness and the percentage of emergent vegetation cover. Bird’s species richness, on the other hand, was positively related to both pond area and vegetation cover in Târnava whereas only to vegetation cover in Fizeş. The z values of the species–area relationship for amphibians were low in both regions and slightly negative in Târnava. In case of birds, the z value was larger in Târnava than in Fizeş, suggesting that the number of species increased more with pond area in Târnava than in Fizeş.