Anthropogenic stressors increasingly threaten freshwater biodiversity, with fish communities particularly sensitive to habitat modification. This study evaluates how river morphological alterations influence fish assemblage structure in 114 mountain rivers of the Southern Carpathians, assessing whether such changes cause species loss or drive shifts toward disturbance-tolerant communities. Using a multi-scale analytical framework integrating non-metric multidimensional scaling, redundancy analysis, and variance partitioning, we quantified the contributions of spatial, catchment, and local habitat variables to community patterns. Spatial- and catchment-scale factors explained the largest variance in fish assemblages (12% in adults and 17% in small-bodied fish). However, morphological pressures proved significant in shaping community structure with clear ecological consequences. Weirs and embankments reduced abundances of rheophilic species (flow-dependent) by 27-38%, potamodromous by 23-42%, invertivorous by 26-49%, benthic by 40-46% and lithophilic taxa by 27-41%, indicating the loss of habitat specialists. In contrast, limnophilic taxa (preferring slow or still water) increased 25 times, phytophilic spawners by 17-41%, and tolerant species by 10%, reflecting biotic homogenization. By integrating a trait-based approach, this study highlights functional shifts that may be overlooked in species-level assessments. It underscores the need to couple local habitat restoration with catchment-scale management to conserve fish biodiversity and maintain natural ecological gradients in mountain river systems.

Rapid urbanisation and the expansion of impervious surfaces are increasing pressure on urban green infrastructure (UGI), potentially reducing its capacity to provide regulating ecosystem services (RES) and contributing to socio-ecological inequalities. This study integrates biophysical structure, participatory mapping and population exposure to examine the spatial relationships between UGI availability, perceived RES provision and ecosystem disservices in Bucharest, Romania. Urban vegetation structure and RES potential were assessed using i-Tree Canopy, while citizens’ perceptions were collected through a Public Participation Geographic Information System survey involving 816 respondents. Spatial hotspot analysis, Random Forest and regression models were combined with a population-UGI classification to identify socio-ecological mismatches between existing green infrastructure, population pressure and perceived RES provision. Tree canopy covered approximately 18

Urban protected areas are increasingly recognized as essential for human well-being, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience; however, their role in post-industrial cities remains insufficiently understood. To address this gap, we examine Văcărești Nature Park (VNP) (IUCN Category V), a 183-hectare urban wetland in Bucharest, Romania, formed through spontaneous ecological restoration within a post-industrial landscape. Using a mixed-methods approach that integrates ecological assessment, participatory mapping, and public perception analysis, we evaluate the park’s ecosystem services (ES) and social dynamics. Cultural ES—particularly recreation, wildlife observation, and biodiversity appreciation—dominate public valuation, while regulating services such as microclimate regulation are less recognized and provisioning services remain marginal. This pattern highlights the importance of experiential and relational values in shaping how urban nature is perceived and used. Spatial analysis reveals intensive use of biodiverse interior zones and the avoidance of peripheral areas, primarily driven by infrastructure degradation and perceived safety risks. The resulting core–periphery differentiation points to an uneven distribution of ES benefits with direct implications for urban ecosystem governance and social inclusiveness. Overall use is predominantly passive, centered on immersion in natural settings rather than interactive or educational engagement. By demonstrating how participatory surveys combined with spatial mapping can reveal both ES demand and latent governance challenges, this study shows that spontaneously restored urban wetlands can function as high-value, multifunctional assets and provide generally applicable insights for adaptive management in rapidly changing cities.

Cities face increasing pressures from climate change, biodiversity loss, and accelerating urban expansion, making informed management of urban green infrastructure (UGI) essential for climate adaptation, public health, and long-term urban resilience. While UGI provides vital ecosystem services (ES), stakeholders, particularly university students as future planners, administrators, and civic actors, often have uneven understandings of their contributions to urban well-being and to evidence-based environmental governance. This case study examines how students from diverse academic disciplines perceive ES in Băneasa Forest, an urban forest in Bucharest exposed to development pressures, and engage in sustainability-related decision-making within a contested urban land-use context. Disciplinary background strongly shapes initial understandings and conservation priorities, reflecting knowledge asymmetries that parallel real-world governance dynamics between ecological experts, administrative sectors, and sociocultural stakeholders, yet a brief, targeted educational intervention improves conceptual clarity, ecological literacy, and willingness to participate in civic and service-learning initiatives. Notably, gains in the recognition of regulating and supporting services highlight the potential of interdisciplinary education to strengthen the cognitive foundations required for precautionary and ecosystem-based urban governance. By demonstrating how ES frameworks can foster interdisciplinary learning and informed action in a real metropolitan environmental context, this study offers a transferable model for integrating UNESCO-aligned Education for Sustainable Development into higher education curricula while simultaneously enhancing institutional capacity for cross-sectoral collaboration in urban forest management. In doing so, it positions universities as active intermediaries at the science–policy–society interface, contributing to more resilient and participatory urban environmental governance.

Abstract Riparian forest buffers are a potentially potent nature‐based solution for mitigating environmental degradation and improving biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in stream‐riparian networks. However, uncertainties about how buffer size, spatial configuration and land‐use intensity shape outcomes and trade‐offs hinder management applications. We conducted coordinated field surveys and modelling across four European countries to evaluate how riparian forest properties influence stream‐riparian environments, biodiversity, ecosystem processes and macroinvertebrate functional traits along agricultural and urban land‐use gradients. Riparian forest buffers had strong effects on habitats, increasing shading and coarse woody debris. Sediment deposition was halved in buffered stream reaches, and longer buffers lowered thermal maxima in stream and riparian habitats by 13%–17%. Buffers further reduced effects of increasing agricultural land use on soluble reactive phosphate concentrations, although this response was highly variable. These environmental changes were associated with multiple effects on biodiversity and ecosystem function. Buffer presence and/or increasing length were associated with 30%–167% increases in microbial detritus decomposition, a 44% increase in riparian ground beetle diversity, and 18%–77% increases in stream macroinvertebrate diversity and the EPT biotic index, and macroinvertebrate leaf shredding and algal grazing traits. In contrast, algal biomass accrual and web‐building spider diversity declined by 33% and 36%, respectively, in buffered reaches. As land‐use intensified, riparian forest buffers helped maintain macroinvertebrate functional diversity and shredding, predation, and filtration traits, and saturated fatty acid content in terrestrial predators. In contrast, macroinvertebrate particle‐gathering traits declined. The spatial configuration of riparian forest influenced stream ecosystems at local scales: dissolved phosphorus and diatom species richness declined as spatial proximity among upstream riparian forest blocks decreased, while a diatom‐based biomonitoring index increased. Synthesis and applications . Riparian forest buffers support biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and food webs in human‐modified landscapes, and dampen land‐use and climate stressors (sediments, nutrients, thermal maxima), motivating their wider use in management. These outcomes were regulated by the presence or size of mostly small, mature buffers and sometimes by proximity among riparian forest blocks upstream, indicating that even modest investments in expanding existing buffer networks are likely to deliver cumulative ecological benefits.

Riparian zones represent valuable riverine habitats that contribute to regional biodiversity and promote valuable ecosystem services within their catchments. Land use changes historically impacted riparian areas within most agrarian catchments, leading only to small land gains at high cost of ecosystem service loss. Ground beetles represent validated bioindicators and an important group of predators acknowledged as valuable cross-ecosystem trophic links and pest control agents. We studied the community composition of ground beetles along a land use gradient within the riparian zones of a moderately impacted agricultural catchment. We emphasize the importance of riparian forested buffers for sustainable agriculture through the support of multiple pest predators and the promotion of higher biodiversity across agrarian landscapes.

Overcoming conceptual and institutional barriers demands interdisciplinary collaboration, improved governance, and stronger stakeholder engagement to promote sustainable urban planning and enhance ecosystem resilience. In the transition toward resilient cities, the concept of ecosystem services serves as a critical interface between science, planning, and governance, fostering stakeholder engagement and translating the complex ecosystem functions into indicators for urban planning. This study aims to assess existing knowledge on Urban Ecosystem Services (UESs) and their implications for urban green infrastructure planning across Central and Eastern Europe. A comprehensive, qualitative and quantitative review of the peer-reviewed literature retrieved from Web of Science and SCOPUS, was conducted for 11 former socialist countries that joined the European Union after 2004. The results reveal major barriers to UES integration, including inconsistent terminology, institutional inertia, fragmented governance, and limited stakeholder participation. Although research interest in UESs is increasing, research remains geographically concentrated in a few cities, mainly capitals, thereby constraining the understanding of spatial patterns and drivers of UES supply and demand across the region. Moreover, production services and ecological processes sustaining urban systems are largely underexplored. The study concludes that advancing UES research and practice requires a holistic, multi-scale, and standardized approach that identifies key stressors and context-specific impacts. Overcoming conceptual and institutional barriers demands interdisciplinary collaboration, improved governance, and enhanced stakeholder engagement to promote sustainable urban planning and enhance ecosystem resilience.

Stream and riparian habitats are meta-ecosystems that can be strongly connected via the emergence of aquatic insects, which form an important prey subsidy for terrestrial consumers. Anthropogenic perturbations that impact these habitats may indirectly propagate across traditional ecosystem boundaries, thus weakening aquatic-terrestrial food web linkages. We investigated how algal production, aquatic invertebrates, and terrestrial spiders influence cross-ecosystem connectivity in temperate streams across four European catchments with varying levels of human disturbance. We used fatty acid biomarkers to measure putative aquatic linkages to riparian spiders. Variation-partitioning analysis indicated that aquatic insect dispersal traits explained a relatively large proportion of variability in the fatty acid profile of spiders. Trophic connectivity, as measured by the proportion of the polyunsaturated fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and the ratio of EPA to its chemical precursor, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), was positively associated with abundances of "aerial active" dispersing aquatic insects. However, this positive influence was also associated with changes in environmental context and arachnid beta diversity. Structural equation modeling disentangled how aquatic insect communities influence trophic connectivity with riparian predators after accounting for biological and environmental contingencies. Our results show how subsidies of stream insects are a putative source of essential fatty acids for adjacent terrestrial food webs. Catchment-wide impacts indirectly propagated to the local scale through impacts on aquatic invertebrate communities, thus affecting stream-riparian food webs. Increased riparian tree cover enhanced stream insect subsidies via dispersal traits despite reducing aquatic primary production through shading. Consequently, ecosystem properties such as woody riparian buffers that increase aquatic-terrestrial trophic connectivity have the potential to affect a wide range of consumers in modified landscapes.

Riparian predatory arthropods represent one of the main trophic links between lotic and terrestrial ecosystems along riverine landscapes. The use of the trait-based approach promises to enhance our understanding of how these predatory communities interact with their environment through their response to various drivers of change and through their trophic interactions. We reviewed the scientific literature focused on the interaction between drivers of community change (natural and anthropogenic) and the functional traits and functional diversity components that characterize riparian ground beetles and spiders and, ultimately, on their role as cross-ecosystem trophic links. We highlight land use changes and river regulations as the strongest drivers that change the communities we study, often through various interacting mechanisms that favor the replacement of riparian specialists with generalist species, thus altering aquatic–terrestrial connectivity and the resilience of riverine arthropod consumers. Tropical regions and traits related to community responses to extreme climatic events (e.g., submersion tolerance and desiccation resistance) are less studied, while inconsistent patterns are noticed for well-studied traits, especially for spiders (e.g., their feeding preference response to aquatic subsidy availability and their body size response to flooding and bank hydrological connectivity). Future research should focus on the aforementioned drivers and knowledge gaps, along with the functional diversity changes in predatory arthropod communities along environmental and anthropogenic impact gradients, in order to improve riparian conservation.

Abstract Millipedes are soil macrodetritivores with considerable roles in decomposing organic matter and recycling nutrients. This paper aims to identify the effects of land use on millipedes based on a literature review. Land use changes impact species distribution, diversity, and behavior with consequences for litter decomposition and soil quality. Surrounding landscapes influence the millipedes’ community structure. The effects of land use under different ecological contexts and in wetlands and woody riparian zones constitute essential gaps in knowledge.

The past years’ uncertainties and pressures resulted from the pandemic, alongside new developments in social technology, 5G, cloud computing, augmented and virtual reality, have generated the perfect setting for the metaverse to gain traction. Several companies found there’s a critical need to redefine the work environment and started exploring the metaverse concept beyond the entertainment sector. Thus, new tools for collaboration and data visualization within a digital shared space are being created, aiming for a fully immersive interaction between the virtual and the physical worlds within the next few years. While still in its early developments, the metaverse can be seen as an extension of the social media platforms, and an opportunity to leverage remote work even further. ICESS 2022 provides a space for all those interested in Economics and Social Sciences to discuss and exchange research ideas in the light of the work environment, business model, and technological changes driven by COVID-19. We welcome both empirical and theoretical work that is broadly consistent with the conference’s general theme. The main topics of the conference are focused on, but not limited to, the following sections: Applied Economics, Statistics and Data Science

Stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) is a species of great conservation concern throughout its range. Over the past century, it has experienced a dramatic decline in abundance and distribution in the Black Sea basin. Information regarding the genetic structure of the species is very limited in the region, despite its crucial importance for developing adequate management plans for the species' conservation and recovery. Samples from 163 A. stellatus were analysed using mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA markers to investigate the species' genetic characteristics in the north-western and southern Black Sea. Both genetic markers revealed high genetic diversity (153 haplotypes and 264 alleles) and low genetic differentiation of marine and freshwater catches. The north-western Black Sea population is undergoing a slight demographic expansion after a bottleneck event induced by overfishing and dam constructions. The genetic population structure indicates a single genetic cluster in the north-western Black Sea region and signs of admixture of two genetic clusters in the southern region. It also provides the first evidence for a remnant reproductive stellate sturgeon micro-population in rivers of Turkey and Georgia. A sturgeon fishing ban and stocking activities carried out during the last decades, largely without any prior genetic assessment of the sturgeon populations, added little conservation value. Outreach initiatives and urgent actions are required to foster the recovery of this Critically Endangered species in the region. Reconstruction of the connectivity of the rivers and the enhancement of habitats and spawning grounds are beneficial to all sturgeon species. An ex-situ conservation programme for Turkish rivers which flow into the Black Sea would be beneficial to help conserve the genetic resources until the habitats and migration routes become functional. Moreover, genetic screening and recruitment programmes must be functional for all rivers flowing into the Black Sea.

Despite the benefits of riparian vegetation, they are limitedly implemented in water management – which is partly due to the lack of information on their effectiveness. In this context, social learning is valuable to inform stakeholders of the efficacy of riparian vegetation in mitigating stream degradation. Tools used in social learning activities are of paramount importance in the learning process. We developed a Bayesian belief network (BBN) model as a learning tool to simulate and assess the reach- and segment-scale effects of riparian vegetation properties and subcatchment-scale land use on instream invertebrates. We surveyed reach-scale riparian conditions, extracted segment-scale riparian and land use information from geographic information system (GIS) data and collected macroinvertebrate samples from four catchments in Europe (Belgium, Norway, Romania and Sweden). We modelled the ecological water quality, expressed as Average Score Per Taxon, as a function of different riparian variables using the BBN modelling approach. The collected data were used to populate the conditional probability table of the BBN model. The model simulations provided insights into the usefulness of both reach- and segment-scale riparian vegetation attributes in enhancing ecological water quality. We assessed the strengths and limitations of the BBN model for application as a learning tool. Despite some weaknesses, the BBN model has great potential in workshop activities to stimulate key learning processes that help inform the management of riparian zones.

Microbes play a critical role in plant litter decomposition and influence the fate of carbon in rivers and riparian zones. When decomposing low-nutrient plant litter, microbes acquire nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from the environment (i.e., nutrient immobilization), and this process is potentially sensitive to nutrient loading and changing climate. Nonetheless, environmental controls on immobilization are poorly understood because rates are also influenced by plant litter chemistry, which is coupled to the same environmental factors. Here we used a standardized, low-nutrient organic matter substrate (cotton strips) to quantify nutrient immobilization at 100 paired stream and riparian sites representing 11 biomes worldwide. Immobilization rates varied by three orders of magnitude, were greater in rivers than riparian zones, and were strongly correlated to decomposition rates. In rivers, P immobilization rates were controlled by surface water phosphate concentrations, but N immobilization rates were not related to inorganic N. The N:P of immobilized nutrients was tightly constrained to a molar ratio of 10:1 despite wide variation in surface water N:P. Immobilization rates were temperature-dependent in riparian zones but not related to temperature in rivers. However, in rivers nutrient supply ultimately controlled whether microbes could achieve the maximum expected decomposition rate at a given temperature. Collectively, we demonstrated that exogenous nutrient supply and immobilization are critical control points for decomposition of organic matter.

As copepods are an important food source for most fish larvae, there is a continuing interest in developing techniques for culturing marine copepods as live food in aquaculture. Studies have shown that several species of calanoid copepods can be used successfully in aquaculture, acclimatized and grown in the laboratory over several generations and serve as testing organisms in acute toxicity tests. However, significant difficulties in cultivating calanoid copepods in high quantities were reported. They are related to their low tolerance to changes in water quality and reduced production capacity compared to other taxonomic groups. Therefore, working methods for obtaining viable cultures of calanoid copepods are dependent highly on the local environmental context. Until now, such a method has not been implemented for calanoid species from the Romanian Black Sea coast. This paper details the methodology we adapted and used for achieving a viable Acartia (Acartiura) clausi (Giesbrecht, 1889) culture using specimens collected along the Romania Black Sea coast Reproduction and egg hatching occurred under laboratory-controlled conditions, and viable individuals of A. clausi were obtained. Our results open the possibility of integrating this species in toxicity tests and food production for the marine aquaculture industry.

Stream and terrestrial ecosystems are intimately connected by riparian zones that support high biodiversity but are also vulnerable to human impacts. Landscape disturbances, overgrazing, and diffuse pollution of agrochemicals threaten riparian biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. We assessed how terrestrial invertebrate communities respond to changes in riparian vegetation in Romanian agricultural catchments, with a focus on the role of forested riparian buffers. Riparian invertebrates were sampled in 10 paired sites, with each pair consisting of an unbuffered upstream reach and a downstream reach buffered with woody riparian vegetation. Our results revealed distinct invertebrate community structures in the two site types. Out of 33 invertebrate families, 13 were unique to either forested (6) or unbuffered (7) sites. Thomisidae, Clubionidae, Tetragnathidae, Curculionidae, Culicidae, and Cicadidae were associated with forested buffers, while Lycosidae, Chrysomelidae, Staphylinidae, Coccinellidae, Tettigoniidae, Formicidae, and Eutichuridae were more abundant in unbuffered sites. Despite statistically equivocal results, invertebrate diversity was generally higher in forested riparian buffers. Local riparian attributes significantly influenced patterns in invertebrate community composition. Our findings highlight the importance of local woody riparian buffers in maintaining terrestrial invertebrate diversity and their potential contribution as a multifunctional management tool in agricultural landscapes.

The increased density of human population globally and the negative impact of some human actions put pressure on the components of natural capital and its ability to regulate and support the effects of human activities. The high complexity of urban systems, multidisciplinarity of issues and multiple impacts they face (resulting from overpopulation, pollution, climate change and, more recently, pandemics) pose an increased challenge for the management of urban agglomerations. In this context, terms such as resilience and sustainability or environmental protection are increasingly used in public administrations. In this review, we want to highlight the importance of green urban areas in providing cultural and regulating benefits to society and the role students' play in identifying and raising awareness on the services that natural capital offers to human communities. The reviewed literature emphasizes the multifunctional role of urban natural areas, including biodiversity conservation and provision of benefits essential for human population well-being. Despite the general recognition of the positive role of civic engagement for the development of highly qualified and better adapted human resources, our review revealed the limited civic engagement of universities in assessing and raising awareness on the role of green areas for urban communities. We also noticed an increased interest of universities in growing their impact on society and giving students opportunities for civic engagement.

Riparian zones form the interface between stream and terrestrial ecosystems and play a key role through their vegetation structure in determining stream biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and regulating human impacts, such as warming, nutrient enrichment and sedimentation. We assessed how differing riparian vegetation types influence the structural and functional composition (based on species traits) of stream invertebrate communities in agricultural catchments. We characterized riparian and stream habitat conditions and sampled stream invertebrate communities in 10 independent site pairs, each comprising one “unbuffered” reach lacking woody riparian vegetation and a second downstream reach with a woody riparian buffer. Forested riparian buffers were associated with greater shading, increased gravel content in stream substrates and faster flow velocities. We detected changes in invertebrate taxonomic composition in response to buffer presence, with an increase in sensitive Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) taxa and increases in key invertebrate species traits, including species with preference for gravel substrates and aerial active dispersal as adults. Riparian vegetation independently explained most variation in taxa composition, whereas riparian and instream habitat together explained most variation in functional composition. Our results highlight how changes in stream invertebrate trait distributions may indirectly reflect differences in riparian habitat, with implications for stream health and cross-ecosystem connectivity.