Project leader: Priv. Doz. Mag. Dr. Mathias Harzhauser
Duration: 02/2013 - 01/2016
Project members:
- Thomas A. Neubauer (NHM Vienna)
- Elisavet Georgopoulou (NHM Vienna)
- Oleg Mandic (NHM Vienna)
- Andreas Kroh (NHM Vienna)
- Martin Zuschin (University of Vienna)
- Christian Albrecht (Justus Liebig University, Giessen)
- Thomas Wilke (Justus Liebig University, Giessen)
- Daniela Esu (Università "La Sapienza", Rome)
- Ewa Stworzewicz (Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków)
- Pere Anadón (Institut de Ciències de la Terra Jaume Almera, Barcelona)
- Michal Kováč (Comenius University, Bratislava)
- Michael Rasser (Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart)
- Frank Wesselingh (Naturalis, National Museum of Natural History, Leiden)
- Mikael Fortelius (University of Helsinki)
- Vitaliy V. Anistratenko (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine)
This study will provide the first detailed assessment of the composition of European freshwater gastropods during the Neogene
and Quaternary at species, genus and family levels, with emphasis on lake faunas. Biodiversity and composition of Holocene
lake faunas seem to be strongly influenced by the Quaternary Ice Ages. Several short-lived Miocene lakes, however, are strikingly
“modern” in their generic inventory and genus/species relations, suggesting that the modern composition is not necessarily
a young pattern, explained only by the glacial bottleneck. In contrast, the modern long-lived lakes of Europe host gastropod
assemblages with high endemicity and striking similarities with pre-Pleistocene lake faunas. The origin of these modern faunas,
however, is still enigmatic.
In a first step, the γ-diversity of several hundred modern and fossil European lakes will be evaluated. An international expert
team of palaeontologists and limnologists, with long-lasting experience with the fossil and modern faunas, European stratigraphy,
and a deep knowledge on the exhaustive relevant literature, is available for data acquisition, evaluation and controlling.
In the next step the huge accumulation of data will be made available permanently for the public via the FreshGEN-database
(Freshwater Gastropods of the European Neogene). This database will be set up to meet current standards for management and
storing of electronic biodiversity data and will be compatible with related projects. The most important topics to be tackled
based on the data, are to search for factors, which explain the γ-diversities through time and to look for geographic gradients
in species richness and/or faunal composition. Diversity data and inter-lake comparison will allow estimating endemism rates
and quantitatively defining biodiversity hotspots in present and past lakes. Shells-sizes of all taxa will be evaluated to
search for general patterns and to define phases of conspicuous „gigantism“.
The well resolved climate history of Europe during the last 23 million years will be a frame for linking species- and supraspecific
compositions with climatic trends and events. Ideally, the project will shed light on the origin of modern lake faunas by
the intense cooperation between zoologists and palaeontologists.
A major aim is to map and define a statistics-based Pan-European biogeography and palaeobiogeography of Neogene to Quaternary
freshwater systems. Once established, this database will be open for geographic and/or stratigraphic expansion. Finally, the
data are a solid base to estimate the (future) anthropogenic impact on Holocene lake faunas.
