Conferences in October

We are happy to announce the two events that took place in October (XVII Subfossil Cladocera Workshop and LXIV Hydrobiological Days), during which the results of several researches financed by the ÉMNL 5B subproject were presented in the form of poster or oral presentations.

XVII Subfossil Cladocera workshop

The XVII. Subfossil Cladocera Workshop took place between 4-7 October in Késmarské Žľaby (High Tatra Mountains, Tatra National Park) focused on subfossil remains of Cladocera (a.k.a water fleas) in lake sediments – as an important type of proxy in paleolimnology which is applied mainly for water level and trophic state reconstruction. As Tímea Chamutiová - as an organizer of the workshop and a participant of the National Laboratory project -  informed us, Atte Korhola organized the first workshop in Helsinki in 1999 and was the chief organiser for a long time. These meetings have been initiated by Kaarina Sarmaja-Korjonen (University of Helsinki) and Krystyna Szeroczyńska, nowadays Edyta Zawisza (Institute of Geology, Polish Academy of Sciences). Their original, and still very important purpose was learning and teaching the identification of Cladocera remains and sharing the knowledge between beginners and experienced colleagues. Currently, there are always oral and poster presentations, a microscopic (determination) session and an excursion. The topics have broadened, but the character of the workshops remained informal and friendly. The participants of the workshop had the opportunity to make an excursion to the Green Pleso in the High Tatra Mountains. Our colleagues at the workshop who are connected to the National Laboratory project were János Korponai (NKE), Andor Soltész, István Gyulai, Andrea Böjthe (University of Debrecen) and Tímea Chamutiová (Matej Bel University). As mentioned already, Tímea was in charge of organizing the event whereas the others prepared posters for the workshop.

LXIV Hydrobiologist Days

The Hydrobiologist Days in Tihany is a traditional event in October, this year it was organised for the 64^th time. Students and teachers of our department are regular guests at this conference. Our students Bea Bartalovics (University of Pécs) and Eszter Tombor (ELTE) took part this year at the friendly but professionally impeccable conference organized by the Balaton Limnological Research Institute, but primarily by algologist Boglárka Somogyi (BLKI). As part of the paleolimnological research on Lake Balaton, Bea worked on the chronomid analysis of our gravity core taken from the Siófok Basin of the lake. In her conference presentation, she compared the fauna of the Siófok Basin with the previously analysed chironomid community of the Szemes Basin. According to her results, Chironomus plumosus-type became dominant in both basins between 1920 and 1930, which indicates an increase in the trophic state of Lake Balaton. The increasing trophic level was likely connected to the construction of summer houses without sewage networks and population growth that started after the Trianon Treaty in this area. Eszter's research topic was the investigation of the chironomid community of the Pátkai Reservoir, established for the water supply of Lake Velence. In her presentation she drew attention to the impact of the increasing nutrient content of the reservoir on the fauna (increasing proportion of species indicating eutrophic-hypertrophic conditions) and the need for improving water quality.