LFU:online

The cosmopolitan and eye-catching freshwater crayfish will be used as a model, to provide students with knowledge about the diversity of organisms and their life-forms, their association to the level of organization in the evolutionary system, to understand various structural body elements, modifications and functional mechanisms, growth, development and reproduction, and to elaborate in the field fundamental components of up-to-date species protection projects.

Freshwater crayfish are a species rich (>640 species worldwide) and very old (>200 Mill. years) order within the Crustacea. They are the largest invertebrates in our freshwaters and impress due to their eye-catching and bizarre morphology. Diverse adaptations to various habitats (from aquatic to terrestrial) document their evolutionary success. In this class, crayfish will be used as models for the demonstration of several topics in zoology and their application in science and practice. For example: Phylogeny and evolution of crayfish; world-wide distribution, postglacial distribution in Europe; functional anatomy; functional morphology; reproduction and development; ecdysis, growth, fecundity; crayfish breeding, hatchery; ecology - their role in food-webs; crayfish as "ecological engineers", "keystone species concept"; neozoans; diseases, crayfish plague; symbioses; species protection, conservation (IUCN, EU, A, regional).

VO - lecture and discussions, voluntary: short students' presentation about selected literature

SE - short presentation by students based on newest and/or significant literature; as potentially organised as a field course, practical issues will be also covered: crayfish catch (methods), study of 3 native crayfish species, in vivo study of anatomy, morphology, function; qualitative and quantitative analyses of populations; catch-recatch; assessments of populations, in vivo observation of symbiosis, species protection measures, international significance (IUCN, EU, A, regional)

VO - written exam

SE - written protokoll (incl. fieldwork)

will be announced during the courses