The story of my project started in 2012.

That's when I submitted a project proposal for the first time, and although I didn't win, I really appreciated the existence of minimum requirements for participating in the competition. Far from being discouraged, I continued to improve my scientometric indicators in relation to those requirements, and in 2014 my proposal reached a score that placed me on the list of funding projects. I always trusted that I would win at some point, I confess that the only unknown was when a new competition would appear, the lack of predictability being one of the darkest side (maybe the only one) that I would attribute to UEFISCDI.

I was confident that I would win because I proposed a beautiful project, not necessarily because it addresses crayfish, the animals which I draw on my career, but because I aimed to address a topic in line with current problems, namely the biology of invasion. Romania was at that time one of the few European countries on the early stage of invasion of spiny-cheek crayfish (Orconectes limosus), a species that had already wreaked many native populations in Western Europe. Thus, the real time invasion on the Danube became a good scientific opportunity in terms of biological and ecological understandings. Many questions could have been answered if I had been granted the opportunity to invest in this idea. And the UEFISCDI funding from 2014 allowed me to do that. Even before I found out the results, my team was already produced a paper that showed that invasive crayfish is a superior competitor to the native species because its females are able to naturally increase the number of eggs in the area of active invasion.

Then came the management work: acquisitions, hiring team members, reporting, things I hadn't done before. I liked what I did and in each of them I made sure everything was impeccable. The terrain was the most beautiful part of the project, which any zoologist or ecologist especially appreciates. The large amount of new data paved the way for new ideas, ideas that we had not even thought about at the time of submitting the project proposal. We took them all in, we expanded the team through volunteer students and third partners, able to benefit from the project consumables with us. We obtained preliminary and final results with which we went to several important conferences, at one of them a Diploma Student from the project team being appreciated with the award for "best poster", even if the competition was made up of PhD students from all over the world. The final results are visible in the five scientific papers already published, as well as in the 6 under evaluation at the time of final reporting (2017).

A fairly consistent list of papers is on the work table, still requiring work to demonstrate what we set out to do. We are lucky that the host institution allowed us to use 50% of the project management for research purposes, so we continued to invest more in genetic or isotope analyzes. The list of results, as well as the manuscripts stage can be consulted on this website by accessing the Project results page. It was a real pleasure to me and my learn that our project received the A+ at the final evaluation score by UEFISCDI experts.

For my career, this project was a very important step, allowing me to compete for a position as an associate professor. I confess that personally I was able to develop a lot, my income being considerably higher during the project. Most importantly, this project has given me confidence that I can access other projects. The only problem, as I said before, is the lack of competitions that would facilitate my professional career. Normally, one project should be followed by another project, but we all Romanians know that no one knows when the next competition will be available.

My relationship, as project director, with the funding agency UEFISCDI was impeccable: very efficient communication, the financing complied with the approved budget (even if it was the case that in 2016 a certain part of the amount was relocated for 2017). The project officer acted impeccably and constantly each time. Perhaps it should be mentioned that the expected results in a project usually start to appear only after the accumulation and processing of data, or the project being only two years long, it is easy to understand that most important papers will appear after the project ends, and there is no procedure for the project leader to update the final report. Another important aspect I consider the post-implementation evaluation of the projects. I would like any evaluator of a future competition to be able to consult the results of those who have implemented projects from UEFISCDI funds. Also, I find the portability of projects to be a very good idea, although I haven't used it, I hope it won't be removed from future regulations. Also, foreign reviewers, maybe they are not perfect, but much more objective than those in our country.

I want to dedicate the conclusion to those who made it possible for me to have these experiences associated with a research project, so a sincere thank you!

Mai, 2018

This is the Annual Report consisting of detailed information regarding the balance between proposed objectives, costs and obtained results. The Funding Agency (UEFISCDI) will receive the official document of this Annual Report, the public version being adapted to be easy to read and understand. The Annual Report is written and assumed by the Principal Investigator of the Project.

During most of 2016’s stage, the team has been mostly involved in field sampling, as well as in processing the samples in the laboratory. The first half of this year represented the optimum for field sampling in order to investigate fecundity (Work package 1). We managed to collect sufficient samples for the population genetics work plan, and also for Aphanomyces astaci pathogen prevalence. Molecular investigations have been conducted during the second half of the year. Following the obtained data, the paper „Hidden sites in distribution of crayfish plague pathogen Aphanomyces astaci in Europe: relic genotype(s) of older outbreaks?” has been drafted, and is now under review in the journal  Biological Invasions. The paper addresses the issue of Aphanomyces astaci various strain distribution in the eastern limit area of Orconectes limosus invasion up to Dnister river basin. The paper fits into Working package 3 - Conservation of indigenous species.

The optimal season for benthonic sample gathering began in the second half of the year, period in which the team underwent numerous field campaigns (Working package 2 - Ecology of invasion). We successfully collected a relevant amount of samples representing the crayfish, benthonic invertebrates, fish, vegetation and detritus, samples which were subsequently processed in the laboratory for specific stable isotope analyzes. Stable isotope analyzes have been successfully finished in the last months of 2016, while data processing and scientifically valorization being scheduled for 2017.

Regarding the evaluation process of the manuscript that was submitted in 2015, it has been rejected by Oecologia, then sent for evaluation to Ecohydrology (journal impact factor 2.138, Q1 according to JCR 2015). The paper has been currently accepted and published as „Flash-flood potential: a proxy for crayfish habitat stability”.

I wish to add the fact that the project’s host institution supports the expansion of scientific research of the project by making 50% of the indirect costs available to the project director. These financial resources have allowed addressing new, complementary topics that haven’t been initially included in the application form. Thus, we had the chance to encourage and promote students that were interested in scientific research, with activities concretized in papers and participation in conferences, as first authors. A first paper as a result of this circumstances addresses the issue described in Working package 3 - Conservation of indigenous species dealing the competition between the native and invasive crayfish species. The manuscript „Experimental evidence of the successful invader Orconectes limosus dominating the native Astacus leptodactylus in acquiring shelter and food” is currently under evaluation in Biologia.

This study has been presented by its authors, student Lele Sandra Florina (Project team member) at International Association of Astacology 21th Symposium, conference organized by Real Jardin Botanico, in Madrid. The poster has been awarded with the  „Outstanding Student Poster Award”.

At the same scientific event, the oral presentation „The future of endangered Austropotamobius torrentium (Schrank 1803) in the light of protected areas and habitat fragmentation: a case study from the Carpathians” has also been presented.

The overall participation in scientific events has also been completed in the conference “Diaspora in Scientific Research and Higher Education in Romania – Diaspora and its friends” organized by MECS, UEFISCDI in partnership with West University of Timisoara. On this occasion, Octavian Pacioglu, a former member of Diaspora now successfully integrated in the project team presented „Aquatic ecology and spatial ecology: interdisciplinary through Big Data” (in Romanian).

Student promotion is a priority, and thus, two papers have been presented in the conference held by the West University of Timisoara: „Chelae biometry of four crayfish species suggests predominantly ambidextrous habitude” (in Romanian) presented by Sandra Lele, student and Project team member,  and „Adaptive response to early dominance of an acute invader” presented by Adelina Getejanc, volunteer student (in Romanian).

December 2016

Our project in the University Newsletter (Romanian only).

February 2016

This is the Annual Report consisting of detailed information regarding the balance between proposed objectives, costs and obtained results. The Funding Agency (UEFISCDI) will receive the official document of this Annual Report, the public version being adapted to be easy to read and understand. The Annual Report is written and assumed by the Principal Investigator of the Project.

The first step in the implementation of the Project was the Contracting. After the application was announced as being funded, all the legal procedures have been fulfilled and Funding Contract no. 23 from 01 10 2015 was signed. After this, the internal procedures within the West University of Timisoara (as the Host Institution) have made possible hiring the team members and starting the procurement process of the necessary consumables.

From a scientific point of view, the research began with the preliminary data processing right after sending the application for evaluation. Goal argumentation was based on a consistent set of preliminary data which has been materialized in a first scientific paper accepted for publication in Zoology, a journal with an impact factor of 1.670 (according to JCR 2014). The paper “Plasticity in fecundity highlights the females’ importance in the spiny-cheek crayfish invasion mechanism” addressed the reproductive strategies (work package 1) expressed by the crayfish species competitors from the Lower Danube Basin. Considering the fact that the invasive species is capable of almost doubling the number of eggs, and thus the number of juveniles, we proposed the hypothesis that this biological feature is the main reason of their success in the invasion mechanism.

Also in this sphere of interest (reproductive strategies, work package 1), we have started collecting biological material in order to investigate parthenogenesis as an option by which the invasive species increases the multiplication rate in the active front of invasion.

The second scientific paper aims the protection of native species (work package 3). We have focused our attention towards the crayfish ability to use aquatic habitats by using the substrate stability as criterion. Thus, the geographical distribution data has been correlated with the erosion risk, a variable extracted from the digital elevation model. At the same time, our data includes the shelter type occupied by every individual depending on the firmness with which the substrate is inserted into the river. Statistical analysis revealed that both species have an optimum at which populations are normally represented, with a decreasing trend with the increasing risk of erosion. Austropotamobius torrentium was found to be capable of inhabiting river sectors with a higher erosion risk than Astacus astacus. By projecting Romania's whole hydrographical network, we noticed that the erosion risk could be considered a variable that explains the population fragmentation. At the time of reporting, the manuscript “Shelter choice prevents crayfish population drift in streams” is in the process of evaluation in Oecologia.

Result dissemination began by building the website for the project and hosted on crayfish.ro domain . We also attended the Annual Zoological Congress of “Grigore Antipa” Museum where the paper “Plasticity in fecundity highlights the females’ importance in the spiny-cheek crayfish invasion mechanism” has been presented. The abstracts volume can be downloaded from here.

December 2015

I am a biologist with a great interest in the field of freshwaters. My first professional contact with the aquatic ecology started ten years ago, time when I worked as a biologist at “Romanian Waters” Ltd. company, for a full year. Then, for almost another year, I worked as research assistant at the Institute of Speleology “Emil Racovita” Bucharest, where I focused on subterranean environment and groundwater ecology. These two years could be called the apprenticeship in the field of aquatic ecology. Two years later (2007) I have started a PhD study at Roehampton University, London, UK, with a theme of study about the impact of nitrates and soil collimation on the community of invertebrates inhabiting the interstitial habitats that connect the rivers with groundwater (called hyporheic habitat). After obtaining the title of Dr. (2012), I worked for six months as a postdoctoral scientist at a research station in Germany (Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries), in a project focused on the toxic impact of aluminum on lake invertebrates. After one year break, in the summer of 2013, I have started a second postdoctoral position , again in the UK, based at a research station in the county of Dorset and affiliated to Queen Mary University of London. The project focused on a theme of study about river food webs and the way that nutrients are transferred from basal resources (algae, detritus) to invertebrates and finally to fish.

I worked together with Lucian on this project proposal because I thought it was tackling a very interesting scientific issue. Moreover, the transferable skills from abroad are to be applied in this project. My role will be mainly in investigating the ecological aspects of spiny cheek crayfish invasion versus the local narrow –clawed and stone crayfish species. Together with colleagues from West University of Timisoara and from abroad (Koblenz-Landau University, Germany), we will quantify by state of the art techniques (carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses, genetic analyses of gut content) the way that the invasive species interact with both local species of crayfish, the degree of overlap of their ecological niches and the ecological advantages of the invasive species versus native ones. Another reason that attracted me in joining Dr. Pârvulescu’s team were the decent professional and financial aspects of my return back home. I consider that these are prerequisite incentives that any scientist from Diaspora should receive in order to be attracted back home. Because of all these aforementioned reasons, I was convinced to start a fruitful collaboration for an interesting, exciting and feasible project.

28 October 2015