Krasutska N. Effect of temperature on structural and functional characteristics of symbiocenoses of certain types of mollusks

The dissertation is devoted to the currently important research problem of water ecosystems under conditions of the global warming; in particular it describes the way how a temperature influences the structural and functional characteristics of symbiocenoses of mollusks in fresh-water ecosystems. In this dissertation the effect of anthropogenic increase of water temperature on symbiocenoses of mollusks has been examined on different levels of organization of the living: at the tissue level (intensity of metabolism; oxygen consumption rate; total protein content and activity of succinate dehydrogenase); at the organismal level (change in intensity of invasion and size of parasites; host weight and behavior change), and at the population level (changes in structure of population). Besides, in the dissertation there have been defined the particular features of the symbiocenoses located in water bodies exposed to anthropogenic increase of water temperature, namely the cooling ponds of the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant (Ukraine), the Konninska and Pontnovska Thermal Electric Power Stations (Poland). The Power Stations cooling ponds with an increased water temperature exhibited a poorer variety of symbiocenoses species as compared to natural water habitat. Additionally, an increase of water temperature induced an inter-population variability of meristic features of both unicellular (ciliates Conchophthirus) and multicellular (trematode Aspidogaster conchicola Baer, 1827) symbionts. For the first time in Poland (in Hotslavske lake) there has been found the trematode Aspidogaster conchicola in the mussel Sinanodonta woodiana (Lea). The practical significance of the dissertation resides in the fact that its materials can be used to resolve problems pertaining to assessment of anthropogenic transformation of water as well as to improve procedures of hydrobiological monitoring of cooling ponds of energy facilities in order to prevent epizooties and other negative consequences as regards parasitological and epidemiological situation. The results of the dissertation can be used to forecast scenarios of transformation of water ecosystems in response to climate change caused by the rise of temperature.