Talk entitled Impacts of urbanisation on the structure and dynamics of temperate, low order stream food webs will be held on Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. in the library of the Department of Botany, at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Rooseveltov trg 6 (3rd floor), by our guest speaker Elliott Laurence Price Postgraduate Student M.Sc. Aquatic Ecology by Research from the Queen Mary, University of London, UK, and currently a guest student working on his M.Sc. thesis at the Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb

Abstract:
The rate of urbanisation in many regions across the globe is accelerating and is predicted to continue well into the late 21st century. Such urbanisation is drastically altering the conditions of aquatic habitats such as streams and lakes within those areas. Streams are easily influenced by changes to the surrounding land use, thus the reduction of riparian vegetation and more point and diffuse source pollutant inputs create a physically, chemically and ecologically altered system that has consequences for the taxonomic and functional composition of resident macroinvertebrate communities. Such changes alter the dynamics and flow of nutrients and energy through the entire food web. Using stable isotope ratios of 12C/13C and 14N/15N in whole tissues of macroinvertebrates and potential food sources, we can estimate how urbanisation may be changing the delicate balance of these food webs.