Dear colleagues,

Within this call we are looking for young freshwater scientists, members of limnological societies within EFFS, or those aiming to join one of them as participating in this call, to form teams (minimum two persons) and to join our EUROPONDS mission. Our study aims to test the hypotheses that the biodiversity and nutritional value of emerging insects will be higher in ponds with lower trophic status, yet the biomass of insects will be higher in ponds with higher trophic status. Our objective is to
investigate: the taxonomy and biomass (biodiversity); and the energy content and dietary quality, as measured by total lipids and their fatty acids (nutritional value for subsequent consumers) of emerging insects from ponds across Europe.

Detailed information about the projects aims and tasks, as well as other organizational aspects, is provided in the PDF to this mail and on the project website [https://europonds.jimdosite.com/]. In order to participate in the project, interested young freshwater researchers should send the details requested in the pdf to the project’s official
email: europonds@gmx.net. The application deadline is midnight GMT June 30th 2020.

For additional questions and external collaborations through the EUROPONDS network, do not hesitate to contact us at rimceska@gmail.com
(Biljana) and lena.fehlinger@gmx.at (Lena). Any additional ideas are welcome!

Feel free to forward this call to any of your colleagues who might be interested.

The 3rd Collaborative European Freshwater Science Project for Young Researchers EUROPONDS was awarded by a joint initiative by the European Federation of Freshwater Sciences (EFFS) board, the European Fresh and Young Researchers (EFYR), and representatives of the Fresh Blood for Fresh Water (FBFW) meetings.