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Biodiversity monitoring and river connectivity - year at a glance from WP3

Updated: Dec 18, 2025

by Marija Smederevac-Lalić of IMSI, Belgrade (WP3 Lead)


One of the main focuses of DANUBE4all is to address the loss of river connectivity along the Danube and its tributaries. In meeting this, the goals of Work Package 3 are to analyse the significant pressures on surface waters within the Danube River Basin and to conduct a biological assessment that concentrates on the hydromorphological conditions of habitats - one of the key factors influencing biodiversity.


River restoration refers to actions aimed at re-establishing the natural structure, processes, and ecological functions of rivers that have been degraded by human activities, such as channelization, dam construction, pollution, sediment extraction, and land-use changes.


Restoration activities implemented at the project's three demonstration sites are intended to revive biological communities and ecological interactions, particularly those involving fish species, benthic macroinvertebrates, riparian vegetation, wetland and riverine bird species, as well as trophic networks and ecological niches.

2025 at a Glance


  1. Project Deliverables

  2. Biodiversity Monitoring Survey

  3. Demonstration Site monitoring

  4. Publications

  5. Public engagement and outreach


Danube floodplain - Photo courtesy of IMSI



  1. Project Deliverables


D3.1. Ecological status and biodiversity deficit analysis of the Danube River course

This report offers a comprehensive overview of the Danube River’s ecological status and biodiversity, which are essential information for ecosystem restoration. It includes an assessment of the river's ecological state, focusing on key fish species and habitat availability for both protected and invasive species, to help prioritize restoration actions.


The report identifies key factors affecting biodiversity, highlights existing biodiversity deficits, and proposes strategies for improving ecological conditions, including the creation of protected areas, establishment of ecological corridors, and implementation of sustainable resource management practices. It also introduces new methods for analysing and cleaning species occurrence data, and modelling habitat suitability for 94 fish, 663 benthic invertebrate, and 164 macrophyte species.


D3.2. Digital data-based map of habitats and biodiversity deficits

This output documents the metadata for habitat suitability models developed for fish species in the Danube River Basin. It includes a database of fish species occurrences and habitat suitability maps generated using species distribution models (SDMs) based on environmental predictors. These maps provide insights into habitat suitability, biodiversity metrics, and the connectivity of protected species’ habitats. Additionally, they cover critical invasive species and allow comparisons between historical and current fish distributions.


The data and maps will support conservation efforts and be integrated into the DANUBE4all GIS-based screening tool for broader accessibility and use.

 

  1. Biodiversity Monitoring Survey


During the summer, the fifth transnational Danube basin-wide biodiversity monitoring survey - or 'Joint Danube Survey 5 (JDS5)', was carried out along the entire Danube stretch, involving numerous national experts and project participants in the sampling campaign. Our efforts to improve the methodology were recognized, and new tributaries were included through the collection of additional eDNA samples (environmental DNA).


  1. Demonstration Site monitoring


Photo courtesy of IMSI


Pre-monitoring at the Upper and Middle Danube sites has been completed and we are now entering the next stage in which the actual hydromorphological interventions are being implemented. The demonstration site in the lower Danube has had to revise its plan due to administrative obstacles and have instead focused on a technical solution aimed at improving connectivity with the Black Sea.

 

Pre-monitoring results for the Middle Danube site confirm a clear pattern: silted groyne fields on the right bank support simplified, low-diversity communities dominated by tolerant or non-native species, while structurally diverse habitats on the left bank support native, flow-adapted fauna. These findings provide a strong justification for the planned restoration.


  1. Publications


We successfully published 7 scientific publications under the project in 2025.


 

One data paper on fish occurrences has been submitted, and we are currently working on a survey-questionnaire manuscript regarding expert’s opinions about fish biodiversity, monitoring, conservation, and restoration in the Danube River.

 

  1. Public engagement and outreach

A pilot River Walk has been organized in Serbia as an outdoor workshop with 26 students and 3 teachers from a primary school near the Podunav Canal, part of the “Gornje Podunavlje” Special Nature Reserve (Bački Monoštor locality).


Photos courtesy of IMSI


DANUBE4all was presented at the International Summer School on Biodiversity in the Danubian Floodplains – CEEPUS Network – ECOMANAQUA, where students were introduced to our work on biodiversity-related tasks within the project.


Our work captured notable attention and was granted the honor of opening the international conference in Bulgaria at the ‘’45th International Conference of the Danube Research Association (IAD)’’, held in Sofia, April 2025, and in Croatia at the 14th International Symposium ‘’Kopački Rit: Past, Present, and Future,’’ held in Osijek, September 2025.


We organized and participated in several workshops with young people and stakeholders to educate them as effectively as possible about the protection and importance of floodplain habitats and the potential for their restoration. During August, Dr. Marija M. Smederevac-Lalić contributed to an article which appeared in the August issue of the magazine Energetski Portal.





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