Do Molluscs Assemblages Reflect River Typology: A Case Study of Montenegro

Abstract

Molluscs are diverse and abundant component of macroinvertebrate assemblages inhabiting different types of river ecosystems. According to the literature data, a total of 143 freshwater mollusc taxa have been recorded for freshwater ecosystems of Montenegro. Gastropoda was represented by 120 taxa from 14 families, while the Bivalvia was represented by 23 species from 4 families. The typology of river and lake water bodies of Montenegro has been carried out according to the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC). In this study we used a simple river typology of Montenegrin watercourses based on two descriptors, the river size and the altitude. Our preliminary result revealed that the obtained mollusc assemblage clusters satisfactorily describe two main river types, the lowland portions of the large rivers in the Adriatic Sea Basin and the large- and medium-sized rivers at the mid-altitude. For a more confident water body typology based on mollusc assemblages, additional studies are highly needed.