A generous donation from one of our association members has enabled us to offer a MoFA research grant for the first time. We are particularly pleased about this as it allows us to fulfil our primary purpose of promoting research on molluscs.
The detailed conditions and specifications of this call can be found in the attached document.
Sincerely, Helmut Sattmann, Agnes Bisenberger and Lisi Haring
Dear MoFA members and friends of malacology,
we would like to draw your attention to the following interesting calls:
Polish Malacological Seminar
The second announcement of the Polish Malacological Seminar is available →here
The seminar is held on 8-10 May 2025 in Krobia near Toruń, Poland. The registration, title and proposed type of presentation, and invoice details (only if needed) must be submitted by 16 March 2025.
Master-Thesis Offer
Thesis topics on biodiversity loss in the Mediterranean Sea are offered by Paolo G. Albano to be conducted at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy. The following is the call from Paolo G. Albano:
I am offering thesis topics on biodiversity loss in the Mediterranean Sea to be conducted at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy. The study will address biodiversity loss in the eastern Mediterranean by quantifying taxonomic diversity in living assemblages and compare it to a baseline reconstructed from death assemblages. The thesis is thus suitable for students in both the life and earth sciences.
More context is available in this paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.2469
The student will sort benthos samples learning to distinguish the most frequent phyla of marine invertebrates and will then learn to identify molluscs at the species level. Indeed, students interested in molluscan diversity will find a particularly welcoming and entertaining working environment!
Data analysis is focused on comparison of species richness in living and death assemblages to quantify change and is better conducted in the R statistical environment. Reporting will follow home institutions’ expectations.
Students are expected to spend at least four months in Naples to conduct lab work, preferably starting in early September 2025. Data analysis and thesis writing may be conducted back at home institutions, despite data analysis is more easily supervised in person.
Interested candidates may contact me at pgalbano@gmail.com
—
Dr. Paolo G. ALBANO, Ph.D. (he/him)
Senior Scientist, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, National Institute of Marine Biology, Ecology and Biotechnology, Naples, Italy
Research Associate, Department of Paleontology, University of Vienna, Austria
We are very pleased to announce the 4th MoFA meeting! It will take place from 26-27 September 2025 in Linz, Upper Austria. On Friday 26.9., the scientific part of the meeting will take place in the Biology Center Linz. On Saturday 27.9., there will be a malacological excursion in the region, details will follow.
We are already looking forward to a diverse program of talks and to seeing many familiar and also new faces. The MoFA Junior Awards will also be presented again during the conference.
Details on registration, accommodation and the excursion program will follow soon.
On Saturday 22.2.2025 from 1 – 4 pm, the Landschaftspflegeverein Thermenlinie will host a landscape maintenance event at the natural monument of dry grassland in Bad Fischau-Brunn. The highest-ranking protected species in this area is the Austrian heath snail Helicopsis austriaca, which is endemic to Lower Austria. Visitors can find an information board on-site provided by MoFA and the LPV with details about the natural monument and its unique species.
We warmly welcome volunteers to join us for this event. For more information and to register, please visit:
https://landschaftspflegeverein.at/termine/naturschutz-mit-schere-krampen-und-sage-trockenrasenpflege-beim-naturdenkmal-auf-den-riegeln/
We are also happy to organize transport from either Vienna Liesing / Siebenhirten or the train station Brunn an der Schneebergbahn.
If desired, a “debriefing” in a local wine tavern or restaurant can also be arranged.
Dear MoFA members, dear friends of malacology,
we look back on a very successful year 2024, with the publication of the MoFA-journal Arianta 11, with online contributions on snails in the garden, a series of Ö1 broadcasts on the mollusc fauna at Bisamberg and the Alte Schanzen and a MoFA excursion to Bisamberg.
Before the publication is after the publication: We are asking for submissions of manuscripts for Arianta 12. If you have interesting observations, investigations, reports on molluscs that you would like to publish with us, please send your manuscript (as a Word text file) including figures and tables to team@molluskenforschung.at by February 28, 2025. Please note the guidelines for authors when submitting your manuscript.
Further current malacological news are listed below:
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2025!
Dear friends of malacology,
we are pleased to share the latest edition of the newsletter of the Malakologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Salzburg.
We hope you enjoy reading!
Dear members and friends of MoFA,
Our beautiful and widely read and cited journal ARIANTA is not only a publication platform for scientific malacological articles, but also an important medium for the association both internally and externally.
The editors of the journal ARIANTA and the board of MoFA would be delighted to receive submissions of exciting scientific articles for the next issue. All fields of malacology are welcome, be it in the form of original papers, reviews, field trip reports (with species lists) and remarkable observations.
As I will be absent as editor in December 2024 and January 2025, I would ask any interested parties to send their manuscripts and associated enquiries to team@molluskenforschung.at.
The submission deadline for Arianta12 is 28 February 2025.
I look forward to another informative and diverse issue of our journal in the coming year.
With kind regards
Helmut Sattmann
The flood disaster on the Perschling River in Lower Austria has affected us all deeply, especially the incredible and outright false reports claiming that Theodoxus danubialis or the protection of this snail has delayed or even prevented the dam restoration. We have compiled a fact sheet of the snail in order to better understand its way of life and its occurrence (in German). → Steckbrief Theodoxus danubialis
In addition, we want to share the link to a statement from the Naturschutzbund on this topic (in German):
https://naturschutzbund.at/newsreader-346/items/dammbruch-an-der-perschling-naturschutz-ist-nicht-schuld.html
Dear friends of malacology!
On 27 September 2024 we plan to go on a malacological excursion to the Bisamberg and the Alte Schanzen in Vienna under the guidance of Michael Duda and Katharina Mason. The excursion is a joint event with the Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Austria (ZooBot). We would like to explicitly invite all those interested in molluscs to get to know the mollusc fauna of this part of Vienna.
No previous knowledge is required!
The area around Vienna’s Bisamberg is important for nature conservation because of its dry, open habitats. The numerous dry grasslands in the area are habitats for several xerothermophilic species that are endangered and protected in Austria. However, we will also be on the lookout for water molluscs.
The meeting point will be at the Senderstraße parking lot, 1210 Vienna, probably at 10 am. The meeting point can easily be reached by public bus from Floridsdorf subway station.
Duration of the excursion: around 6 hours.
More information will follow soon.
Registration by 20 September 2024 at team@molluskenforschung.at
Maximum number of participants: 20
We look forward to your participation!
Dear friends of malacology,
we are pleased to share the latest edition of the newsletter of the Malakologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Salzburg.
We hope you enjoy reading!
© MoFA
MOFA, S. Bamberger
© MoFA
A. Mrkvicka
A. Mrkvicka
© NHMW (I. Gallmetzer)
M. Duda
Malakologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft, Haus der Natur, Salzburg