NEOZOANS IN EUROPEAN WATERS - EXEMPLIFYING THE WORLDWIDE PROCESS OF INVASION AND SPECIES MIXING

The loss of biodiversity - the tendency of the world's fauna to become more and more homogeneous is widely acknowledged as a problem. Biodiversity is threatened by neozoism and acculturation as much as the extinction of species, but these dangers are less well known. Neozoism and acculturation have an effect on two levels; they lead 1) to an equalisation of the faunal regions and their originally different, specially adapted biocenoses, and 2) to a reduction of genetic diversity below the species level. These processes develop very rapidly in the European waters, particularly in the lowland river systems. The present contribution gives a brief review on neozoans in European inland waters.