MSc Student
Advisor: Konrad Fiedler

Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research
University of Vienna

Abstract

The subfamily Donaciinae (reed beetles) comprises specialized mono- and oligophagous herbivores associated with wetland plants. Their larvae develop underwater on the roots of aquatic vegetation, making them an ecologically distinctive group and an important component of wetland biodiversity. As wetland ecosystems have undergone substantial decline due to land-use change and hydrological alterations, resulting in increasing habitat degradation and drought stress, accurate knowledge of species distributions is becoming increasingly important for biodiversity research and conservation planning. However, potential shifts in their distribution have not yet been systematically assessed in Austria. This study aims to compile a comprehensive dataset of Austrian Donaciinae records by integrating historical occurrence data from museum collections with recent observations from citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist. The resulting dataset will be used to analyse current distribution patterns and to investigate spatial and temporal trends in species occurrences. Museum specimens will be digitized and georeferenced using BioRecords and combined with citizen science observations. The standardized dataset will be aggregated to a 6 × 6 km UTM grid and linked to environmental variables, including climate, land-use, habitat, and elevation data. Ecological niche modelling (ENM) and visualization will be conducted in R and GIS to estimate habitat suitability, identify environmental drivers of species distributions, and predict areas where undocumented populations may occur. By combining historical and contemporary occurrence records with environmental data, this study will provide an updated assessment of Donaciinae distributions in Austria and contribute to a better understanding of the ecological factors shaping their occurrence patterns.