For the third year, the field trip with students was organised to visit sites with a strikingly high diversity of non-native species in Hungary, especially at the thermal water localities. We started our excursion visiting the biological station on the shore of Lake Neusidler in the town of Illmitz (Austria), where Gilbert Hafner gave us an engaging presentation of the history of the Lake and we were informed that the invasive marbled crayfish was found in the lake last year. Near the biological station we discovered the local phenomenon of salt marshes, once again hosting a high diversity of wetland and water birds, as well as specific invertebrate fauna.
We had the opportunity to explore the outflows of Lake Héviz, the largest thermal lake in Europe, the Városliget park in the Budapest centre, a thermal tributary of the Barát brook, sites rich for non-native organisms, but also Kis-Balaton artificial wetland constructed to protect Lake Balaton from high nutrient load. At these locations, students could practically try catching crayfish, fish and macrozoobenthos and thus practically see a very rich community of cichlids, a syntopic population of spiny cheek crayfish (Faxonius limosus) and red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), marbled crayfish (P. virginalis) and red cherry shrimp (Neocaridina davidi), very popular with aquarists, and many other non-native species including young false map turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica).
As a new part of the excursion, we visited the Asian market, literally being at the source of many non-native species that have spread in the thermal waters of Hungary. We saw Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis), blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus), but also lobster (Homarus gammarus). We bought blue crabs and Chinese mitten crabs as a reward after a long day of (cray)fishing when the students enjoyed catching and cooking crayfish.
We again visited the Limnological Station on the shores of Lake Balaton in the town of Tihány. Here, Péter Takács, Blanka Gál and Bálint Preiszner presented what they do at the station and took us to a unique system of tanks for mesocosm experiments on the shore of the lake. During the field trip, we were accompanied by our Hungarian colleagues András Weiperth and Árpád Ferincz, many thanks guys!
