The research is conducted by scientists from the reserve and the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS. The main goals of the scientific program are to assess the importance of the Kamchatka feeding area for gray whales, to study the number, sex and age composition of the feeding group of Red Book animals in Kronotsky Bay and their relationship with relatives in the waters of Sakhalin. All this will help in the future to develop additional recommendations for the conservation of unique marine mammals and their habitat. The expedition of employees of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve to research gray whales is carried out with the support of PJSC NOVATEK. This year, specialists from the environmental organization have already worked in Kronotsky Bay, one of the feeding areas of gray whales, from the end of May to the end of August. They plan to continue research in October-November, when the migration of whales from feeding grounds to breeding grounds begins. “As we expected, at the beginning of summer many gray whales transited through the waters of Kronotsky Bay without stopping. We noted about 40 such individuals. It is likely that their main feeding grounds are located in the waters of Sakhalin. Others stayed for a while, fed and continued on their journey. And about 15 whales spent the entire summer in the bay, and almost all of these animals spent just as long here last year. Presumably, Kronotsky Bay is a significant feeding area for a small group of gray whales with a more or less constant composition,” said Evgenia Volkova, a researcher at the Kronotsky Nature Reserve and a marine biologist. In September, scientists from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences joined the research and began studying the feeding group of gray whales in the summer of 2022. “This year we are working not only in Olga Bay. We traveled from Utashud Island in the South Kamchatka Federal Nature Reserve to the Chazhma River in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve. Along the way we saw gray and humpback whales, killer whales, sea lions and sea otters, as well as porpoises. Currently, the main focus is on photo identification of gray whales. So far, we have seen 23 gray whales, 12 of which were in Olga Bay last year. According to first impressions, there are fewer whales this year. But this is no reason to panic. The whales are probably looking for food in other places. Let’s see what the final results of the joint work with the reserve will give,” said Matvey Mamaev, head of the expedition, leading engineer of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Photos: Evgenia Volkova and employees of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The news was delivered by employees of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve Related materials: PoiskNews: "Scientists are conducting research on gray whales in the waters of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve and the South Kamchatka Nature Reserve"

In Moscow, on the basis of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, from August 23 to 25, 2023, the Fifteenth International Nematological Symposium of the Russian Society of Nematologists was held, dedicated to several significant dates: the 145th anniversary of the birth of academician Konstantin Ivanovich Scriabin, the 80th anniversary of the Center for Parasitology, the 30th anniversary of the Russian Society of Nematologists. More than 60 specialists from various organizations of the Russian Federation took part in the Symposium (M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS, Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS, Institute of Biology KarRC RAS, Petrozavodsk, N.V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden RAS, All-Russian Research Institute of Parasitology - branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution FSC VIEV RAS, Center for Oceanography and Marine Biology "Moskvarium", Federal State Budgetary Institution "All-Russian Center for Plant Quarantine", A.V. Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center for Marine Biology FEB RAS, Far Eastern Federal University, "Federal Scientific Center for Biological Plant Protection", Krasnodar, A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas RAS, Sevastopol, Dagestan State University, Makhachkala). The symposium was attended by specialists from Kazakhstan (Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Institute of Zoology of the Science Committee, Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty), Belgium (Ghent University, Ghent), USA (Plant Pest Diagnostics Center, California Department of Food and Agriculture, USA), South Africa (Agricultural Research Council - Cereals Institute, Potchefstroom, Agricultural Research Council - Tropical and Subtropical Crops, Mbombela, North West University, Potchefstroom). The work of the conference was structured within the framework of one plenary and 4 thematic sessions - plant nematodes, soil nematodes, sea nematodes and vertebrate nematodes, online sessions, poster sessions and schools of young scientists. In total, 29 reports were heard and 14 posters were presented. The plenary session on August 23 was opened by the director of the Center for Parasitology, Doctor of Biological Sciences, prof. Spiridonov S.E. The proceedings were opened by Deputy Director of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, corresponding member Surov A.V. At the plenary session, a report on the development of nematological research at the Center for Parasitology of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences from its foundation to the present day was made by S.E. Spiridonov, the head of the laboratory reported on the organization of phytoparasitological research at the Chernogolovka scientific laboratory. Phytoparasitology Center of Parasitology IEE RAS Pridannikov M.V., scientific reports were made by corresponding member of RAS Yushin V.V., Doctor of Biological Sciences A.Yu. Ryss. Dr. Nancy Ntidi from the Republic of South Africa, in her report, informed about the organization of phytoparasitological research in this country. At 4 thematic and poster sections, reports were presented in several areas: phylogeny, diversity and ecology of nematodes and other Ecdysozoa; morphology, physiology and biochemistry of nematodes and other Ecdysozoa; communities of nematodes and other molting organisms as bioindicators of changes occurring in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; relationships in the “parasite-host” system; measures to control the number and regulate the harmfulness of economically significant and quarantine species of parasitic nematodes. Specialists from the All-Russian Center for Plant Quarantine (FGBU VNIIKR), subordinate to Roselkhoznadzor, presented several reports on topics related to quarantine species of nematodes. Particularly noteworthy is the holding of a school of young scientists within the framework of the conference (leading schools are research associates L.A. Limantseva and R.V. Khusainov, Ph.D.), at which young researchers - students of the K.A. Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy (6 reports). The exhibition dedicated to the 145th anniversary of the birth of the founder of GELAN (now the Center for Parasitology), Academician K.I.Scriabin, aroused great interest among the symposium participants, as well as the 80th anniversary of the Center for Parasitology, prepared by employees of the Laboratory of Phytoparasitology R.V. Khusainva and V.V. Vulsonok. On the final day, August 25, 2023, there was a trip to the scientific and experimental base of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Chernogolovka. Here, participants were able to get acquainted with a rich collection of cats, which are being studied by scientists at the experimental base, and examine enclosures with lynxes, ferrets, sables, hedgehogs and camels. The symposium participants visited theexperimental base of the laboratory of phytoparasitology of the Central Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, created by the work of employees under the leadership of the head M.V. Pridannikov and got acquainted with the conditions for conducting research. The international symposium gave participants the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the latest achievements in various fields of nematology, modern methods of studying nematodes, and present and discuss the results obtained. Discussing the current situation in the development of nematology in Russia, the Symposium participants noted the important role of the Russian Nematological Society and the Russian Nematological Journal in promoting and organizing nematological research and international cooperation. The Symposium participants elected the leadership of the Russian Society of Nematologists. Of the society for 2023-2025, S.E. Spiridonov was elected President, M.V. Pridannikov as vice president, RON Secretary - E.A. Sokolov and the representative of RON in the International Federation of Nematological Societies - Yu.K. Zograf. The next, 16th, RON Symposium is scheduled for 2025. It seems most likely that most of the Symposium will be held in Moscow (in various locations), with a trip to one of the cities of the Moscow region as a cultural program and to become familiar with natural and agrocenoses as habitats for nematodes. Resolution on the XV Symposium of RON. Author of the photo: Alexandra Komarnitskaya. All photos can be viewed in our group on VKontakte.

Photo: Argas persicus, PictureInsect The epidemiological significance of ticks of the genus Argas has been known since 1897, since this genus includes at least 61 species of ticks that parasitize birds and bats, and is capable of being the host and carrier of a number of bacterial diseases, such as salmonellosis and agyptianellosis. The study presents the results of monitoring A. persicus mites collected from several bird species over 4 years in the Republic of Kalmykia, Russia. The study's findings suggest that domestic and wild birds can harbor large numbers of ticks, and their close proximity increases the likelihood of tick exchange. Scientists have found that a variety of non-migratory birds come into contact with poultry during the nesting season and are likely to exchange mites with them. It is clear from the study that despite regular acaricide treatment of farms, the presence of mites was extremely high, with the exception of small sporadic reductions. It can be concluded that due to contacts between wild and domestic birds on private farms, acaricide treatments show low effectiveness, since Argas persicus mites move from wild birds to domestic birds. The published article is devoted to the results of monitoring the infestation of birds with the mite Argas persicus (Oken, 1818). Ticks were collected from private farms in the village of Priyutnoye, Priyutnensky district, Republic of Kalmykia (Russia) from 2012 to 2016 as part of a project for continuous monitoring of bird ectoparasites Ticks of the genus Argas Latreille (1796) are found in areas with temperate and warm climates; only a few species live in areas that sporadically reach 50 ℃ in the forest-steppe zone from the northern hemisphere. This genus includes at least 61 species of ticks that parasitize birds and bats and are capable of transmitting a number of bacterial diseases, such as salmonellosis and agyptianellosis. A. persicus is a carrier of spirochetosis, rickettsia, several other bacteria and hemoparasites in wild and domestic birds. Sometimes A. persicus even attacks humans, causing painful bites and invading their homes. The tick parasitizes chickens and other birds, feeding on blood at night and hiding in the cracks of buildings during the day. High numbers of A. persicus often lead to the death of birds both from large blood loss and from infectious diseases transmitted by ticks. The Persian tick may further increase its initial widespread distribution due to current global temperature changes, given that its optimal development temperature is 28–30℃ at 65–70% relative humidity with a lower temperature limit of 20℃. During the monitoring, 1242 bird species of two domestic and 27 wild species were examined. We found 290 adult ticks on poultry and 1963 adult ticks on wild birds. Our results show that despite regular acaricide treatments on farms, mite presence was extremely high, with the exception of small temporary declines in mite numbers. A large number of mite larvae were observed on the chickens, which were likely attached to them from the soil of the farm. We confirmed that mites are actively colonizing cracks in the walls of buildings. We found that various birds from non-migratory species (Passer domesticus; Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838); Columba livia L., 1758), long-distance species (Upupa epops; Hirundo rustica; Lanius minor; Oenanthe oenanthe) and nomadic species (Sturnus roseus) actively nest on farms. All of them come into contact with poultry during the nesting period. Among wild bird species, the highest tick load was observed in the synanthropic species Sturnus roseus and Passer domesticus L., 1758, which can act as reservoirs and vectors of ticks between wild bird populations and human buildings. Thus, domestic and wild birds may harbor large numbers of mites, and their close proximity increases the likelihood of mite exchange. High densities of poultry on farms may facilitate the local spread of disease through ticks as disease vectors, and in turn ticks may be transported by wild birds to other regions during natural migrations. https://doi.org/10.22073/pja.v12i2.77948

Fig.1. Data processing scheme. (A) Raster information on climate characteristics obtained from the CMIP6 model was used to calculate (Б) the average climate characteristic for each administrative region. (В) Data on the distribution of mean temperature and (Г) precipitation were used to calculate (Д) values for the CLIM1-4 variables. Employee of the Laboratory of Soil Zoology and General Entomology of the Institute of Soil Ecology RAS Ph.D. Goncharov A.A. together with colleagues from Tyumen State University (Institute of X-BIO), Federal State Budgetary Institution "Rosselkhoztsentr", Marchuk Institute of Computational Mathematics RAS and Emperor Peter I Voronezh State Agrarian University developed a mathematical model to assess the impact of climate change on grain yields in the Tyumen region in the short term (2025 - 2030) and medium term (2045 - 2050). The study was carried out on the basis of combined data for the period from 1990 to 2020 on the yield of five grain crops (barley, oats, spring and winter wheat, winter rye) in the Tyumen region (provided by the Federal State Budgetary Institution Rosselkhoztsentr), as well as key meteorological parameters obtained using the global model CMIP6, developed within the framework of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Fig. 1). It is shown that in general in the Tyumen region in the short and medium term there will be an increase in agricultural yields. However, this will not happen evenly across the parts of the region, which will lead to a redistribution of the increase in yield across regions (Fig. 2). Under the most likely scenario of climate change in the Tyumen region, a significant decrease in the yield of winter rye is predicted in the medium term (by 2050). For spring wheat and spring oats, the selection of cold-resistant, early-ripening varieties adapted for cultivation in the taiga agro-ecological zone is justified. Fig.2. Main results of the study. The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 22-76-10027. The work was published in the journal Field Crops Research (SJR Q1, IF = 5.224). Anton A. Goncharov, Taras A. Safonov, Alexander M. Malko, Gennady A. Bocharov, Sergey V. Goncharov (2023). Climate change expected to increase yield of spring cereals and reduce yield of winter cereals in the Western Siberian grain belt. Field Crops Research, 302: 109038.

Fig.1: Male chaffinch In addition to humans, vocal learning has been found in cetaceans, pinnipeds, bats, elephants, songbirds, hummingbirds, and parrots. It has been studied in most detail in songbirds. We examined whether culturally transmitted behavioral traits, such as bird song types, are stable in natural environments. In migratory populations of finches, there are about twenty stereotypical song types per population, with one to seven song types per male. The sets of song types differ between different populations, even those as geographically close as different parts of the Moscow region. The article describes the results of comparing sets of song types recorded with an interval of forty years on the same territory, at the Zvenigorod biological station in the Moscow region, with a set of song types in the living population of finches in Moscow parks. It was found that at the Zvenigorod biological station, 11 types of songs remained virtually unchanged from 1978 to 2020, retaining a full set of phrases and elements. The four other song types differed by only one phrase. At the same time, the songs of males recorded in Moscow in 2019 differed significantly more from the songs of Zvenigorod finches in 2020. This is the first time such a long-term study of the cultural inheritance of song in a migratory species of songbirds has been carried out. Fig.2: Types of songs of male chaffinches recorded in Zvenigorod in 1978/1982 and 2020. The same song types are marked with the same letters. The horizontal axis is time in seconds, the vertical axis is frequency in kHz. The results of the study were published in the journal Behavioral Processes: Ivanitskii V.V., Marova I.M., Samsonova I.P., Volodin I.A., Volodina E.V., 2023. Four decades later: the highly conserved repertoire of song types in chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs). Behavioural Processes, v. 205, 104821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104821

Free-living cheetahs in Kenya (photo by E.V. Chelysheva). Until now, all research into cheetah sounds has been done in captivity, in zoos and nurseries. In enclosures, animals see each other, and they do not need to use long-distance sound signals for communication. Therefore, in captivity, cheetahs use such sounds mainly to communicate with staff, demanding food or being allowed out for a walk. Thus, the function of these sounds and the information encoded in them remained unknown until cheetah calls were recorded in their natural environment, in Kenya. Our study showed that the long-distance sounds of cheetahs are as high-frequency as in captivity, and fully justify the term chirps, used in the literature for this type of call. In the wild, cheetahs use chirps to communicate with each other: calls between male coalitions, between potential sexual partners, and between mother and cubs. The chirps of adult male cheetahs are longer and lower in fundamental frequency than those of adult females. Discriminant analysis of acoustic parameters showed that the chirps of adult cheetahs also contain information about features that allow individuals to be distinguished by their calls. However, analysis of repeated recordings made a year or two later indicates that the signs of individuality in calls are unstable and cannot be used for long-term identification by calls. Thus, cheetahs probably have to constantly update their knowledge of changes in the voice of conspecifics during regular meetings with them in order to reliably distinguish individuals that are out of sight by sounds . Fig.1. Spectrogram illustrating individual and sex differences in long-distance high-frequency chirps of adult cheetahs older than 4 years. Above: Chirps from five males, two calls per individual. Below: chirps from five females, two calls per individual. An audio file of these chirps is available in the Supporting Information for this article. The study results were published in the journal Ethology: Chelysheva E.V., Klenova A.V., Volodin I.A., Volodina E.V., 2023. Advertising sex and individual identity by long-distance chirps in wild-living mature cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus). Ethology, v. 129. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13366 Related materials: Project for the study of Cheetahs "MARA-MERU" Nauka.rf: "Russian scientists were the first in the world to study the chirping of cheetahs inthe wild" Russian Academy of Sciences: "Long-distance roll calls of cheetahs contain individualinformation about the animals" Forpost Sevastopol: “Russian scientists were the first in the world to study the “chirping” ofcheetahs in the wild” Ferra.ru: “Russian scientists are the first in the world to study the “chirping” of cheetahs inthe wild” Zen: “Russian scientists are the first in the world to study the “chirping” of cheetahs in thewild”

Chief Researcher of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences Alexey Alekseevich Kotov took part in the “Floating University”. Vesti Irkutsk prepared a report on the expedition. The ship's crew is preparing the dredge. With its help, the ship will take samples from the bottom of Lake Baikal while it is moving. This is the "Floating University". On board are scientists, students, and university teachers. The dredge returns with the spoils. Inside are stones, algae and, of course, the inhabitants of Lake Baikal themselves. A scientific laboratory is unfolding right on deck. Biologist Anastasia Poroshina examines amphipods through a microscope. “There are a lot of such crustaceans on Baikal. About 180 species. This is actually one of the representatives,” says Anastasia Poroshina, junior researcher at the Limnological Institute of the SB RAS. Participants of the “floating university” also catch crustaceans with a net. They are very widespread. Amphipods are not endemic here, although Baikal is only a few meters away. But for research, says Moscow State University student Ivan Dadykin, they will be useful. “These are freshwater crustaceans. They are very small. They feed on all kinds of algae. They are so funny,” says Moscow State University student Ivan Dadykin. But one of the most advanced ways to get crustaceans from the bottom of Baikal is an underwater robot. In this expedition it managed to reach even 100 meters. The robot has a camera, so the ship can clearly see what is happening at depth. Here are Baikal sponges and algae. The robot's claws scoop up bottom sand and algae - those that interest scientists may end up there. The algae of this overgrown tree trunk is full of inhabitants? The robot’s manipulator sends it back up with the spoils. "Floating University" is a nationwide project. Similar ones ply along the Black Sea, Baltic, and Pacific Oceans. On Baikal it has been organized by the Limnological Institute for many years. This time there is only one shift. 20 participants from Irkutsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk and Vladivostok. About half of them are teachers. They select the students. There are always many people who want to participate in the Floating University project. After all, Baikal is a unique object. And this is an opportunity not only to see it, but also to study it together with experienced researchers. Tatyana Maryanovskaya from Novosibirsk is on Lake Baikal for the first time. She is in her second year of master's degree. Not a biologist, she deals with mathematical modeling, that is, she processes and analyzes the data that scientists receive on such expeditions. “I’m studying bioinformatics. There we have a junction of sciences - biology, mathematics, some chemistry, programming. And mathematicians and biologists now collaborate very closely. And biology is nothing without mathematics,” says Novosibirsk State University student Tatyana Maryanovskaya. Such joint work of experts from different fields is very important in research, confirms one of the country’s leading hydrobiologists, Alexey Kotov. He works in Moscow, at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, but also contributes to the study of Lake Baikal. “Such projects lead to cooperation between various institutes, scientists, including young ones, with each other. For example, I cooperate with the Limnological Institute. This happened before this project, of course. But this is extremely important,” says Chief Researcher at the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS (Moscow) Alexey Kotov. Lectures on evolution, Baikal microorganisms, genetics. Students also undergo theory at the floating university. But still, as scientists say, what comes first is practice, the opportunity to get in touch with real field research. Moreover, when such a unique object to study is Baikal. This will help, they hope, to awaken young professionals' interest in science. “They get acquainted with the issues that are best solved here or better solved using our knowledge. This gives us hope that we will attract capable young specialists. A rare breed,” says the head of the laboratory of hydrology and geophysics of the Limnological Institute SB RAS Dmitry Shcherbakov. Video report at the link.

Fig.1.: A - Saddle oyster Placuna ephippium in the field.B - Saddle oyster Placuna ephippium in the laboratory after being cleared of debris.C - Male (bottom) and female (top) symbiotic shrimp Chernocaris placunae In marine ecosystems, many smaller invertebrates adopt a symbiotic lifestyle to avoid predation. Improving this strategy, many symbiotic species moved to living inside the body of their host, and also became monogrammed in order to more efficiently use this resource (= space inside the host). At the same time, social monogamy is preferable in species that live in relatively small and morphologically simple hosts. Currently, in the context of global climate change and coastal ecosystems in the rapidly developing countries of Southeast Asia, many marine communities are undergoing significant changes. Do they affect the social behavior of marine species? An international team of scientists from the USA (Clemson University, South Carolina) and Russia (IEE RAS) tested this hypothesis on the symbiotic shrimp Chernocaris placunae, which lives in the mantle cavity of the saddle oyster Placuna ephippium, widespread in the Indo-Western Pacific Ocean. The work was carried out in 2003-2004 in two locations with different environmental conditions in Nha Trang Bay, Vietnam, and published in the leading international journal Symbiosis. According to the data obtained, the shrimp C. placunae live in the mantle cavity of their hosts in the form of heterosexual pairs more often than would be expected by pure chance. On Tre Island, there was a strong correlation between host and shrimp body size in both males and females, and shrimp mating was dependent on their body size; Moreover, the length of the shrimp carapace was positively correlated between males and females forming social pairs. Overall, these data suggest that C. placunae shrimp are socially and sexually monogamous on Tre (Che) Island. In turn, on Hon Mun island there was no correlation between the body size of the host and symbiotic shrimp, and mating of shrimp was not dependent on their body size, suggesting that C. placunae is socially, but not necessarily sexually, monogamous (and probably promiscuous), as this second section of the study has shown. Body size and host abundance were lower on Tre Island compared to Hon Mun Island, further suggesting that “refuge trait” (= host) drives, at least to some extent, the observed differences in the mating system of C. placunae shrimp. When trying to identify the cause of this phenomenon, the researchers came to this conclusion. From the point of view of the general environmental situation in Nha Trang Bay, Tre Island is a highly polluted area, since there is a large city nearby and the removal of fresh water from a large river, while Hon Mun Island is located at a considerable distance from these polluting factors and is located in a more seaward part of the bay . A comparison of these factors suggests that pollution may affect the mating system of the species studied in this work. Are similar changes occurring in the mating patterns of other marine organisms due to modern changes in the marine environment? This is a highly relevant topic that deserves further attention. Answering these questions requires manipulative ecological laboratory and perhaps natural experiments aimed at understanding how shifts in community components caused by global change and anthropogenic impacts influence and alter the social behavior of marine organisms.

Fig.1: distribution map and phylogenetic relationships of the invasive species studied in the work Amphipod crustaceans are one of the most diverse groups of Ponto-Caspian taxa, including over 96 known endemic species, of which 82 belong to the large, apparently monophyletic clade Pontogammaridae. These animals display astonishing diversity in terms of morphology and ecology, very similar to the diversity of amphipods from the famous Lake Baikal. Many of these amphipods are known invasive species that are spreading rapidly throughout Europe and beyond. However, the taxonomy for many ecosystem-important species remains unclear. Using an integrative approach, an international team of scientists, which included specialists from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, studied the taxonomy of the invasive amphipod Trichogammarus trichiatus, which has recently become widespread in the inland waters of Europe. The article was published in the international Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (Q1 WOS). The study clarified the taxonomic status of species of the genus Trichogammarus and revealed that the widespread invader Spirogammarus major (formerly known as Chaetogammarus tenellus major) has been misidentified as Chaetogammarus/Echinogammarus trichiatus in European inland waters for more than half a century. Chaetogammarus trichiatus was originally described by Russian scientist Martynov in 1932 from the northeastern coast of the Black Sea. A similar taxon, Chaetogammarus tenellus major, was described by the Romanian scientist Caraushu from the western Black Sea in 1943, which was later included in the synonymy of C. trichiatus. In doing so, Chaetogammarus trichiatus was moved between Chaetogammarus and the Atlanto-Mediterranean Echinogammarus, currently classified in the genus Trichogammarus. The obtained molecular genetic data (six DNA markers), as well as studies of the morphology of the studied species using light and scanning electron microscopy, showed that T. trichiatus and C. tenellus major are completely different species. Moreover, the first is endemic to the Caucasus, while the second is distributed along the western coast of the Black Sea and has invaded Europe. The latter species was also transferred to the new genus Spirogammarus. Multilocus molecular phylogeny has also shown that the genus Chaetogammarus is polyphyletic, meaning that it must be divided into additional genera. The authors also propose using a similar approach to assessing other ecologically significant invasive species. The present study highlights the importance of integrating multilocus DNA sequences, morphometry, and biogeography to elucidate the status of taxonomically complex groups such as gammarid amphipods. Related materials: Wild South: "Integrative taxonomy has clarified the confusing taxonomy and distribution ofthe Ponto-Caspian invasive species Trichogammarus trichiatus"

Fig.1. Festival guests viewing fossil specimens of branchial crustaceans and ostracods On September 2, 2023, a Science Festival was held in the Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. From the IEE RAS, A.N. Neretina took part in the festival with a master class “In the shadow of dinosaurs and mammoths: a master class on working with microscopic fossils.” At the master class, the main results obtained by the team of the RSF project 22-14-00258 in 2023 were presented in popular science form. Skeletons of dinosaurs and mammoths rightfully belong to the most popular exhibits in museum collections. They cause delight and admiration not only among children, but also among adults. A huge amount of scientific, popular science and even fantasy literature is dedicated to them, the kings of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. We know a lot about their appearance and habits. Even the very fact of the mass extinction of dinosaurs and mammoths is well known not only to scientists, but also to the general public. However, how much do we know about the mechanisms of extinction of large animals that inhabited terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the past? And did similar processes occur in communities of microscopic organisms that are much less known, but no less important for the functioning of the biosphere? Anna Neretina's master class was devoted to microscopic invertebrates - cladocerans, ostracods, conchostracans and some other groups of crustaceans, which, despite their good representation in the fossil record, have long remained an undervalued source of information about ancient aquatic ecosystems. At the master class, she talked about the methods that scientists use to collect the remains of microscopic invertebrates and their study, and also presented in a simple and fascinating form original data on the composition and structure of crustacean communities that inhabited the aquatic ecosystems of our planet in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. She also explained the reasons for the transformation of these communities. Fig.2.Festival guests watching the review material Over 8 hours, about 12 thousand people took part in the master class - children, their parents and teachers from general and specialized schools. Guests and organizers of the festival highly appreciated the quality of the material presented. We hope that the master class will contribute to the involvement of gifted children in research activities!