International scientific workshop „Influence of active mines on freshwater ecosystems“ will be held at Ruđer Bošković Institute from May 12 to May 16 2014 in joint organization of:

• Laboratory for biological effects of metals and Laboratory for aquaculture and pathology of aquatic organisms (Division for marine and environmental research, Ruđer Bošković Institute)
• Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje
• Institute of animal sciences in Skopje
• Université de Pau et des Pays de l'adour/CNRS.

The workshop will be held as a final meeting of three bilateral projects:

1. Croatian-Macedonian bilateral project: The assessment of availability and effects of metals on fish in the rivers under the impact of mining activities (project leaders: Dr. Zrinka Dragun and Dr. Maja Jordanova)
2. Croatian-Macedonian bilateral project: Bacterial and parasitical communities of chub as indicators of the status of environment exposed to mining activities (project leaders: Dr. Damir Kapetanović and Dr. Rodne Nastova)
3. Croatian-french programme "Cogito“: Intracellular mapping of essential and nonessential trace elements in the organs of indigenous fish by NanoSIMS (project leaders: Dr. Zrinka Dragun and Dr. Dirk Schaumlöffel)

At workshop, Macedonian, French and Croatian scientists will present the results of their research on influence of active lead/zinc mines Zletovo and Toranica on river water quality and on bioindicator organism Vardar chub (Squalius vardarensis) in three rivers in north-eastern Macedonia: Bregalnica, Zletovska and Kriva River.

The book of abstracts can be downloaded here: