Short Communication: Mollusks biodiversity of Lake Sevan, Armenia

IRINA V. MASHKOVA (Department of Chemistry, South Ural State University. 76 Lenin Prospect, 454080 Chelyabinsk, Russia.)
TATYANA G. KRUPNOVA (Department of Chemistry, South Ural State University. 76 Lenin Prospect, 454080 Chelyabinsk, Russia.)
ANASTASIYA M. KOSTRYUKOVA (Department of Chemistry, South Ural State University. 76 Lenin Prospect, 454080 Chelyabinsk, Russia.)
LAURA J. HARUTYUNOVA (Laboratory of General Helminthology and Parasitology, Institute of Zoology, Scientific Centre of Zoology and Hydroecology NAS RA, Paruyr Sevak 7, 0014, Yerevan, Armenia)
HOVHANNISYAN S. VARUZHAN (Chair of Ecology and Sustainable Development, Armenian State Pedagogical University, 17 Tigran Mets Ave., 375010 RA, Yerevan, Armenia.)
NIKITA E. VLASOV (Department of Chemistry, South Ural State University. 76 Lenin Prospect, 454080 Chelyabinsk, Russia.)

Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity
Vol. 19 No. 4 (2018)

Mashkova IV, Krupnova TG, Kostryukova AM, Harutyunova LJ, Varuzhan HS, Egorov NO. 2018. Short Communication: Mollusks biodiversity of Lake Sevan, Armenia. Biodiversitas 19: 1509-1513. The paper considers mollusks biodiversity in the freshwater lakes of Lake Sevan, Armenia. Lake Sevan is the largest water body in Armenia and one of the largest freshwater lakes in Eurasia. Since 1930 it has been actively used for irrigating Ararat plain and in hydropower. So, its water level fell by 20 m, and its volume became 40% less. Since mid-2000 when two tunnels had been built water level started to grow. For the last 6 years, water level was reported to grow. As a result of our study, 11 aquatic mollusks species (10 gastropod and 1 bivalve taxa) were currently found living in the Sevan lake. We found Lymnaea stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758), Radix auricularia (Linnaeus, 1758), R. tumida (Held, 1836), R. balthica (Linnaeus, 1758), R. lagotis (Schrank, 1803), Galba truncatula (O. F. Müller, 1774), Planorbis planorbis (Linnaeus, 1758), Bathyomphalus contortus (Linnaeus,1758), Gyraulus acronicus (Férussac, 1807), Valvata piscinalis (O. F. Müller, 1774), Euglesa casertana (Poli, 1791). Lymnaeidae represented the largest number of species. The most abundant species was Lymnaea stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758).