CHALLENGES IN ANOSTRACAN RESEARCH How threatened are large branchiopods (Crustacea, Branchiopoda) in the Iberian Peninsula? Juan García-de-Lomas . Jordi Sala . Violeta Barrios . Florent Prunier . Antonio Camacho . Margarida Machado . Miguel Alonso . Michael Korn . Dani Boix . Francisco Hortas . Carlos M. García . Laura Serrano . Gonzalo Muñoz Received: 23 December 2016 / Revised: 21 July 2017 / Accepted: 30 July 2017 © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 Abstract The Iberian Peninsula harbours 24 taxa of native large branchiopods (LBs). Most of them inhabit Mediterranean temporary ponds, which are priority habitats under the EU Habitats Directive. In this work, Iberian LBs were evaluated using IUCN Red List criteria based on geographic range (extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, number of locations, habitat fragmentation and expected decline). Our results show that 46% of the Iberian LBs are threatened: four taxa should be considered as Criti- cally Endangered (Linderiella baetica, Triops emeritensis, Cyzicus tetracerus and Leptestheria mayeti), three taxa fall under the category Endan- gered (Artemia salina, Tanymastigites lusitanica and Triops vicentinus) and four species (Artemia sp. parthenogenetic strains, Branchinecta orientalis, Lepidurus apus and Triops gadensis) are Vulnerable. Two species (Phallocryptus spinosus, and Maghrebestheria maroccana) are considered Near Threatened. Our results highlight the worrying risk of extinction of Iberian LBs at the regional level, mainly related to the disappearance and degradation of their habitats and the relatively low degree of habitat protection. For Iberian endemic species, this evalu- ation is also valid at the global level and gives strong support for their inclusion in the IUCN Red List. Keywords Temporary ponds · Distribution · Conservation · Endangered · IUCN · Red List Electronic supplementary material 6The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10750-017-3322-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Guest editors: Federico Marrone, D. Christopher Rogers, Paola Zarattini & Luigi Naselli-Flores / New Challenges in Anostracan Research: a Tribute to Graziella Mura J. Garcı ´a-de-Lomas (&) I+D Group Structure and Dynamics of Aquatic Ecosystems, University of Ca ´diz, Ca ´diz, Spain e-mail: juan.garciadelomas@uca.es J. Sala · D. Boix GRECO, Institut d’Ecologia Aqua `tica, Facultat de Cie `ncies, Universitat de Girona, Campus de Montilivi, 17071 Girona, Spain V. Barrios IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation, C/Marie Curie, 22, 29590 Campanillas, Ma ´laga, Spain F. Prunier Asociacio ´n de Educacio ´n Ambiental El Bosque Animado, C/Maestro Priego Lo ´pez, 7, 2D, 14004 Co ´rdoba, Spain A. Camacho Cavanilles Institute for Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Valencia, 46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain M. Machado CCMAR - Centre of Marine Sciences, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal 123 Hydrobiologia DOI 10.1007/s10750-017-3322-0