In the present study the species boundaries of the scleractinian coral genus Goniopora from the Saudi Arabian Red Sea were investigated. An integrated morpho-molecular approach was used to better clarify the complex scenario derived from traditional classification efforts based on skeletal morphology. Traditional taxonomy of this genus considers skeletal morphology first and polyp morphology as a secondary discriminating character. This leads to potential complication due to plasticity in skeletal features within a species. To address this issue, molecular analyses of evolutionary relationships between nine traditional morphospecies of Goniopora from the Red Sea were performed and were used to re-evaluate the informativeness of macromorphological and micromorphological features. Between four and six putative molecular lineages were identified within Goniopora samples from the Saudi Arabian Red Sea on the basis of four molecular markers: the mitochondrial intergenic spacer between Cytochrome b and the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2, the entire nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region, the ATP synthase subunit β gene, and a portion of the Calmodulin gene. The results were strongly corroborated by three distinct analyses of species delimitation. Subsequent analyses of micromorphological and microstructural skeletal features identified the presence of distinctive characters in each of the molecular clades. Unique in vivo morphologies were associated with the genetic-delimited lineages, further supporting the molecular findings. The proposed re-organization of Goniopora will resolve several taxonomic problems in this genus while reconciling molecular and morphological evidence. Reliable species-level identification of Goniopora spp. can be achieved with polyp morphology under the proposed revision.

This work is an attempt to define an alternative definition of rural as compared with the OECD methodology applied to the NUTS 3 units. In the specific nature of the Czech population is necessary to use other methods of defining rural. Bibliography outlines other possible ways of definic, as a empirical research reflects a descriptive approach to the definition of rural based on statistical indicators which are assessed in seven groups. The results are shown in the cartograms. Differences between rural and urban areas are in the Czech Republic according to the chosen methodology very small or not visible. Countryside as defined by statistical indicators have shown similar results as the definition of internal peripherals. The chosen method for the identification is very difficult and demanding. The results are largely influenced by the threshold value for each indicator. Keywords: delimination, country, rural, delimitation, rural areas