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Previous projects |
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Conservation biology of the Pyrenean desman The Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) is a water mole endemic of the Pyrenees and the north of the Iberian Peninsula that mostly lives in fast-flowing mountain streams. Its distribution area has shrunk severely in the last decades, even in areas where stream ecological status has improved, thus making managers wonder what is causing this decline. To elucidate the drivers of this decline, the stream ecology group is combining different approaches in collaboration with other research groups: metabarcoding analyses of faeces to characterize desman diet, radiotracking of animals to describe habitat preferences, genomic analyses to quantify inbreeding, and use of artificial latrines to monitor changes in distribution and abundance. We hope to give managers clues to improve the conservation status of this animal.
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CITYPOLL. City runoff pollution impacts on river biodiversity under extreme climatic events Urban areas are growing throughout the world, with important consequences on surrounding natural ecosystems and on the global biodiversity and climate. In addition to domestic and industrial wastewater, runoff from impervious urban surfaces alters local hydrology and can contribute a diverse array of pollutants, whose effects on receiving river ecosystems are poorly known, but likely to increase as a consequence of ongoing climate change. CityPoll will address this information gap by means of multidisciplinary research combining hydrology, environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology and ecology, in contrasting case studies. To that aim, it will first create a hydrological model of both case studies, integrating the sewer and the receiving river systems, to jointly analyze and monitor the path of water and contaminants between urban areas and receiving rivers during rainfall events. Second, it will combine automatic sampling of natural rain events with the follow-up of experimental rainfall and with the most advanced analytical tools to monitor the chemical characteristics of urban runoff, including suspended materials, nutrients, regulated and emerging microcontaminants, and microplastics. It will prioritize the contaminants according to their occurrence and toxicity, and associate specific pollutants with specific types of urban areas. Third, by means of micro- and mesocosm studies, it will study the ecotoxicological effects of these runoffs on a range of organisms, from microbes to invertebrates. It will also analyze the ecological effects of urban runoff by measuring the structural and functional response of receiving rivers looking at biofilm, invertebrates, as well as at a range of ecosystem processes, from nutrient dynamics to greenhouse gas emissions. With this information, CityPoll will produce multimetric indices of the ecological impact of urban runoff. Fourth, it will assess the capacity of buffer zones (urban parks, riparian vegetation, etc.) to mitigate the pollution derived from urban runoff, thus pointing to the most adequate Nature-Based Solutions to that end. Finally, CityPoll will devote a large effort to the transfer and dissemination of the multi-layered evidence collected to a wide range of targets, from urban and water managers to scientists and to the general public, by producing guidelines, protocols, scientific papers, press releases and a video documentary. These guidelines and protocols will be of use beyond the specific case studies of CityPoll. Also, it will contribute to the development of new digital solutions for runoff monitoring, strengthening the European industry once new procedures and strategies become transposed into worldwide standards. CityPoll is a "Strategic Project Oriented towards the Ecological Transition and the Digital Transition", funded by the European Union, under the NextGenerationEU program.
Proyecto TED2021-129966B-C32 financiado por: |
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RIBER: Restauración de riberas en ríos del norte de España: el papel de la biodiversidad vegetal en los servicios ecosistémicos fluviales Las riberas fluviales juegan un papel fundamental en el correcto funcionamiento del ecosistema fluvial, pero el aspecto funcional rara vez se tiene en cuenta cuando se realizan actividades de restauración de riberas. En RIBER, proponemos un marco de actuación que tiene en cuenta un conjunto de indicadores fisicoquímicos, estructurales y funcionales a la hora de ejecutar una restauración de riberas fluviales y de evaluar su éxito. Además, destacamos la importancia de la diversidad y la composición de la comunidad vegetal de la ribera restaurada a la hora de restaurar el funcionamiento fluvial y de mitigar los impactos de otros estresores tales como el cambio climático, fragmentación de hábitat o las enfermedades emergentes. RIBER cuenta con dos paquetes de trabajo, en los cuales (i) estableceremos la situación actual de las riberas restauradas en nuestra área de estudio (Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco) y (ii) definiremos, mediante experimentos de laboratorio, los umbrales mínimos de diversidad vegetal necesarios para mantener niveles adecuados de funcionamiento fluvial, proponiendo estrategias concretas de restauración para nuestra área de estudio. Los resultados de RIBER supondrán no sólo un avance científico debido a su enfoque novedoso de integración de múltiples indicadores en un contexto de biodiversidad-funcionamiento del ecosistema, sino una herramienta para los gestores que permita diseñar y evaluar el éxito de los proyectos de restauración cumpliendo con la Directiva Marco del Agua y otras normativas relevantes a nivel europeo y estatal. Proyecto TED2021-129966B-C32 financiado por: |
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RIMSEC Global environmental change threatens biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and, ultimately, the sustainability of human activities on Earth.Rivers and streams are among the most threatened ecosystems. While effects of environmental change on ecosystems are most usuallystudied with space-for-time approaches, data series from monitoring networks are becoming long enough to directly describe and interpretthe complex effects of climate and other environmental changes. Nevertheless, stream data are noisy, as they are subjected to frequentlocal disturbances; therefore, to obtain sound spatiotemporal patterns, it is essential to analyse highly spatially detailed time series fromthe perspective of metacommunity dynamics. Using a time series with a high spatial and temporal resolution, RiMSECisinvestigating the response of riverine metacommunities to environmental changeduring the last three decades to identify changes and drivers of the diversity, stability and the food web energetics of river ecosystems.RiMSEC will also study the spatial turnover of diversity and food web energetics in headwater fluvialnetworks, which are underrepresented on monitoring schemes, unravelling the role of landuse and organic matter availability and quality. Additionally, we will assess the effect of metacommunity dynamics on diversity and foodweb energetics by comparing isolated small catchments that flow to the sea with similar catchments that are connected tolarger fluvial networks. The project RiMSEC will yield a significantleap towards disentangling the dynamics of freshwater metacommunities facing global environmental change.
Proyecto financiado por: |
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MERLIN. Mainstreaming Ecological Restoration of freshwater-related ecosystems in a Landscape context: Innovation, upscaling and transformation The MERLIN project (Mainstreaming Ecological Restoration of freshwater-related ecosystems in a Landscape context: Innovation, upscaling and transformation) is an international river restoration project in which the UPV/EHU and the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa are collaborating. This project seeks new widely applicable formulas to restore the functions of European river ecosystems, for example, to reduce flooding and store carbon dioxide, or to facilitate natural water flow and fish migration through nature-based solutions (NbS). At the European scale, MERLIN identifies landscapes with high potential for transformative restoration and analyses the cost-benefit ratio of restoration scenarios. Overall, the MERLIN Academy and virtual marketplace will multiply innovations for the community of practice, investors and policy makers across Europe and beyond. MERLIN is focused on pursuing a sustainable, climate-neutral and resilient, inclusive and transformative path, incorporating restoration as a cornerstone of systemic change. In Gipuzkoa, 10 disused dams that fragment the connectivity of the Deba River are planned to be removed. During the first 18 months of the project, 4 dams have been removed. Dam removal effects on the structure and functioning of fluvial ecosystem are being investigated following a before-after design. In both periods, fish community, GHG emissions, or nutrient uptake are being sampled.
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Decomposition and Diversity in
streams: a global experiment (DecoDiv) A key question in contemporary ecology is how the loss of biological diversity affects ecosystem functioning. Plant litter decomposition is a fundamental ecosystem process with major consequences for the carbon cycle, but it is unclear how the loss of plant diversity affects decomposition rates. In a global-scale stream study, Boyero et al. (http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1829/20152664) examined decomposition rates of litter mixtures differing in phylogenetic diversity across latitudes and found that more diverse mixtures decomposed faster in the tropics, while less diverse mixtures decomposed faster at high latitudes. This suggested that different mechanisms could operate at different latitudes, possibly because different biological assemblages decompose litter at these different latitudes. While detritivores (key decomposition agents at high latitudes) might benefit from the concentration of particular resources in less diverse mixtures, microbes (dominant in the tropics) might be more efficient when using more varied resources (in more diverse mixtures) as they can optimize nutrient acquisition. We aim to explore the above question by examining decomposition rates in 3-spp litter mixtures differing in phylogenetic diversity (and hence in the concentration of different resources) at multiple sites across climatic zones. Although phylogenetic diversity and the diversity of functional traits do not always show a linear relationship (given that not all traits are phylogenetically conserved and due to the existence of convergent evolution and phenotypic plasticity), the usefulness of a phylogenetic proxy for trait diversity is maximized in studies with broad taxonomic scale. This approach can be particularly useful because phylogeny can represent a great deal of information that is not encompassed in the few traits that are generally measured. |
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IBERAQUA-NET.
Scientific network addressing the effects of water scarcity
in Iberian rivers: Recommendations for management IBERAQUA-NET is a multi-disciplinary network that focuses
on the effects of water shortage in Iberian rivers, and aims
to provide a series of scientific recommendations to improve
the management of fluvial ecosystems. This multi-disciplinary
network includes researchers with recognized experience in
analytical chemistry (CSIC-IDAEA, UVEG, CSIC-ICMAN), ecology
(ICRA, UB, CSIC-ICMAN, EHU, IMDEA, UdL), modeling and numerical
techniques (URV, ICRA), and water management (ICRA, IMDEA).
The network will act as a unique platform to consolidate the
ongoing research efforts and transfer knowledge to different
sectors, either directly or indirectly related to water. The
External Advisory Committee consists of both experienced
researchers from the EU and water managers from agencies and
hydrographic confederations, offering an integrated point of
view. IBERAQUA-NET aims to translate the basic knowledge
generated by various projects into recommendations for river
management and uses strategic methods to disseminate and transfer
knowledge in order to ensure that the results of research reach
the target audience. The main tool will be the preparation and
dissemination of the document “Recommendations for Management”. |
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BioLoss: Functional consequences
of biodiversity loss caused by emerging diseases in
freshwater ecosystems The current rates of biodiversity loss are alarming and
caused by different anthropogenic factors. Freshwater
ecosystems are among the most affected on Earth.
The loss of biodiversity is of concern due to its intrinsic
value, but also because it can affect the functioning of
ecosystems and the services and resources they provide
to humans (e.g., good-quality water). The expansion of
emerging diseases is a main factor associated to global
change (intensified by climate change), which is producing
massive extinctions of different organisms that are
fundamental for freshwater ecosystems. In this project we
examine how species loss in two groups of such organisms
(riparian plants and amphibians) alters the functioning of
headwater streams and mountain wetlands, respectively.
We establish future scenarios of species loss caused by
the expansion of pathogenic fungi of the genera Phytophthora
and Batrachoquitrium. Using different experimental approaches
we test several hypotheses about changes in ecological processes
which are key for the provision of ecosystem services and the
use of water resources. Our objectives thus fit the fifth
Challenge of society, which is part of the Spanish State
Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation,
and focuses on action against climate change and efficiency
in resource use. |
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PURIFY Effects of desiccation on the self-purification capacity
of headwater streams: Consequences for the stream
management. Reference: KR17AC0K13643, Climate and Energy
Fund, Austrian Government. |
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DESEMBALSE In the last decades dam removal has gained momentum as a
tool for river restoration, although still little is known
on its impacts and benefits on river ecosystems. The
Enobieta Reservoir (Artikutza, Navarre, 42 m tall), built
in the 1950´s, to supply drinking water to the province of
Gipuzkoa, has been unmanaged since the Añarbe Reservoir
was built further downstream in 1976. Structural problems,
aggravated by decades of neglect, prompted the
municipality of Donostia – San Sebastian to decomission
the dam (the largest so far removed in Europe) by digging
a tunnel through it. Project DESEMBALSE will investigate
the effects of this major work on sediment dynamics, river
biological communities and ecosystem functioning following
a before-after control-impact (BACI) design. The main
hypothesis is that the emptying of the reservoir will
produce geomorphological changes both upstream and
downstream from the dam, which will both affect both
riverine communities and ecosystem functioning. Upstream
from the dam a lotic habitat will be recovered whereas
downstream sediment transport will cause channel
agradation with significant changes in hydraulics. Given
the high dynamism of the rivers in the area, a rapid
recovery is expected as the sediments are distributed
towards down. The results obtained from this study will
provide comprehensive information on the interaction
between biological and geomorphological effects after
emptying the reservoir. |
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DIVERSION: Multi-scale
consequences of water diversion on river ecosystems. Water diversion is a prevalent activity in streams and
rivers, and is likely to intensify in the near future as a
result of the escalating demand for irrigation,
hydropower, and drinking water. The effects of large
reservoirs on river ecosystems are relatively well known,
but there are many questions regarding the impact of water
diversion by low weirs such as those commonly used in many
hydropower and irrigation schemes. Reduced discharge in
the bypassed river sections can affect water flow and
chemistry and promote siltation, and increase the relative
cover of dry versus wet riverbeds, thus affecting
biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, as well as the
ecosystem services we derive from rivers. Furthermore,
water diversion will likely interact with other stressors
such as pollution, aggravating their impacts. Project
DIVERSION aims at assessing the impacts at multiple scales
of water diversion by low weirs on the biodiversity and
ecosystem functioning of north Iberian rivers, as well as
the interaction between diversion and pollution, a
prevalent stressor in many rivers. It does so by combining
field and laboratory experiments and addressing different
components of the river ecosystems, from biofilm to fish,
as well as different processes linked to the
biogeochemical functioning of these ecosystems. It will
combine state-of-the-art techniques and take into account
both the wet and the dry parts of river channels. The
starting hypothesis is that diversion will deteriorate
stream habitats, what in turn will have negative effects
on organisms, eventually impacting river ecosystem
processes and affecting the biogeochemical functioning of
entire river networks. These impacts will be enhanced when
stream ecosystems are subject to other stressors such as
pollution or sediment deposition.
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Invasion of stream ecosystems by the red swamp crayfish: mechanisms responsible for the invasion success and consequences at eco-evolutionary and socieconomic levels We will address two types of phenomena characterizing the invasion of streams by the red swamp crayfish (RSC): (1) the mechanisms responsible for its successful establishment in such a novel habitat (its original habitat being swamps and marshes) and (2) the ecological, evolutionary and socio-economic consequences of its invasion. We will address our first objective using new generation sequencing techniques (genomics and transcriptomics). We will compare the genome of stream and swamp populations and identify loci responsible for local adaptation. We will examine gene expression patterns in individuals subjected to environmental conditions (current, temperature, salinity) typical of either streams or swamps to identify mechanisms responsible for the successful invasion of the stream habitat. We will also compare the genetic diversity of invasive populations to those of the native range to identify patterns of introduction, spread and gene flow. We will explore the effects of the RSC on stream ecosystem structure and functioning (food web complexity, rates of key ecological processes) and on interactions with the native crayfish and native fish and amphibians (rates of predation, prey ability to recognize the predator through chemical cues, infection by crayfish plague and chytrid fungus). We will use an evolutionary perspective, comparing the ecological effects of stream RSC populations (which have potentially evolved in response to the new habitat) to those of founder, swamp populations. Finally, we will examine the socio-economic consequences of the RSC by quantifying its effects on several key ecosystem services (nutrient retention, litter decomposition) and modelling the economic cost of its spread through stream networks. This project was funded by the Junta de Andalucía,189,894 (2014-2017) |
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This EU-FP7 project aims at identifying the prevalence,
interaction and linkages between stressors, and to assess
their effects in the chemical and ecological status of
water ecosystems in order to improve water management
practice and policies. It involves a multidisciplinary
team of 21 European partner organizations plus 2
non-European partners from Morocco and Canada, as well as
the active involvement of water authorities, river basin
managers, and other relevant stakeholders. A cross-scale
approach is applied in six representative basins: Ebro,
Adige, Sava, Evrotas, Anglian River and Souss Massa. The
main added value of GLOBAQUA project is the inclusion a
multidisciplinary team of leading scientists in the fields
of hydrology, chemistry, biology, ecology, geomorphology,
economics and sociology, including hydrological,
biophysical and ecological modelling, socio-economics and
governance science, knowledge brokerage and policy
advocacy, in order to study the interaction of multiple
stressors in freshwater ecosystems within the frame of
strong pressure on water resources. The project performs
data-mining and field- and laboratory-based research, as
well as modelling at different spatial scales and
socioeconomic research. The results will be placed under
the scope of societal and economical needs, with improved
policy implementation being the final product. GLOBAQUA
will develop a relevant Programme of Measures in order to
reduce the Science-Policy interface gap.  |
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BIOFUNCTION.How will the
biodiversity crisis affect vital stream ecosystem
functions? We are facing biodiversity loss at unprecedented rates,
and there is unequivocal evidence that changes in
biodiversity can alter ecosystem functioning. However, our
mechanistic understanding of biodiversity effects on vital
functions such as plant litter decomposition and element
recycling (which are key components of the global carbon
cycle) is still in its infancy. This project addresses
some existing gaps in our understanding of how these
functions might be affected by biodiversity loss, using
forest streams as model systems. We examine several key
questions: 1) whether the functional diversity of plant
litter and detritivores has a greater influence on
decomposition than species richness; 2) whether more
diverse plant litter pools lead to more efficient
decomposition, explicitly taking into account the
different forms of carbon and nutrients into which litter
is converted; 3) whether top-down are greater than
bottom-up diversity effects on decomposition and element
recycling; and 4) whether the magnitude of diversity
effects on decomposition rivals the single and joint
impacts of key drivers of global environmental change. Our
experimental manipulations in microcosms will simulate
realistic diversity loss and environmental change events,
and the use of several techniques that are novel within a
biodiversity-ecosystem functioning context will facilitate
the investigation of the biological mechanisms ultimately
responsible for biodiversity effects on decomposition.. |
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Assessing functional variability of small Iberian streams
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Solutions to problems affecting river ecosystems will
arrive with a better understanding on their structure and
function. Leaf litter decomposition is a pivotal process
in the stream functioning, and sensitive to disturbances.
The aim of this project, founded by Spanish Ministry of
Education and Science, is to assess the impact of
different kind of disturbances (Nutrient enrichment, Flow
regulation & Catchment land uses) in the functioning
of low order Iberian streams through the response of leaf
litter decomposition, in four geographic and climatic
regions in the Iberian Peninsula. |
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COMPLEXTREAM: Restoring channel complexity in Basque streams
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TEMPERIOS: Effect of temperature on the functioning of streams in Northern Spain The project continues as RIOTEM . |
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RIOTEM: Effect of temperature on
the functioning of streams in Northern Spain
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GLOBAQUA.
Managing the effects of multiple stressors on aquatic
ecosystems under water scarcity
METATOOL:
Metabolism
as
a
tool
to
assess
the status of river ecosystems
RIVFUNCTION:
Integrating ecosystem functioning into river quality
assessment and management
The
Iberian Peninsula shows marked climatic and geomorphologic
contrasts, in particular between Atlantic and
Mediterranean regions. It is likely that rivers within
each region also will show variability, which may have
implications when characterizing river types. The natural
spatio-temporal variability of rivers should be taken into
account to define reference conditions and boundaries
between quality classes when assessing stream ecological
status. This project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of
Education and Science, studied functional variability of
headwater stream, reference sites, through leaf-litter
decomposition, a key ecosystem-level process sensitive to
disturbances affecting freshwaters. This was a comparative
study among four regions from north to south in the
Iberian Peninsula, acting upon a varied set of Spanish
headwater streams, and a previous step for IMPARIOS
project
IMPARIOS: Assessing
functional impacts in Iberian headwaters
The
channels of most European streams and rivers have been
profoundly modified by dredging, straightening, and other
human actions. Less known, but also ecologically
important, is the removal of dead wood, a key structure
affecting both stream communities and ecosystem
functioning. Streams running to the Añarbe reservoir, in
the Aiako Harria Natural Park (Guipuscoa), have excellent
water quality, but simplified channels and impoverished
communities.
The
increase of Earth’s temperature during the last decades
has resulted in an increasing number of studies about
climate change, as its effects on ecosystems, including
small headwater streams, are still poorly known,
especially when interactions with other local factors
occur. Leaf litter decomposition is a key process in
heterotrophic streams and has a major interest due to its
role within the global carbon cycle, as global warming
might accelerate decomposition rates. Moreover, other
factors such as geology and differences in benthic
communities might control the response of stream
functioning to global warming within a given regional
setting. The main objective of this project is to evaluate
the effect of temperature on leaf litter decomposition and
other associated variables as indicators of changes in the
functioning of small streams in Northern Spain and
evaluate its importance for stream ecosystems within
future climate scenarios. 
SCARCE:
Assessing and predicting effects on water quantity and
quality in Iberian rivers caused by global change
ABSTRACT:
Effects
of
water abstraction on river ecosystem functioning
Water
abstraction is a prevalent impact on world rivers, and is
expected to increase in the near future as a consequence
of rising human population. Whereas the impacts of large
reservoirs on river ecosystem structure and functioning
are pretty well known, much less information is available
on the effects of abstraction schemes based on low dams,
like small hydropower plants and water derivations for
agriculture. Abstraction reduces discharge, and thus,
affects water velocity and turbulence, the wetted
perimeter, the cover of parafluvial areas, and inputs of
organic matter and sediments from upstream. All these
changes can have important impacts on river ecosystem
functioning at both the local and the reach scale. Our
objective was to assess the impact of water abstraction on
river ecosystem functioning. More specifically, we
assessed its effects on channel form and sediment
dynamics, on the storage and breakdown of organic matter,
on the affinity of benthic substrata for dissolved
nutrients, on the self-purification capacity of streams,
on the importance of hyporheic vs surface processes, and
on whole-stream metabolism. These impacts were analyzed by
combining field and laboratory experiments.