Anna Avila

• PhD
• Researcher at Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications

Long‐range atmospheric processes facilitate global microbial dispersal, with a pivotal role in Earth's ecosystem functioning and global health. Aerobiological studies have traditionally focused on low troposphere aerosols, leading to the assumption that airborne communities are primarily controlled by neighbouring ecosystems. We show a temporal sam...

We present here, and make freely available, two long‐term datasets on the hydrology and hydrochemistry of two small catchments totally or partially covered by holm oak ( Quercus ilex ) forests. Data have been collected over four decades of research on the ecology of Mediterranean evergreen forests. The datasets contain data on water fluxes in preci...

In humid regions, the chemical flux and cycling of elements is intimately linked to the hydrologic cycle. This insight opened in the late s. XX a worldwide avenue for the use of small watersheds as ecological units to study the hydrological and biogeochemical functioning of ecosystems at the small catchment scale. The Montseny catchment research, s...

Previous studies have evaluated how changes in atmospheric nitrogen (N) inputs and cli- mate affect stream N concentrations and fluxes, but none have synthesized data from sites around the globe. We identified variables controlling stream inorganic N concentrations and fluxes, and how they have changed, by synthesizing 20 time series ranging from 5...

this is the supplementary material related to the article that can be found at http://dx. doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2016.06.027.

We identified variables controlling stream nitrogen concentrations and fluxes, and how they have changed over time, by synthesizing 20 time series ranging from 5 to 51 years of data collected from forest and grassland dominated watersheds across Europe, North America, and East Asia and across four climate types (tropical, temperate, Mediterranean,...

Litter decomposition is a key process for carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and is mainly controlled by environmental conditions, substrate quantity, and quality as well as microbial community abundance and composition. In particular, the effects of climate and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on litter decomposition and its...

Climate change in a region in eastern Pyrenees

A reliable quantification of total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) deposition to forests is required for the evaluation of ecological effects of TIN inputs to forests and to monitor the success of clean-air policy. As direct measurements are scarce, different modeling approaches have been developed to estimate TIN deposition to forests. Three common metho...

Sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) increasing anthropogenic emissions in the last century has arisen wide concern on the ecological effects of S and N deposition. In this paper, we use bulk deposition and stream water measurements in the central Pyrenees (PYR-C and PYR-AT sites) and Montseny (MSY-TM0) covering different time lengths in the period 1983-201...

Microbial activity plays a central role in nitrogen (N) cycling, with effects on forest productivity. Although N biotransformations, such as nitrification, are known to occur in the soil, here we investigate whether nitrifiers are present in tree canopies and actively process atmospheric N. This study was conducted in a Mediterranean holm oak (Quer...

The Montseny brook newt (Calotriton arnoldi) is a critically endangered amphibian species which inhabits a small 20 km2 holm oak and beech forest area in NE Spain. Calotriton arnoldi strictly lives in running waters and might be highly vulnerable to hydrological perturbations expected to occur under climate and vegetation cover changes. Knowledge a...

text in catalan Abstract Data shown in this article demonstrate the strong interrelations between the atmosphere and the biosphere, and exemplify a case where the reduction of emissions to the atmosphere of a pollutant (sulfur dioxide) has had effective and fast effects in the receptor ecosystems, studied in the Montseny mountains (NE Iberian Penin...

Section 4.1 describes an approach to optimise the modelling of dry deposition under Mediterranean conditions (i.e. long dry summers). This is important because most modelling approaches have been developed under the more Atlantic (i.e. wetter) climate condition of central Europe. Achieving better estimates of nitrogen input to forests is essential...

In Mediterranean areas, dry deposition is a major component of the total atmospheric N input to natural habitats, particularly to forest ecosystems. An innovative approach, combining the empirical inferential method (EIM) for surface deposition of NO3− and NH4+ with stomatal uptake of NH3, HNO3 and NO2 derived from the DO3SE (Deposition of Ozone an...

Large worldwide sources of dust, such as the Saharan desert, play a key role in the amounts and composition of atmospheric particulate deposition (APD), but their relative contribution compared to other sources remain unclear. Our study aimed to apportion Saharan, regional, and anthropogenic sources of APD in three sites sampling along a long trans...

Through litter decomposition enormous amounts of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to understand the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly based on site-specific litt...

Through litter decomposition enormous amount of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to understand the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly based on site-specific litte...

Through litter decomposition enormous amounts of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to under-stand the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly based on site-specific litt...

To assess the impact of nitrogen (N) pollutants on forest ecosystems, the role of the interactions in the canopy needs to be understood. A great number of studies have addressed this issue in heavily N-polluted regions in north and central Europe. Much less information is available for the Iberian Peninsula, and yet this region is home to mountain...

This study considers the role of distance to the African source on the amount of deposition. To this end, dry and wet deposition was measured at a site close to Africa (Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands, SCO) and at a distant site located in NE Spain (La Castanya, Montseny, MSY). Because of the important influence of African influence on...

Mediterranean Basin ecosystems, their unique biodiversity, and the key services they provide are currently at risk due to air pollution and climate change, yet only a limited number of isolated and geographically-restricted studies have addressed this topic, often with contrasting results. Particularities of air pollution in this region include hig...

Resumen La composición química de la atmósfera ha cambiado significativamente en los últimos 100 años principalmente debido al aumento de las emisiones de gases y partículas derivadas de las actividades humanas. Numerosos estudios han descrito las tendencias de cambio de la química atmosférica, la composición química de la lluvia y la deposición at...

Despite recent regulations, atmospheric ammonia (NH3) emissions have not changed much over the last decades and excessive nitrogen remains as one of the major drivers for biodiversity changes. To prevent deleterious effects on species and ecosystems, it is very important to establish safety thresholds, such as those defined by the Critical Level (C...

Bulk/wet and throughfall fluxes of major compounds were measured from June 2011 to June 2013 at four Mediterranean holm-oak (Quercus ilex) forests in the Iberian Peninsula. Regression analysis between net throughfall fluxes and precipitation indicated that the best defined canopy process was leaching for K+ and uptake for NH4+ at all sites. A more...

Bulk/wet and throughfall fluxes of major compounds were measured from June 2011 to June 2013 at four Mediterranean holm-oak (Quercus ilex) forests in the Iberian Peninsula. Regression analysis between net throughfall fluxes and precipitation indicated that the best defined canopy process was leaching for K⁺ and uptake for NH4⁺ at all sites. A more...

Oxidative stress and neuroinflammatory changes appear to be the early events involved in AD’s development and progression. The present study was designed to assess the effect of soybean isoflavone extract (SIFE) against colchicine-induced cognitive dysfunction and oxidative stress in male rats. Fifty adult male Wistar albino rats were divided into...

Deposition of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in both bulk precipitation (BD) and canopy throughfall (TF) has been measured for the first time in the western Mediterranean. The study was carried out over a year from 2012 to 2013 at four evergreen holm oak forests located in the Iberian Peninsula: two sites in the Province of Barcelona (Northeaster...

Today biochar is considered a stable-carbon source that is able to improve soil quality. However, although biochar effects on some soil properties are already becoming well known, its impact on complex soil hydrological functions has yet to be better assessed. The main objectives are: (a) to determine the impact of different biochar amendments on i...

Aim Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems serve as reference laboratories for the investigation of global change because of their transitional climate, the high spatiotemporal variability of their environmental conditions, a rich and unique biodiversity and a wide range of socio‐economic conditions. As scientific development and environmental pressu...

Biological productivity in many ocean regions is controlled by the availability of the nutrient phosphorus. In the Mediterranean Sea, aerosol deposition is a key source of phosphorus and understanding its composition is critical for determining its potential bioavailability. Aerosol phosphorus was investigated in European and North African air mass...

h i g h l i g h t s WeMO index better describes winter precipitation in the NE Iberian Peninsula than NAO. Element deposition was correlated with NAO and WeMO depending on air provenance. Few studies have analyzed the relationship between rain chemistry vs. NAO and WeMO. a b s t r a c t The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has been identified as on...

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has been identified as one of the atmospheric patterns which mostly influence the temporal evolution of precipitation and temperature in the Mediterranean area. Recently, the Western Mediterranean Oscillation (WeMO) has also been proposed to describe the precipitation variability in the eastern Iberian Peninsula...

The Mediterranean Basin presents an extraordinary biological richness but very little information is available on the threat that air pollution, and in particular reactive nitrogen (N), can pose to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. This study represents the first approach to assess the risk of N enrichment effects on Spanish ecosystems. The s...

The cluster classification of provenances at a site in the NE Iberian Peninsula indicated that in the period of extended winter (December to March, DJFM) fast Atlantic air flows correspond to positive WeMO index (WeMOi), while negative WeMOi are associated to Mediterranean circulations. The amount of winter precipitation was inversely correlated wi...

Wet-only, dry-only, bulk deposition and deposition of sedimentary particles and gases deposited after the last rain (DAR) were collected weekly at La Castanya station in the Montseny mountains (NE Spain, 41°46′N, 2°21′E) from February 2009 to July 2010. These samples were analysed for pH, alkalinity, and the concentrations of major ions (Cl−, NO3 −...

The cluster classification of provenances at a site in the NE Iberian Peninsula indicated that in the period of extended winter (December to March, DJFM) fast Atlantic air flows correspond to positive WeMO index (WeMOi), while negative WeMOi are associated to Mediterranean circulations. The amount of winter precipitation was inversely correlated wi...

La composición química de la atmósfera ha experimentado cambios significativos desde el comienzo de la Revolución Industrial a mitad del siglo XIX, debido a la emisión de gases y partículas ligados al incremento del uso de fertilizantes y combustibles fósiles, generando una serie de problemas ambientales a escala global. La alteración más conocida...

SOSTENIBILIDAD EN ESPAÑA 2011 327 l Observatorio de la Sostenibilidad de España (OSE) ha preparado el presente capítulo espe-cial sobre bosques, en el marco de su Informe Sostenibilidad en España 2011, con ocasión de la celebración del Año Internacional de los Bosques. La Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas acordó en 2006 celebrar en 2011 este impo...

The aim of this study was to gain insights on the potential hydrological and biogeochemical mechanisms controlling the response of two nested Mediterranean catchments to long-term changes in atmospheric inorganic nitrogen and sulphate deposition. One catchment was steep and fully forested (TM9, 5.9 ha) and the other one had gentler slopes and heath...

Atmospheric deposition to land and aquatic surfaces depends on the atmospheric gas/aerosol loads and on precipitation amount (which is a major vehicle for scavenging and depositing atmospheric material). Climate variability patterns (NAO, WO and WeMO) have been found to affect precipitation quantity in the Mediterranean fringe of the Iberian Penins...

Long-range, seasonal migration is a widespread phenomenon among insects, allowing them to track and exploit abundant but ephemeral resources over vast geographical areas. However, the basic patterns of how species shift across multiple locations and seasons are unknown in most cases, even though migrant species comprise an important component of th...

h i g h l i g h t s < Precipitation SO 4 2À and H þ decreased but NO 3 À increased (p < 0,05) at a NE Spain site. < In 1984e1993 these pollutants were mostly originated in central and eastern Europe. < Recently this shifted to marine traffic and eastern Europe and North Africa emissions. a b s t r a c t The aim of this study is to interpret the var...

a b s t r a c t In this study, African red-rains were collected at Montseny (NE Spain) on a weekly basis and analyzed for total particulate phosphorus (TPP), total dissolved P (TDP) and soluble reactive P (SRP) for the period 1996e2008. Wet and dry weekly deposition of TPP was analyzed for all provenances in 2002e2003. In this period, African sourc...

Surface water chemistry has changed in response to reduced atmospheric deposition of sulphur and acidity in many regions of Europe and North America. Most of these studies come from acidic or low-alkalinity surface waters under high acidic deposition. Mediterranean climates offer a different biogeochemical context, characterised by streamwaters of...

Each spring, Vanessa cardui (Linnaeus) migrates into Europe, sometimes in huge numbers. Although it is widely accepted that migrants come from North Africa, there is currently a dearth of information on the source areas they originate from. However, in a recent study, a strong association between V cardui arriving in spring in Catalonia (NE Spain)...

A source apportionment technique has been applied to determine the geographical distribution of emissions in Northern Africa contributing to dust outbreaks that yield high PM10 levels at Spanish regional background stations. Seven dust episodes have been analyzed in this study. Total suspended particles have been sampled and chemically analyzed for...

African dust additions explain the origin of terra rossa soils that are common on the carbonate-platform island of Mallorca, Spain. Mineralogical and geochemical analyses indicate that Quaternary carbonate eolianites on Mallorca have a very high purity, usually composed of more than 90% carbonate minerals (calcite, dolomite, and aragonite). In cont...

Nitrogen emissions have grown in Spain during the last 15years. As precipitation scavenges gases and aerosols from the atmosphere, an effect on rainwater concentrations can be expected. However, time-series studies on wet N concentrations in the Iberian Peninsula are very scarce. This paper aims to fill this gap by analysing weekly rainfall N conce...

The Canary Islands, due to their geographical position, constitute an adequate site for the study of long-range pollen transport from the surrounding land masses. In this study, we analyzed airborne pollen counts at two sites: Santa Cruz de Tenerife (SCO), at sea level corresponding to the marine boundary layer (MBL), and Izaña at 2,367 m.a.s.l. co...

The source-receptor models allow the establishment of relationships between a receptor point (sampling point) and the probable source areas (regions of emission) through the association of concentration values at the receptor point with the corresponding atmospheric back-trajectories, and, together with other techniques, to interpret transport phen...

Resum Els models font-receptor permeten establir relacions entre un punt receptor (punt de mostreig) i lesàreesles`lesàrees font probables (regions emissores) mitjançant l'associació de valors de concentració en el punt receptor amb les corresponents retrotrajectòries atmosfèriques, i, juntament amb altres t` ecniques, permeten interpretar fenòmens...

On October 2006, during an episode of abnormally warm weather, the African moth Cornifrons ulceratalis (Lederer, 1858) was captured simultaneously for the first time in several sites in north-eastern Spain, the Balearic Islands and southern France. A deep depression situated over the Atlantic at the time gave rise to warm south-westerly winds, acco...

Local and long-range transport of beech (Fagus sylvatica) pollen was analysed by using 23-year data (1983-2007) at six stations in Catalonia, Spain, and numerical simulations. Back trajectories and synoptic meteorology indicated a consistent north European provenance during beech pollen peak days. Specifically, the area from northern Italy to centr...

Stable sulphur isotopes and major ionic composition were analysed in precipitation and throughfall samples from a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris, L.) forest near the Cercs coal-fired power plant (Catalonia, NE Spain). The purpose of the study was to determine the main sources of sulphur deposition on this pine forest. Sulphur isotope measurements fro...

this allergopathy. Nevertheless, the air contains allergenic material of smaller size, which might be the causes of bother-some symptoms for allergic persons. How-ever, little is known about the prevalence of these particles in the atmosphere, their temporal variations or their detailed chemi-cal composition. The present research was finance for a...

1. Thousands of records of migratory butterfly species such as Vanessa cardui flying just above ground-level on fixed compass bearings have led to the common belief that these insects migrate within the so-called 'flight-boundary layer', where movements are relatively independent of the wind. 2. Given the selective advantages of windborne migration...

1] We use the chemical composition of African dust delivered by red rains at a rural site in northeastern Spain (Montseny, 41°46 0 N, 2°21 0 E) to describe its relationship with the possible provenance areas and the processes occurring during transport. To this end, we obtained the red rain insoluble composition for the major elements (Al, Fe, Ca,...

The origin of the daily exceedances of 50 μg PM10 m−3 (daily limit value or DLV of the EU air quality directive) and of an arbitrary daily value (DV) 35 μg PM2.5 m−3 recorded in 2001–2003 in 13 regional background stations of the Iberian Peninsula were interpreted. This was carried out by means of back-trajectory analysis, available PM model output...

Receptor-oriented methodologies have been recently used to provide maps of potential sources for particular target species. Here, a receptor-oriented methodology has been applied to the chemistry of precipitation data collected at a background site in NE Spain (La Castanya rural station, LC) in order to identify the likely sources of anthropogenic...

1] Pb 210 is a well known tracer of particle dynamics in the marine environment. Geochemical models partially rely on the knowledge of its atmospheric input. Unfortunately, this is poorly known in the western Mediterranean Sea, especially regarding long-term records. In this work we have evaluated the 210 Pb annual atmospheric flux to this region f...

A source apportionment methodology has been implemented to estimate the contribution from different arid geographical areas to the levels of measured atmospheric particulate matter with diameters less than 10 mum (PM10). Toward that end, the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model (HYSPLIT) has been used to quantify the propor...

1] The impact of the African dust on levels of atmospheric suspended particulate matter (SPM) and on wet deposition was evaluated in eastern Iberia for the period 1996–2002. An effort was made to compile both the SPM and wet episodes. To this end, the time series of levels of TSP and PM10 in Levantine air quality monitoring stations were evaluated...

A strong African dust outbreak episode affecting the Canary Islands from 28 to 31/07/02 has been characterised at the Izaña Observatory (IZO), located in the free troposphere (FT), and at Sta. Cruz de Tenerife (SCO), in the Marine Boundary Layer (MBL). The Saharan air mass intruded above the trade wind inversion layer resulting in daily mean PM lev...

We compare here the bulk deposition, throughfall and stemflow fluxes of dissolved trace metals in two holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) forests in the Montseny Mountains (NE Spain) with the aim of: (1) applying different methods to distinguish between dry deposition and canopy leaching and (2) to add to the almost non-existing deposition measurements for...

The chemistry of weekly rainwater collected at a rural site (La Castanya, Montseny Mountains, northeast Spain), exposed both to anthropogenic pollutants and natural African dust, was analyzed for the period 1983-2000. On the basis of back trajectories and synoptic charts we distinguished four source regions: (1) African, (2) European, (3) Oceanic,...

Trace metal deposition in precipitation was not significantly different in two holm oak forests with contrasted exposure to pollution in the area around Barcelona (Northeastern Spain), but dry deposition was higher at the more exposed site. Rain events of European origin had higher concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd than those from African, Atlant...

Atmospheric deposition was studied through measurements of bulk deposition, throughfall and stemflow at two sites of contrasted exposure to pollution in the Montseny mountains (Northeastern Spain). To explore the contribution of local or distant sources at both sites, concentration data and precipitation amounts (log transformed) for both bulk depo...

ABSTRACT L’objectiu d’aquest estudi fou el de determinar la procedència de la contaminació per nitrats a les aigües subterrànies a la comarca d’Osona (NE d’Espanya) usant tècniques d’anàlisi isotòpic. Encara que la Directiva 80/778/CEE fixa la concentració màxima de nitrats permesa en aigües destinades al consum humà en 50 ppm la majoria de mostre...

Annual volume-weighted mean (VWM) concentrations in rainwater collected at La Castanya (LC, Montseny Mountains, NE Spain) were analysed from 1983 to 2000 to study the temporal trends in precipitation chemistry, and the causes behind the changes. A significant positive correlation was found between annual rainwater SO42− concentrations at LC and Spa...

Bulk deposition, wet-only deposition, throughfall and dry deposition inferred from washing foliage and surrogate surfaces were used to describe inorganic N inputs to a forested catchment in the Montseny Mountains (La Castanya, Catalonia, Spain). Bulk inputs of inorganic N were moderate, with a mean of 5.7 kg N ha-1 yr-1, ranging between 4 and 10 kg...

The fluxes recovered from washing branches and surrogatesurfaces were compared for two holm oak (Quercus ilex L.)forests in the Montseny mountains (NE Spain) differentiallyexposed to pollution. For 5 periods in May and June 1996 afterexposures ranging between 68–189 hr, 6 metacrylate plates and 8branches were extracted with distilled water. Also, a...

Atmospheric deposition of inorganic nitrogen was studied at two forested sites in the Montseny mountains (northeast Spain), peripheral to the Barcelona conurbation, and at a nearby lowland town, using bulk deposition, wet-only deposition, throughfall, and dry deposition inferred from branch-washes and surrogate surfaces (metacrylate plates). Bulk d...

Throughfall has a large spatial variability due to the heterogeneous structure of the canopy and to variable rainfall patterns. This study has been conducted in two Mediterranean holm oak (Quercus ilex, L.) forests, here named LC and RP, to determine the optimum number of collectors needed to obtain a mean throughfall value within certain limits of...

Bulk precipitation samples were collected at Montseny (Catalonia, NE Spain) from 1983 to 1994 and analysed for major cations and anions. The samples were classified for provenance based on meteorological synoptic maps and back trajectory analysis to identify the source areas of pollutants in precipitation. The meteorological classification was comp...

Desert areas in North Africa are important sources of mineral dust to the atmosphere, which upon deposition can influence oceanic and terrestrial biogeochemical cycles and affect forest productivity. Here, an increase of the frequency of rainfall loaded with such dust (red rain) in the last decades is documented for a site in northeastern Spain. Th...

Summary The African dust frequency, dust content, dust mineralogy and elemental composition have been analyzed for a site in the Montseny mountains (northeastern Spain) for the period 1983-1998. Three source regions in North Africa have been identified for the dust loaded red rains: Western Sahara, Moroccan Atlas and central Sahara. Significant di...

The metal concentrations of V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb were analysed in distilled water extracts of Parmelia caperata and in bulk deposition, throughfall and an experimental in situ washing of leaves at two forests at Montseny (NE Spain) submitted to differential exposure to the industrial and traffic activities around Barcelona. Lichen c...

Interest in precipitation chemistry greatly expanded as a result of the increasing rain acidity over northern Europe and northeastern North America in the early 1970s. The links between air pollution, acid rain and forest health have generated many thousands of publications in the last 25 years (e.g. Drablos and Tollan 1980; Hutchinson and Havas 19...

The element budget concept for the study of forest ecosystems was first developed by an interdisciplinary group of scientists at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (New Hampshire, USA) in the early 1960s. The reasoning behind the element budget concept was that “in humid regions, the chemical flux and cycling is intimately linked to the hydrolog...

Forest canopies affect the amounts of water and nutrients reaching forest soils. Water and nutrient inputs under forest canopies are thus different from those in nearby open areas. Canopies intercept and retain part of the incident precipitation (intercepted water), which is eventually evaporated from the canopy and lost to the atmosphere. Water pa...

Water balances in small catchments are widely used in forest science. Since the watershed research at Wagon Wheel Gap (Colorado, USA) in 1910 (Cameron 1928), many other catchments have been instrumented to measure precipitation inputs and runoff outputs. The main goal of this approach is to evaluate the influence of vegetation cover on water yield,...

Present understanding of terrestrial ecosystems at the catchment scale has enabled models to be developed which reproduce the main hydrological and chemical processes responsible for the dynamics of catchments. Such models have been named biogeochemical models as they seek to link parts of the biosphere and the geosphere through analysis of the che...

The chemistry of North African dust reaching NE Spain with red rains is here described to (1) characterize the red dust elemental composition, (2) analyze the relative contribution of dissolved and particulate forms to the total element inputs for the period 1983–1994, and (3) study the role of the particulate and dissolved inputs in red rains to t...

Aquest treball assenyala l'interès de les conques experimentals en aigües superficials, tant des del punt de vista físic o hidrològic estricte (processos físics: erosió, transport sòlid,...) com des de l'ecològic. Els autors aporten diverses consideracions sobre el paper de l'ecosistema forestal i dels processos hidrològics propis dels espais rural...