Eugenio Rico

Autonomous University of Madrid | UAM · Department of Ecology

Lake Arreo sequence (western Ebro Basin, Spain) illustrates the century-scale climatic variability and human interactions in the landscape during the last 2.5 kyr in the low lands of northern Spain. Two sediment cores from shallow-water and deep-water environments were analyzed using sedimentological, geochemical, mineralogical, biological - diatom...

Nine biological indices based on the macroinvertebrate community inhabiting rivers have been calculated in order to find out which of them is more appropriate to evaluate the qualitative status of the running water for public environmental authorities. The BMWP' score (Alba-Tercedor & Sánchez-Ortega 1988) has been chosen because it is both accurate...

1. Most high mountain lakes were free of fish until humans stocked them. This provides the opportunity to study the extent to which predation constrains the thermal distribution of large macroinvertebrates, among lakes of a suitable temperature for them. 2. We analysed the distribution of aquatic beetles (Coleoptera, Dytisicidae, including the gene...

A limnological survey of 15 lakes and 6 streams was carried out on Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica) during austral summer 2001–2002. Most of the surface waters had low conductivities (20–105 �S cm¡1) and nutrients (total phosphorus 0.01–0.24 �M), but some coastal lakes were enriched by nutrient inputs from sea...

The community structure and physiological characteristics of three microbial mat communities in Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica) were compared. One of the mats was located at the edge of a stream and was dominated by diatoms (with a thin basal layer of oscillatorian cyanobacteria), whereas the other two mats,...

The Arctic soil communities play a vital role in stabilizing and decomposing soil carbon, which affects the global carbon cycling. Studying the food web structure is critical for understanding biotic interactions and the functioning of these ecosystems. Here we studied the trophic relationships of (microscopic) soil biota of two different Arctic sp...

The biological activity of marine vertebrates represents an input of nutrients for Antarctic terrestrial biota, with relevant consequences for the entire ecosystem. Even though microbial mats assemble most of the biological diversity of the non-marine Antarctica, the effects of the local macrofauna on these microecosystems remain understudied. Usin...

We present the first reconstruction of past flood events variability in the Basque Country and Western Ebro Basin (Northern Spain) integrating instrumental hydrological datasets (last 20 years), documentary archives (last 700 years) and Lake Arreo (655 m a.s.l.) sedimentary paleoflood record (last 1400 years). In this lake, allochthonous coarse and...

Rice fields and waterbirds are an example of a synergy that can occur between agriculture and conservation. This connection is especially relevant during the farming period, when nesting waterbirds need to obtain resources to cover their energy requirements and that of their chicks in rice fields. However, new farming techniques may potentially put...

Los arrozales y las aves acuáticas han supuesto tradicionalmente un ejemplo paradigmático sobre las sinergias que tienen lugar entre agricultura y conservación. Esta relación es especialmente relevante durante el período de cultivo, en el que las aves acuáticas nidificantes buscan recursos para cubrir sus requisitos energéticos y el de sus crías. S...

Crayfish are among the largest aquatic macroinvertebrates in rivers and streams. Their trophic ecology is important for the understanding of the functioning of benthic communities. This is relevant in key areas, such as headwaters, as they partly condition the processes occurring downstream. To shed light on the effects of native white-clawed crayf...

Microbial mats are complex communities that represent a large biomass fraction in non-marine Antarctic ecosystems. They confer structure to soils and constitute, by themselves, intricate microecosystems, where a great variety of microorganisms and microfauna contributes to the ecosystem functions. Although in recent years Antarctic microbial mats h...

Rarefaction curves of bacterial and eukaryotic community at family taxonomic level of the studied microbial mat from Byers Peninsula, Antarctica.

Cyanobacteria-based microbial mats are common in Antarctic terrestrial freshwater ecosystems such as the extensive wetland seepages that cover Byers Peninsula on Livingston Island (South Shetland Islands), maritime Antarctica, where they play an important role in biomass generation and productivity. Although cyanobacteria, microfauna and fungal com...

Lakes from the Antarctic maritime region experience climate change as a main stressor capable of modifying their plankton community structure and function, essentially because summer temperatures are commonly over the freezing point and the lake's ice cap thaws. This study was conducted in such seasonally ice-covered lake (Lake Limnopolar, Byers Pe...

En: VV.AA., Bases ecológicas preliminares para la conservación de los tipos de hábitat de interés comunitario en España. Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino. Madrid, 412 pp. ISBN: 978-84-491-0911-9

Ramsar Convention and EU Water Framework Directive are two international agreements focused on the conservation and achievement of good ecological and chemical status of wetlands. Wetlands are important ecosystems holding many plant and animal communities. Their environmental status can be characterised by the quality of their water bodies. Water q...

The marshes of Donana (SW, Spain) are some of the largest and best preserved Mediterranean marsh areas represented in Western Europe. They are considered a hotspot of biodiversity, and as such receive protected-area different systems of protected-area management. The importance of submerged macrophytes in the functioning of marsh ecosystems has bee...

Maritime Antarctica shows less severe weather conditions than continental Antarctica, thereby allowing an important thaw process during the austral summer that increases both light availability for primary production and the inputs of nutrients and organic matter through run-off. Thus, a rapid development of certain phytoplankton groups is favoured...

High-energy flowing water habitats such as waterfalls are uncommon in Antarctica, though they may become more regular as temperature increase. Both high spatial and temporal environmental variability is expected on them. The extent of their biological colonization will depend on the amount of ecological strategies displayed by the surrounding biota...

The esterases and lipases from the α/β hydrolase superfamily exhibit an enormous sequence diversity, fold plasticity and activities. Herein, we present the comprehensive sequence and biochemical analyses of seven distinct esterases and lipases from the metagenome of Lake Arreo, an evaporite karstic lake in Spain (42°46' N, 2°59' W; 655 m altitude)....

General features of reported esterases/lipases isolated from metagenomic resources (Table S1); list of primers used in the study (Table S2); percentage of identity between Arreo enzymes, determined by Matcher (EMBOSS package) (Table S3); half-saturation (Michaelis) coefficient (Km), catalytic rate constant (kcat), and catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km)...

A systematic limnological survey of water bodies of Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands) was carried out during the summer of 2001/02. Abundances of microbial plankton were determined which allowed a delineation of the pelagic food web structure. We also report the nutrient status of these lakes. We demonstrate the occurrence...

Abstract Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) are apex predators of marine Antarctic food webs, and variations in their populations have been linked to environmental changes. Consequently, measuring and reporting the status of elephant seal populations provide insights into the environmental status of Antarctica. Here, we present new informat...

Although the lower size limit of microorganisms was previously believed to be c. 0.2 μm, there is evidence for the existence of microorganisms that can pass through 0.2 μm-pore-size filters called ultramicrobacteria or nanobacteria. However, information on the phylogeny and biogeography of these bacteria is limited. We obtained 53 isolates of 0.2 μ...

This study describes the ecology and distribution of the only two native Antarctic insects, the chironomid species Parochlus steinenii and Belgica antarctica, both found on Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands). Parochlus steinenii inhabits lakes of the central plateau of Byers Peninsula associated with aquatic mosses on the b...

Remote lakes, such as lakes from the Maritime Antarctica, can be used as sentinels of climate change, because they are mostly free of direct anthropogenic pressures, and they experience climate change as a main stressor capable of modifying the ecosystem structure and function. In this paper, the content of a lecture that has been presented at the...

We present a high-resolution, multiproxy reconstruction of the depositional history of Lake Arreo, northern Spain, for the last 60 years. We conducted sedimentological, geochemical and diatom analyses in short cores and made a detailed comparison with regional instrumental climate data (1952–2007), limnological monitoring of the lake (1992–2008) an...

The plankton communities of Antarctic lakes show a simple trophic structure. These communities are functionality dominated by microorganisms. When zooplankters are present, they constitute usually the top predators. It is for this reason that these ecosystems results appropriate to undertake studies related with the trophic and functional ecology....

Tesis doctoral inédita. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Ecología. Fecha de lectura: 23-06-2010 Bibliogr.: p.335-359

Arreo Lake is a small (288 ha surface area) karstic lake 25 m deep located at the northwestern edge of the Ebro Basin (NE Spain). The integration of sedimentary facies, element geochemistry, mineralogy, and biological proxies (pollen and diatoms), together with a robust chronological model provided by 15 AMS radiocarbon dating, 137Cs analyses, and...

The present study shows the occurrence of remarkable interannual variation in the meteorological conditions at Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetlands Islands, Antarctica), in which one of the summers was significantly colder than the others. Within this climatic scenario, a limnological study was carried out at Lake Limnopolar during th...

Research in extremely delicate environments must be sensitive to the need to minimize impacts caused simply through the presence of research personnel. This study investigates the effectiveness of current advice relating to travel on foot over Antarctic vegetation-free soils. These are based on the concentration of impacts through the creation of p...

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The new enchytraeid species Lumbricillus healyae sp. n. is described from freshwater streams, with well-oxygenated and poorly mineralised waters, situated in Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica). Lumbricillus healyae sp. n. is morphologically close to L. antarcticus and L. incisus, and it is mainly distinguished b...

Entre las Islas Shetland del Sur, en la Antártida marítima, se encuentra la Isla Livingston, en cuyo extremo oeste se localiza una de las zonas con mayor biodiversidad no marina de la Antártida, y una de las concentraciones más importantes de cuerpos de agua continentales en toda la Antártida: la Península de Byers. En la región de la Península Ant...

The effects on epilithic algae of increasing densities of two crayfish species, Austropotamobius italicus and Pacifastacus leniusculus, the latter recently introduced in Spain, have been monitored using riverine enclosures, within a large experimental study on crayfish-macrobenthos interactions in a mountain stream. A 3-month test was carried out f...

We report an environmental impact study, conducted by the LIMNOPOLAR expedition at Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, designated as Antarctic Special Protection Area No. 126 (SCAR, 2003). The main objective is to test the effectiveness of SCAR recommendations for minimizing the environmental impact of Antarctic expeditions,...

Crayfish Austropotamobius italicus (Faxon) populations in the province of Cuenca have been periodically monitored with different methodologies, intensity and success since the major outbreaks of crayfish plague which took place during the mid-1980's. During 2000 summer a province-wide sampling program was carried using different sampling strategies...

Santa Olalla and Dulce are two shallow natural eutrophic lakes (“lagunas”) located in Doñana National Park (south of Spain). Both lagunas have high algal biomass and pH and are surrounded by a macrophyte fringe of Juncus spp. and Scirpus spp. The effect of the macroinvertebrate community on decomposition rates (k) of Juncus maritimus was measured i...

Lake Arreo is the deepest water body on evaporite rocks in the Iberian Peninsula. Morphometry and a physical and chemical cycle were studied in 1993-94. Morphometry corresponds to a Vcx-Cmi lake form (after symbols of Hikanson (1981)), domi- nated by shallow regions. A palustrine subsystem extends over 2/3 of lake su$ace. Chemically, the lake is su...

The distribution of the Dryopidae and Elmidae in the Balearic Islands was studied. Three species of Dryopidae — Dryops algiricus (Lucas, 1949), D. gracilis (Karsch, 1881) and D. sulcipennis (Costa, 1883)— and one of Elmidae — Oulimnius echinatus Berthélemy, 1979— were found. Bibliographical data of other three species of Dryopidae exist, but their...

A revision of the Limnius perrisi subspecies group in the Iberian Peninsula is presented. Limnius perrisi subcarinatus (Sharp, 1872) is a new synonym of Limnius perrisi carinatus (Pérez-Arcas, 1865). Morphological variability related to some elytral interstriae corresponds to a geographical gradation. Limnius perrisi is restricted to the headwaters...

Trabajo realizado para la Consejería de Agricultura y Medio AMbiente de la Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha en 1997.

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Using the Strahler-Schumm heirarchical classification on topographic maps with a 1:50 000 scale, a morphometric study was made of the whole hydrographic network of the Basque Country (northern Spain). By applying Horton's bifurcation radius (law of number of river beds), the law of allometric growth, the longitudinal profile and the hypsometric cur...

A lectotype and a paralectotype are designated for Limnius perrisi carinatus (Pérez‐Areas, 1865) from the Pérez‐Areas collection which is deposited at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (Madrid).