Francesc Mesquita-Joanes

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• Dr. Biological Sciences
• Full Professor at University of Valencia

Do host invaders and their associated symbiont co-invaders have different genetic responses to the same invasion process? To answer this question, we compared genetic patterns of native and exotic populations of an invasive symbiont-host association. This is an approach applied by very few studies, of which most are based on parasites with complex...

The metacommunity concept has promoted a new theoretical view of communities that emphasizes their inter-dependence in a multi-scale nature. However, empirical studies testing the proposed mechanisms structuring communities are still scarce. Here we present a multi-scale spatial analysis on the ostracod metacommunity from endorheic lakes in the Cen...

Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic applications of fossil ostracods rely on a uniformitarian approach underpinned by knowledge of the biology and ecology of living species. This review reveals that in recent decades, major advances have been made in the understanding of species' abiotic niches in relation to their preferences for different wate...

Human-mediated dispersal has rarely been considered in wetland conservation strategies at regional scales, yet high concern exists about this aspect for (inter-)national management considering invasive species in other aquatic systems. In this context, we aim at understanding the role of human-mediated dispersal by footwear in protected wetlands wi...

The temperature-size rule (TSR) is a well-established phenomenon to describe the growth response of ectotherms to temperature by which individuals maintained at low temperatures grow more slowly, but attain a larger size upon maturity. Although there are adaptive and non-adaptive theories about the plasticity of body size in response to temperature...

The ostracod genus Elpidium, a specialist of phytotelma habitats, has received increased attention during the past decade, with a proliferation of described species, rising from seven to nineteen. These recent studies emphasize the high diversity and endemicity of the genus, and its wide distribution in the Neotropics. Yet many regions are still to...

Pesticide pollution poses one of the most important threats for the ecological status of coastal wetland ecosystems. In this study, we evaluated the effects of the herbicide bentazone on aquatic communities characteristic of Mediterranean coastal wetlands using outdoor mesocosms. The herbicide was applied weekly for four weeks at concentrations of...

7 À Punt Mèdia. Resumen Despropósito en la conservación de la fauna cavernícola valenciana (España). Hemos intentado aquí mostrar el despropósito que supone el cese de la protección que tenían cuatro especies cavernícolas, las únicas que se hallaban incluidas en el Catálogo de Especies Amenazadas de la Comunitat Valenciana: un arácnido (Speleoharpa...

1. Temporary ponds are small-sized limnic systems that dry periodically. The length of the wet phase defines the hydroregime and determines community assembly in temporary ponds. Zooplankton species have adapted to desiccation by adopting some dormant strategies, such as the formation of resting stages. Hatching from resting stages is a source of r...

The Catalan Initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project (CBP) is an EBP-affiliated project network aimed at sequencing the genome of the >40 000 eukaryotic species estimated to live in the Catalan-speaking territories (Catalan Linguistic Area, CLA). These territories represent a biodiversity hotspot. While covering less than 1% of Europe, they are h...

Prior research on metacommunities has largely focused on snapshot surveys, often overlooking temporal dynamics. In this study, our aim was to compare the insights obtained from metacommunity analyses based on a spatial approach repeated over time, with a spatio-temporal approach that consolidates all data into a single model. We empirically assesse...

Recent research highlighted the need to include experimental estimates of tolerance limits to varying environmental conditions when investigating what factors limit species distributions. However, most niche approaches are only based on the statistical dependence between environmental and occurrence data. Here, we combined field data with survival...

Amphipods detected in the area of l'Albufera Natural Park l'Albufera Natural Park and their water contributions (30 years of study in l'Albufera)

Identification and Ecology of Freshwater Arthropods in the Mediterranean Basin covers the entire Mediterranean basin, including parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean islands, but excluding other biogeographic locations with Mediterranean climates located outside the region. The book provides an extensive description of the taxonomy an...

The latitudinal diversity gradient predicts that tropical regions should have higher alpha, beta, and gamma diversity than temperate areas. However, only a few studies have assessed the temporal variability of the different components of diversity across climatic regions. In this study, we compare, using a spatial and temporal approach, the diversi...

The two widespread ostracod genera Cypria Zenker, 1854 and Physocypria Vávra, 1897 are traditionally distinguished based on the presence or absence of tubercles on the right valve margin. However, recent research based on soft body parts has uncovered new cryptic genera within Cypria and Physocypria. Following this line of research, a new Cyclocypr...

The two widespread ostracod genera Cypria Zenker, 1854 and Physocypria Vávra, 1897 are traditionally distinguished based on the presence or absence of tubercles on the right valve margin. However, recent research based on soft body parts has uncovered new cryptic genera within Cypria and Physocypria. Following this line of research, a new Cyclocypr...

Although ostracods are important components in aquatic ecosystems, little is known about their microbiomes. Here, we analyzed the microbiomes of the putative ancient asexual ostracod species, Darwinula stevensoni, in three natural populations from different freshwater habitats in the UK, Belgium, and Spain. We applied high-throughput amplicon seque...

Volcanism can cause major impacts, including climate change and mass extinctions. However, the impact of monogenetic volcanism is often considered as limited in volcanological research. This work provides for the first time an interdisciplinary approach to the socio-ecological impact of monogenetic volcanism in a key region, the La Garrotxa Volcani...

Recovery, recolonization and adaptation in a chemical stress context are processes regenerating local populations and communities as well as the functions these communities perform. Recolonization, either by species previously present or by new species able to occupy the niches left empty, refers to a metacommunity process with stressed ecosystems...

Volcanic eruptions are key drivers of climate variability, with complex environmental consequences at regional and local scales that are rarely documented in high-resolution sedimentary records. In this work we present the results of a 15 m long paleolake core (Pla de les Preses core, Vall d’en Bas, Girona, NE Spain) covering the Late Pleistocene-H...

Entre 2017 y 2018 se realizó un estudio limnológico de 30 lagunas temporales de Costa Rica. Entre otros organismos, se estudiaron las esponjas de agua dulce (Porifera: Spongillidae), en cuya distribución se centra el presente estudio. De las muestras se aislaron 15 552 gémulas de esponjas repartidas en 21 localidades de la provincia de Guanacaste....

Lacustrine settings constitute a unique environment that preserves detailed expressions of allocyclic signals such as those of climate and tectonics. Possible decryption of these signatures stems from careful scrutiny of the sed- imentation dynamics (temporary base-level variations), lake-level fluctuations (accommodation), and resulting strata bou...

Ostracods are common microcrustaceans in inland waters, widely used as (palaeo-) environmental indicators. Information on their species distribution worldwide is extremely fragmentary, and usually biased towards some regions, hampering attaining a general view of their biogeography. The Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and Macaronesia are co...

Freshwater biodiversity is under threat, but long-term quantitative studies showing major demographic declines in invertebrate species are still scarce. Here we focus on a long-term study (2004 to 2019) using four native freshwater mussel species (Order Unionida) colonizing two canals of the Ebro River (Spain). Special attention was given to Pseudu...

• Many aquatic invertebrates that inhabit temporary ponds produce resting forms to overcome the dry period, building up the egg bank. When the wet phase returns, the resting forms hatch and the community is restored, and then pioneer species may have a major influence on how the pond community will assemble. We aimed to evaluate the diversity of an...

Although volcanism may and has caused major impacts during Earth evolution, including climate change and mass extinctions, the impact of monogenetic volcanism is usually considered as limited or underestimated in volcanological research. During the Late Glacial- Early Holocene (14 − 8.6 kyr cal BP) transition, intense monogenetic volcanic activity...

The metacommunity concept provides a theoretical framework that aims at explaining organism distributions by a combination of environmental filtering, dispersal, and drift. However, few works have attempted a multitaxon approach and even fewer have compared two distant biogeographical regions using the same methodology. We tested the expectation th...

Pseudunio auricularius (Spengler, 1793) is one of the most threatened unionid species worldwide. Translocation is considered one of the ultimate actions that can save this species from extinction in the Iberian Peninsula. Since 2013, massive mortalities have been recorded in the Canal Imperial de Aragón (CIA), an anthropogenic habitat where the hig...

List of troglobia and stygobia species of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands Abstract: The Iberian-Balearic hypogean or cave fauna has been highlighted for many years by numerous zoologists in different disciplines. Specialists of the different faunal groups capable of colonizing both the caves and the groundwater that runs through them. T...

Resumen: La fauna hipogea o cavernícola ibero-balear ha sido a lo largo de muchos años puesta en evidencia por numerosos zoólogos en las distintas disciplinas. Especialistas de los distintos grupos faunísticos capaces de colonizar tantos las cuevas como las aguas subterráneas que las recorren. Hoy sabemos que esta diversidad de troglobios y estigob...

Pseudocypretta maculata Klie, 1932, type species of the genus, is redescribed based on new material from Thailand. The main diagnostic features of the species are the presence of marginal septa, presence of Wouters organ on the first antenna, strongly serrated claw G2 of the second antenna (A2), small β seta on the mandibular palp, elongated termin...

Temporary ponds are distributed worldwide, providing significant ecological services. Their limnological features are influenced by a set of regional (mainly climate) and local (natural or anthropogenic) factors. To evaluate the differences in their ecological functioning in distant geographic regions, we analysed the main features of 90 temporary...

The Venta del Moro site (Valencia, Spain) is especially known for its rich content in Late Miocene fossil mammals but it also holds other fossil vertebrates, invertebrates and plants. A micropalaeontological study of a 70-cm long sedimentary section carried out in the lacustrine beds of the site has yielded 2 foraminifer, 7 thecamoebian and 19 ostr...

Freshwater biological communities are spatially distributed in relatively isolated patches over a terrestrial landscape matrix, but they may be connected through dispersal processes and can therefore be studied as a set of interrelated communities, constituting a metacommunity. In this chapter, we explore the different processes shaping metacommuni...

Many marsh passerines are cataloged as threatened taxa, mostly due to their high degree of specialization and the generalized deterioration of wetlands worldwide. In this context, habitat selection studies are a very helpful tool to achieve optimal wetland management, take appropriate conservation measures, and avoid potential conservation conflict...

The Asian clam (Corbicula spp.) was first detected in 2004 in the Ebro River (Aragón, Spain). In 2006, it was also found in the Canal Imperial de Aragón (CIA) and in 2007 in the Canal de Tauste (CT). Both artificial canals held large populations of native freshwater mussels and are the main habitat of Pseudunio auricularius (Spengler 1793). However...

Emigration propensity (i.e., the tendency to leave undisturbed patches) is a key life‐history trait of organisms in metapopulations with local extinctions and colonizations. Metapopulation models of dispersal evolution typically assume that patch disturbance kills all individuals within the patch, thus causing local extinction. However, individuals...

Pseudunio auricularius is one of the most threatened freshwater mussel species worldwide and is classified as Critically Endangered in the IUCN Red List. The artificial Canal Imperial de Aragón (CIA) in the Ebro basin (Aragón-Spain) presents the largest census colony in the world (around 6000 tagged specimens), but since 2013 it has suffered a shar...

Populations of the critically endangered freshwater mussel Pseudunio auricularius (Spengler, 1793) have been suffering sharp declines, particularly in the Ebro basin (Iberian Peninsula). Among other factors, pollution could be responsible for these declines. We conducted, for the first time, acute toxicological tests (96 h) with heavy metals and am...

We humans have long been aware that as a species we have great power to modify the natural world. We sure have. But it has only been a few decades since society, with a firm voice, turned against the destruction carried out in the past. We want to preserve the variety of life forms in all their beauty and complexity, because this biological variety...

The metacommunity concept provides a theoretical framework that aims at explaining organism distributions by a combination of environmental filtering, dispersal and drift. With the development of statistical tools to quantify and partially isolate the role of each of these processes, empirical metacommunity studies have multiplied worldwide. Howeve...

Temporary ponds play a key role as amphibian breeding habitats, but predation and desiccation risks enforce major evolutionary pressures in these ecosystems. The newt Pleurodeles waltl is commonly found in Mediterranean ponds in the Iberian Peninsula, where it preys on a wide variety of organisms. We hypothesize that P. waltl may negatively influen...

Metacommunities are dynamic systems, but the influence of time independently of environmental change in their configuration has been rarely considered. In temporary ponds, strong temporal effects are expected to influence their metacommunity structure, even in relatively constant environments such as tropical habitats. We therefore expect that time...

The development of metacommunity theory has boosted the implementation of numerous empirical tests with field data, mostly focused on the role of spatial and environmental gradients on metacommunity organization. These studies showed an important dependence of the results on the observational scale considered, i.e., spatial grain, sampling spacing,...

Temporary ponds are one of the most peculiar ecosystems in the world, being characterized by an extraordinarily rich crustacean fauna, with a high degree of endemism. Among them, diaptomid copepods are among the most biogeographically interesting taxa. However, the present knowledge on diaptomid distribution is still far from being exhaustive, even...

Populations of the critically endangered freshwater mussel Pseudunio auricularius (Spengler, 1793) have been suffering sharp declines, particularly in the Ebro basin (Iberian Peninsula). Among other factors, pollution could be responsible for these declines. We conducted, for the first time, acute toxicological tests (96 h) with heavy metals and am...

El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar por primera vez la sensibilidad de M. auricularia frente a diferentes metales llevando a cabo ensayos toxicológicos agudos (96h) siguiendo las directrices de la ASTM International Standard Guide y utilizando para ello agua dura reconstituida (160-180 mg CaCO3).

The genus Cypris, considered the oldest ostracod generic name erected using the Linnean system, comprises a reduced number of large-bodied species, mostly found in Africa and Asia. Only six of them are known to occur in Europe. Here we describe a new species, Cypris pretusi sp. nov., collected in small temporary streams and ponds along the Eastern...

The role of biotic interactions in shaping the distribution and abundance of species should be particularly pronounced in symbionts. Indeed, symbionts have a dual niche composed of traits of their individual hosts and the abiotic environment external to the host, and often combine active dispersal at finer scales with host‐mediated dispersal at bro...

Margaritifera auricularia is one of the most endangered freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionida) in the world. Since 2013, the abundance of this species in the Ebro River basin (Spain) has sharply declined, driving the species to the verge of regional extinction. Therefore, any management measures that might facilitate the recovery of this species w...

The relative growth of crustaceans has become a solid field of study since the early allometric studies undertaken during the first decades of the 20th century. The type of relative growth of brachyuran crabs mainly depends on the number of critical moults and growth phases, as well as on differences in the slopes of the relative growth of secondar...

Mediterranean temporary ponds, mostly distributed in dry and sub-arid areas, are known to undergo cyclic periods of flooding and intense droughts. These ponds also show a wide variability depending on their geology, geomorphology, depth and origins of the water. Under the current projections of climate change in the Mediterranean region with shifts...

The Albufera de València coastal lagoon is one of the largest oligohaline lagoons in the Iberian Peninsula. Highly polluted and threatened by plans for urban development, it has been protected as a Natural Park since 1986 to preserve its environment and surroundings, mostly consisting of ricefields and a forested coastal sand bar. Restoration plans...

Margaritifera auricularia is one of the 200 species of unionids assessed in the IUCN Red List, being listed as critically endangered. The population of the Ebro basin (Spain) has suffered a strong reduction in recent years, registering very high mortalities of adult specimens, especially those found in the Canal Imperial de Aragón. Different hypoth...

Costa Rica and Nicaragua are well known for their high biodiversity. Both countries possess enormous potential for tourism, with a tropical climate. At the same time, there is concern about some diseases transmitted by vectors, such as dengue and chikungunya and by the cases of Zika occurred recently. Some mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) breeding sit...

AMF symbiosis in sand dunes is the key for maintenance of stable vegetation. The main goal of this work was to determine the effects of environmental and temporal factors on AMF living in sand dunes (Gulf of Valencia, Spain). Soil samples were collected seasonally at 6 sites, during 2 yrs, from three habitats and four plant species and the frequenc...

The development of metacommunity theory at the beginning of this century boosted empirical tests using field data, mostly focused on the relative importance of spatial vs. environmental factors for the explanation of metacommunity structures. Yet few works deal with time per se as a component in explaining these patterns, even when repeated samples...

Rotifers are one of the main groups of zooplankton in freshwater lentic habitats; despite their small size, they play a key role in the structure of aquatic ecosystem communities. These animals survive to environmental stressors (as desiccation in temporary ponds) by producing resting eggs, which are, in addition, the dispersal agents that can be t...

Metacommunities are structured by a combination of deterministic (i.e. local environmental conditions) and stochastic factors (e.g., dispersal, ecological drift, priority effects). The relative importance of deterministic and stochastic factors varies among metacommunities as a function of the spatial context (e.g., spatial extent) and taxa. Genera...

In the study of zooplankton from lakes and ponds, quantitative and qualitative, or semi-quantitative, methods are commonly used. Quantitative ones are mostly used to estimate zooplankton densities more accurately. They usually include water samples of small volumes but precisely measured, such as hydrographic bottles, plankton traps or metered jars...

The cover image, by Adam Lovas-Kiss et al., is based on the Original Article Crayfish invasion facilitates dispersal of plants and invertebrates by gulls, DOI: 10.1111/fwb.13080. Image Credit: Andy J. Green.

Here we analyse in detail, for the first time, the growth pattern of the endangered freshwater mussel Margaritifera auricularia in the Ebro basin, a life history trait essential for conservation purposes. We combined information on size and age from captive bred juveniles, together with growth annuli from living preadults studied in the field, and...

1. The red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), originally from North America, is one of the world’s worst aquatic invaders. It is a favoured prey item for waterbirds, but the influence of this novel predator-prey relationship on dispersal of other organisms has not previously been considered. We investigated the potential for dispersal of plants...

Se estudia la caracterización limnológica de 30 lagunas del bosque tropical seco de Costa Rica y Nicaragua durante 2010-11. Se aislaron gémulas de esponjas de agua dulce en cuatro de las localidades. Se registraron dos nuevas citas de esponjas para Nicaragua, Radiospongilla cerebellata (Bowerbank, 1863) y Corvoheteromeyenia heterosclera (Ezcurra de...

Metacommunity ecology describes community organisation considering both environmental and spatial processes. We tested the relative importance of environmental and spatial factors on spring ostracod assemblages from four European regions characterised by different climatic conditions (e.g. aridity). Pure and shared effects of environment and space...

Animal vectors are essential for the movement of invertebrate resting eggs between water bodies. However, differences in habitat preferences and feeding behaviour between bird species may result in variations in the dispersal of invertebrates via these birds, even if the different bird species live in the same lake. To test such effects, faecal sam...

Empirical studies on structuring mechanisms of metacommunities usually focus on the major roles of environmental filtering and dispersal. Recent works suggest that the relative importance of these structuring mechanisms differs among organisms with different body size, taxonomic affiliation, and dispersal abilities, and also depends on spatial exte...

Community structure is determined by a variety of ecological mechanisms, including environmental control, dispersal, and historical contingency. Recently, many studies have focused on the relative relevance of environment and dispersal in shaping metacommunities. Historical contingency (e.g., priority effects) rarely has been considered, although i...

The development of metacommunity theory at the beginning of this century boosted empirical tests using field data, mostly focused on the relative importance of spatial vs. environmental factors for the explanation of metacommunity structures. Yet few works deal with time per se as a component in explaining these patterns, even when repeated samples...

Metacommunity research usually focuses on the structure of species assemblages and their influencing factors, chiefly environment and space. However, the temporal dynamics of metacommunities and their structuring processes are rarely investigated. Here, we analyze the temporal variations in a metacommunity of ostracods from temporary shallow lakes...

In January 2016, during a course on water quality assessment using macroinvertebrates, we found, for the first time for Nicaragua, some individuals of Telmatometra whitei Bergroth, 1908. Two apterous females were collected in the Los Aposentos river, in a stretch running through the Environmental Botanical Garden of the Universidad Nacional Autónom...

In the framework of a field course on water quality assessment in León (Nicaragua), we collected specimens of the freshwater sponge Radiospongilla crateriformis (Potts, 1882) (Porifera: Spongillidae), which is herein cited for the first time for this country. Samples were obtained during the third week of January 2016 from river Los Aposentos. This...

L’Albufera de València es una de las más extensas e importantes lagunas costeras, someras y de agua dulce, del litoral mediterráneo ibérico. Próxima a la ciudad de Valencia y su área metropolitana, se ha visto muy afectada por el hombre. Durante el siglo XX se intensificó la agricultura y hubo un aumento del asentamiento urbano e industrial, con lo...

La laguna de San Benito se sitúa a caballo entre los municipios de Ayora (Valencia) y Almansa (Albacete). Se trata de una laguna endorreica permanente hasta el siglo XIX en el que se estableció un drenaje de 8 km hasta el río Reconque. Desde entonces, se llenó en dos ocasiones tras las intensas lluvias de 1956 y 1984 y una tercera durante los meses...

We present a palaeoenvironmental study of the Castelló lagoon (NE Spain), an important archive for understanding long-term interactions between dynamic littoral ecosystems and human management. Combining geochemistry, mineralogy, ostracods, diatoms, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal and archaeo-historical datasets we reconstruct: 1) the tra...

Stratigraphic comparison of zone boundaries defined by the different proxies. (TIF)

Elemental concentrations of studied bulk elements. (TIF)

Location of cores obtained in this study (a-e) and previous existing cores (f). (DOCX)

The alternating climate between wet and dry periods has important effects on the hydrology and therefore on niche-based processes of water bodies in tropical areas. Additionally, assemblages of microorganism can show spatial patterns, in the form of a distance decay relationship due to their size or life form. We aimed to test spatial and environme...

List of microalgae species found in the study of 30 water bodies in tropical dry forest areas of Costa Rica and Nicaragua sampled at three different hydrological periods during 2010 and 2011. Their life form and body size are indicated. Life form: p-plankton, b-benthic; GALD: greatest axial linear dimension. (PDF)

Results of the PCA on 24 environmental variables describing water bodies during the three sampling periods. Factor coordinates of each variable in the selected PC#; Env# indicated the variables selected as environmental data in the matrix for RDA analyses. Variables in bold are those with extreme loadings for each PC. (PDF)

Geographical location of studied water bodies and certain morphological, physic-chemical and biological features. Studied water bodies, their geographical location and range or mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) of some morphological, physic-chemical and biological features. LAT: latitude; LON: longitude; Tran: water transparency using the Snell...

The processes behind the heterogeneous distribution of species involve a combination of environmental and spatial effects. In the spatial context, stream networks constitute appropriate systems to compare the relative importance of two dispersal modes in aquatic organisms: overland and watercourse dispersal. In the present study, we analyzed the di...

The Mediterranean coast holds a wide and rich variety of wetlands, some of which are protected by international laws, but at the same time have been historically subjected to threatening activities such as agriculture, pollution and aquifer overexploitation. As part of a conservation and restoration project at the Marjal dels Moros coastal wetland...

La fauna del medio intersticial está todavía poco estudiada y es un tema de gran interés ecológico y evolutivo. Mediante este estudio se pretende ampliar el conocimiento de la biodiversidad de la fauna intersticial en ríos mediterráneos, relacionar los principales grupos encontrados con las variables ambientales del medio y, por otra parte, compara...

The heterogeneous distribution of aquatic species in lotic environments has been studied little in terms of metacommunity theory. Previous empirical tests have found significant spatial and environmental effects in pond and lake communities, but this has not yet been clearly established for stream networks. We conducted a multi-season survey of mou...