Francisco A. Comín

Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología-CSIC · Biodiversity Conservation and Ecological Restoration

Scenario analysis is a useful technique to inform landscape planning of social-ecological systems by modelling future trends in ecosystem service supply and distribution. This is especially critical in floodplain agroecosystems of rural areas, which are at risk of losing riparian forest corridors due to increasing land use conversion for agricultur...

Evaluating the state of urban green infrastructure (UGI) is a basic step to reach urban sustainability. Two indicators were used to evaluate 89 UGI sites in Zaragoza, a medium-sized city in NE Spain: Naturalness (Nat), related to the area covered by natural components; Functioning (Fun), related to the area showing natural hydro-geomorphological fe...

Riparian forests nestled in agricultural landscapes represent a small proportion in crop-intensive areas, while contributing remarkably to their biodiversity. This biodiversity supports several ecological processes crucially involved in the supply of ecosystem services (ES) complementary to that provided by agricultural lands and also relevant for...

Despite the exponential increase in human population at global scale, some rural areas have experienced a progressive abandonment over the last decades. Under particular socioecological and policy contexts, changes in demography may promote land-use changes and, consequently, alter ecosystem services (ES) supply. However, most studies on this topic...

Urban green infrastructure (UGI) can alleviate many of the problems that the growing urban population is facing. This study performed a literature review about UGI and sustainable development (SD) using the Web of Science (WoS) and the software VOSviewer. Of 195 papers selected, 89 are qualitative, focusing on theoretical approaches and design; equ...

Land-cover degradation affects the ability of forests to provide water ecosystem services (ESw). This study explores the forest-water nexus and provides an overview of the water management related to potential hydrological impacts of land-use and land-cover change in the Río Grande de Comitán-Lagos de Montebello watershed in southeastern Mexico. A...

Application of integrated hydrological models to manage water resources and non-point agricultural pollutants are increasingly used in decision-making processes. In this study SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was used to simulate the water balance and nitrate pollution in an intensively irrigated agricultural catchment (Flumen River in Monegro...

Soil water infiltration can be described with the quasi-analytical Haverkamp et al. (1994) equation, defined by the hydraulic conductivity (Ks), sorptivity (S) and the β parameter. Ks and S are commonly estimated from the transient cumulative infiltration curve, using a constant β value. The objective of this work was to study the influence of β on...

Wetlands play a key role in improving the quality of the water that flows through them. As such, loss or degradation of wetland area can have severe consequence on water quality of receiving rivers, lakes, and coastal habitats. This often has catastrophic and expensive costs for society and provides many lessons to provide for better integration an...

Restoration ecology that maximizes ecosystem services (ES) requires planning at large spatial scales, which are often the most meaningful for ecosystem functioning and ES supply. As economic resources to undertake ecological restoration at large scales are scarce, prioritizing sites to enhance multiple ES supply is critical. We present the Relative...

In this study, we estimated the depth profiles of nutrients in the natural wetland “Ciénega Tamasopo” (Central Mexico) located in the Neotropic region. The concentration profiles of Corg, NT, Corg/NT ratios and isotopic composition (δ13C, δ15N) were determined in sediment cores collected at five sites throughout the wetland to estimate the contribu...

Wetland restoration has been recognized as a useful tool for improving water quality. Many studies have focused on developing strategies and models to optimize wetland performance. However, some important wetland placement characteristics have not been taken into account. In this research and unlike other studies, we included the social aspect (ava...

Floodplains are complex ecological systems that are mostly regulated by river dynamics and human disturbances that determine the efficiency of the coupling of hydrogeochemical functions and the biological structure to keep floodplains as integrated systems providing regulating services, such as removing pollutants. Biogeochemical indicators related...

Eleven in-stream and five off-stream wetlands were restored in the southern portion of the Flumen River basin, an intensively irrigated agricultural area located in NE Spain, to evaluate their efficiency for nitrate removal and to assess the factors affecting their performance. Samples were taken during different periods of the year during 2011-201...

Despite the large number of wetlands that have been restored and constructed all around the world during the last two decades (Mitsch and Gosselink 2007; see also the journal Aquatic Sciences 75(1), January 2013), the present wetland area is still much smaller than their original extent. There is also a difference between the present benefits peopl...

Despite the large number of wetlands that have been restored and constructed all around the world during the last two decades; see also the journal Aquatic Sciences 75(1), January 2013), the present wetland area is still much smaller than their original extent. There is also a difference between the present benefits people obtain from wetlands comp...

A detailed understanding of the study area is essential to achieve key information and optimize the monitoring, analysis, and evaluation of water quality of natural ecosystems that have been highly transformed into agricultural areas. Using classification techniques like the hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) and partial triadic analysis (PTA), we...

The ecosystem services framework has enabled the broader public to acknowledge the benefits nature provides to different stakeholders. However, not all stakeholders benefit equally from these services. Rather, power relationships are a key factor influencing the access of individuals or groups to ecosystem services. In this paper, we propose an ada...

Multivariate techniques for two-dimensional data matrices are normally used in water quality studies. However, if the temporal dimension is included in the analysis, other statistical techniques are recommended. In this study, partial triadic analysis was used to investigate the spatial and temporal variability in water quality variables sampled in...

One of the largest efforts on riparian restoration is reforestation. Nevertheless, knowledge on the species response to varying hydrological conditions is needed to ensure successful establishment (Francis et al. 2005). Based on survival data of a riparian reforestation one year after plantation, an algorithm based on Markov chains has been develop...

The temporal variability, hysteresis loops and various factors involved in the mobilization of nitrates (NO3−) have been studied for a 3-year period at the Flumen River basin. Multivariate techniques (cluster analysis and pearson correlation matrix) were used to establish the relationship between the water discharge and NO3− flushing, as well as to...

Phosphorus (P) is one of the major limiting nutrient in many freshwater ecosystems. During the last decade, attention has been focused on the fluxes of suspended sediment and particulate P through freshwater drainage systems because of severe eutrophication effects in aquatic ecosystems. Hence, the analysis and prediction of phosphorus and sediment...

Methods to assess ecosystem services using ecological or economic approaches are considerably better defined than methods for the social approach. To identify why the social approach remains unclear, we reviewed current trends in the literature. We found two main reasons: (i) the cultural ecosystem services are usually used to represent the whole s...

Numerous wetland restoration projects have been implemented in recent years to mitigate the increasing loss of global wetland surface area caused by human activities. Most of these projects have focused on the local recovery of habitats and species diversity, with little evaluation of functional recovery. We aimed at demonstrating that constructing...

The main aim of this work was to evaluate the primary succession of manmade ponds by studying the temporal patterns of the pond biodiversity metrics. We surveyed the macroinvertebrate community, the water and the sediment of 19 manmade ponds of different ages (from 1 to 22 years) located at reclaimed opencast coal mines in northeastern Spain. This...

Nowadays riparian forests are one of the most threatened habitats in Europe, mainly because of the use of the area by traditional agriculture due to the high value of the riverbanks for crop growing. This let the present riparian areas to be unable to achieve most of the ecological functions expected as flood control, energy dissipation, carbon seq...

Eleven in-stream and five off-stream wetlands were constructed in the southern part of Flumen River basin, an irrigated agriculture area located in NE Spain. Samplings were conducted during different agricultural activities in order to demonstrate their influence on water quality. Water discharge and nitrate concentration (NO3-) were determined at...

Alluvial floodplains are rich ecotones from the biological viewpoint in a complex ecosystem with intense spatial and temporal changes of structure, dimension and connectivity. The aim of this study is to compare the response of groundwater invertebrate community along lateral gradients of hydrological connectivity in 4 river floodplains (Bidasoa Ri...

It has been proposed that communities change from r to K strategies during primary succession. However, because strong-flying organisms are expected to arrive first in newly created habitats and they show trait characteristics associated more often with K strategies, we hypothesized that the r to K trajectories would be more closely followed by fli...

With adequate planning, wetland restoration and creation can be useful tools for improving the water quality of natural ecosystems in agricultural territories. Here, a protocol for selecting wetland-restoration sites at the watershed scale is proposed as part of a demonstration project (EU Life CREAMAgua) for improving wastewater from irrigated agr...

Constructing ponds to protect downstream ecosystems is a common practice in opencast coal mine reclamation. As these ponds remain integrated in the landscape, it is important to evaluate the extent of the effect of mine pollution on these ecosystems. However, this point has not been sufficiently addressed in the literature. The main objective of th...

Semi-arid Mediterranean regions are highly susceptible to desertification processes which can reduce the benefits that people obtain from healthy ecosystems and thus threaten human wellbeing. The European Union Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 recognizes the need to incorporate ecosystem services into land-use management, conservation, and restoration...

En diciembre de 2012, se celebraron las primeras Jornadas IPErinas, reunión que permitió compartir al personal del Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (CSIC), muchos de los trabajos de investigación que actualmente se están llevando a cabo por los distintos grupos del centro. Estas Jornadas surgieron de la necesidad de compartir y difundir los principa...

Ecosystem metabolism is an important measure of wetland restoration efficiency, and serves to indicate if the system is capable of processing energetic resources. Despite its value, ecosystem metabolism has rarely been included in monitoring programs. In this study, we aimed to achieve the following objectives: (i) compare net ecosystem production...

Many dryland areas are being converted into intensively managed irrigation crops, what can disrupt the hydrological regime, degrade soil and water quality, enhance siltation, erosion and bank instability, and affect biological communities. Still, the impacts of irrigation schemes on the functioning of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are poorly u...

1. Despite a general recognition that benthic macroinvertebrates respond to changes in hydrological connectivity within floodplain ecosystems, no consensus about patterns in community structure and ecosystem processes across large scales and different climates has yet been established. Such knowledge is necessary since anthropogenic activities cont...

An understanding of risks to biodiversity is needed for planning action to slow current rates of decline and secure ecosystem services for future human use. Although the IUCN Red List criteria provide an effective assessment protocol for species, a standard global assessment of risks to higher levels of biodiversity is currently limited. In 2008, I...

Definitions of terms. (PDF)

The introduction of irrigation to agrarian areas involves several environmental changes that can be aggravated by physical and agronomic factors. The aim of this study is to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of the environmental impact on water resources that result from the transition of an agrarian basin into an irrigated area. During five hydr...

The present area of European wetlands is only a fraction of their area before the start of large-scale human colonization of Europe. Many European wetlands have been exploited and managed for various purposes. Large wetland areas have been drained and reclaimed mainly for agriculture and establishment of human settlements. These threats to European...

River basin restoration and management is crucial for assuring the continued delivery of ecosystem services and for limiting potential hazards. Human activity, whether directly or indirectly, can induce erosion processes and drastically change the landscape and alter vital ecological functions. Mapping erosion risk before future restoration-managem...

Fig. 1A General flowchart of the methodology to estimate C from vegetation indices synthesized by GP. The figure also shows the syntax tree representation for one of the indices

An introduction to papers presented in this volume is given describing the topics of interest dealt with in this special issue in the context of past and recent articles published on aquatic birds and limnology. Lack of holistic approach is observed in this review, while it is observed that most studies deal with community ecology, environmental fa...

The integration of ecosystem services in ecological restoration projects presents an opportunity for enhancing benefits to human livelihood and funding sources as well as generating public support for such initiatives. This study reviewed the global trends in integrating ecosystem services in basin-scale restoration projects through bibliographic a...

The application of a two-dimensional (2D) finite volume numerical model to real flood events in the Ebro River is presented. The hydraulic model used is based on the 2D transient shallow-water equations on the irregular bed that are able to compute flow advance over a dry bed. This study involves the reliable simulation of not only the flood wave a...

In 2005, an oxbow lake was constructed in a degraded floodplain area of the Ebro River (NE Spain) to mitigate habitat loss. In this study, we address the effectiveness of this restoration project through the analysis of the macroinvertebrate community that colonized the newly constructed lake, in comparison with a nearby natural oxbow lake and the...

Wetlands are among the most productive and economically valuable ecosystems in the world. However, because of human activities, over half of the wetland ecosystems existing in North America, Europe, Australia, and China in the early 20th century have been lost. Ecological restoration to recover critical ecosystem services has been widely attempted,...

River basin restoration and management is crucial for assuring the continued delivery of ecosystem services and for limiting potential hazards. Human activity, whether directly or indirectly, can induce erosion processes and drastically change the landscape and alter vital ecological functions. Mapping erosion risk before future restoration-managem...

Most riparian trees are phreatophytic, water table-dependent plants which broadly differ in their tolerance to drought and permanent flooding. In semi-arid settings, as water is limiting, inundations may be regarded as inputs rather than stresses for the survival of phreatophytes. In this study, the mortality rates and abundances of Populus alba, P...

Several modeling approaches have been used in the p ast to characterize the nutrient uptake in streams. The most widely used show two important disadvantages. On th e one hand, the models use a one-dimensional (1D) simplified model that assumes uniform velocity and cross sectional area to calculate the hydraulics of the problem. On the other hand,...

HAL Id: hal-00651179 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00651179v1 Submitted on 13 Dec 2011 (v1), last revised 31 Jan 2016 (v2) ABSTRACT The territory of the Ebro Basin is at the center of major conflicts in the use of water. The Spanish government built National Hydrological Plans to transfer a portion of the resource of the Ebro basin to other...

A range of biodiversity metrics are available to assess the ecological integrity of aquatic ecosystems. However, performance varies considerably among different types of metrics and provides different information regarding ecosystem conditions, thus making difficult the selection of appropriate metrics for biomonitoring. The present study evaluated...

Methods to characterize hydrological connectivity at riparian wetlands are necessary for ecosystem management given its importance over ecosystem structure and functioning. In this paper, we aimed to describe hydrological connectivity at one Ebro River reach (NE Spain) and test a method to perform such characterization. Continuous surface water lev...

The pulsing of river discharge affects biodiversity and productivity of whole river-floodplain ecosystems, triggering the transport, storage and processing of carbon. In this study we investigate the short-term changes in water chemistry and net pelagic metabolism (NEP) in two floodplain lakes in response to a flood pulse. The two oxbow lakes inves...

The influence of subterranean water discharge on phytoplankton was studied at two localities (Progreso and Dzilam) on the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Hydrographic and phytoplankton samples were taken monthly between September 1998 and August 1999. High concentration of silicate (465 mmol L�1) and nitrate (480 mmol L�1) and low salinity...