Joaquín Cochero

Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet" | ILPLA · Plancton & Biofilms

Various agrochemicals have been shown to affect diatom growth, physiology, and the structure and diversity of the assemblage. This research aims to study the structural and functional parameters of the benthic diatom assemblage, including indices, ecological traits, nuclear, and frustule abnormalities during the colonization period when exposed to...

Chagas disease is one of the most important public health problems in America, involving triatomines (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) in the vectorial transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi (Protista: Kinetoplastea: Trypanosomatidae). In Argentina, 15 species of triatomines are distributed, of which seven are the most common in the domicile and peri...

Manual resultante del taller dictado en el marco del IV Congreso Iberoamericano de Limnología - X Congreso Argentino de Limnología en julio de 2023. Se reúnen aquellas técnicas y paquetes comúnmente utilizados para el análisis de datos de estudios limnológicos. Se enfatiza principalmente en técnicas multivariadas y paquetes específicos para limnolo...

Droughts reduce habitat and fragment the continuity of running water systems producing lasting effects on sediment biota and affecting density and biomass of algae. When droughts occur, the survival of algae and cyanobacteria of the biofilm depends on different alternatives to overcome the stress. In Pampean streams, periods of low flow causing des...

Presentamos algunas ideas y reflexiones para el desarrollo de Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC), a partir de la sistematización del proceso de desarrollo de la segunda versión de Caza Mosquitos (una aplicación para dispositivos móviles sobre la problemática de las enfermedades transmitidas por Aedes aegypti). Tomamos como marco...

Video completo // Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqL6p2zYqLU ¿Cómo se construye el conocimiento científico? ¿Quiénes hacen las preguntas y buscan las respuestas? Joaquín nos cuenta qué es y por qué necesitamos hacer más ciencia ciudadana. En su charla defiende los beneficios de involucrar a las personas sin formación académica en las...

En este trabajo se evaluaron distintos parámetros fisicoquímicos (pH, temperatura, conductividad, oxígeno disuelto, demanda química y bioquímica de oxígeno, sólidos sedimentable) e indicadores de contaminación fecal (Escherichia Coli y coliformes totales) con el objetivo de caracterizar los vuelcos de las plantas de tratamiento de agua residuales d...

Plastics, especially microplastics (<5 mm in length), are anthropogenic polymer particles that have been detected in almost all environments. Microplastics are extremely persistent pollutants and act as long-lasting reactive surfaces for additives, organic matter, and toxic substances. Biofilms are microbial assemblages that act as a sink for parti...

Diatom-based tools like biotic indices, ecological and morphological traits, are widely used to detect changes in water quality. Here we present DiaThor, a free and open source R package for calculating biotic and ecological indices and metrics for diatom samples. A web application (in Shiny) was also developed to provide access to the package for...

There are several identification tools that can assist researchers, technicians and the community in the recognition of Chagas vector insects (triatomines), from other insects with similar morphologies. They involve using dichotomous keys, field guides, expert knowledge or, in more recent approaches, through the classification by a neural network o...

Ante la falta de integración de la información entre ámbitos científicos, técnicos y de la población en general acerca de la distribución geográfica de las vinchucas, insectos vectores de un parásito (Trypanosoma cruzi) que puede ocasionar la enfermedad de Chagas, GeoVin surgió como una propuesta de ciencia ciudadana/ participativa para recopilar e...

Stream biofilms are among the first to react to environmental degradation, since their structural and functional characteristics are tightly linked to the physicochemical variables in the water and sediment. The objectives of this research were to study the differences in chlorophyll-a, bacterial density and metabolism endpoints of epipelic biofilm...

The objective was to establish possible temporal patterns in the microplastics (MPs) abundance in the water and in the intertidal sediment in an urbanized location of the Río de la Plata estuary (Argentina), in relation to environmental factors. The site was sampled monthly for a year (February 2019–January 2020). The presence of MPs was recorded,...

1- Diatoms are widely used to detect changes in water quality due to their specific sensibility to a variety of environmental conditions. Among the different diatom-based tools to measure water quality, the biotic indices, ecological and morphological traits are the most commonly used. 2- DiaThor, contains 18 functions that provide morphological da...

Diatoms respond to toxicants in lotic systems, and they are commonly considered to be sensitive indicators in environmental safety assessment. In addition to the structural characteristics of the algal populations, recent studies have shown that endpoints such as nuclear anomalies or diatom motility measures can be affected quickly by environmental...

The aim of this work was to analyze the effects of riverine wetlands on the water quality and river metabolism. For this purpose, four streams were studied: two of them surround a peri-urban area and have well-preserved riverine wetlands associated with the main channel, and the other two run through an urban area with the consequent degradation of...

Calculates ecological information and biotic indices for diatoms in a sample. It includes number/shape of chloroplasts diversity indices, size classes, ecological guilds, and multiple biotic indices. The package can also be downloaded from CRAN

The calculation of autoecological data, such as optima and tolerance ranges to environmental variables, can be useful to establish the distribution and abundance of the species. These calculations, although mathematically not complex, can be prone to error when using a large database. We show how to calculate the optimum value and tolerance ranges...

Calculates autoecological data (optima and tolerance ranges) of a biological species given an environmental matrix. You can also download it directly from CRAN

In this study we explored the use of less conventional diatom metrics (motility, nuclear abnormalities and ecological guilds) to measure changes in diatom assemblages related to the transfer of epipelic communities from urban impacted streams to less impacted sites. Three lowland streams in the Argentine Pampean plain were selected, and two sites w...

The colonisation patterns of diatom assemblages were studied on artificial substrates in lowland streams with different urban pollution levels. Density, diversity, colonisation rates, ecological guilds and cell size classes of the assemblage at each of two sites were followed for 1 week. In addition, assemblages growing on glass, in natural epipeli...

Agricultural activities can affect the delivery of nutrients to streams, riparian canopy cover, and the capacity of aquatic systems to process nutrients and sediments. There are few measures of nutrient uptake and metabolism from tropical or sub-tropical streams in general, and even fewer from tropical regions of South America. We examined ammonium...

Presentación en la FCNyM de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata

Bioengineering techniques are currently used to restore degraded habitats in human-altered streams. Aquatic plants used in these techniques can additionally contribute to reducing excess nitrogen (N) from point sources via assimilation. Moreover, leachates from plant leaf-litter can serve as an additional source of labile dissolved organic matter (...

Calculation of autoecological data, such as optima and tolerance ranges to environmental variables, can be useful to establish the distribution and abundance of the species. These calculations, although mathematically not complex, can be prone to error when using a large database. We present an R package (“optimos.prime”) that uses species’ abundan...

En los sistemas fluviales de llanura pampeana es posible reconocer zonas que adquieren transitoriamente características lénticas, reconocidos como bañados de desborde fluvial. Se trata de ambientes permanentes o semipermanentes, de contorno o perímetro indefinido y con vegetación emergente abundante. Este tipo de humedal ofrece múltiples beneficios...

El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar las respuestas estructurales y metabólicas en biofilms epipélicos causadas por su transferencia de tramos de arroyos urbanos con bajo impacto antrópico hacia tramos más impactados. Los biofilms son sensibles a los cambios en la calidad del agua, generalmente incrementando su actividad y desarrollo en ambient...

PPT Presentation for the AppEAR project in TICL2018, Cartagena

Citizen science, or participatory science, is the process by which the general public actively contributes with scientific projects. Citizen science projects have proliferated in the few last decades thanks to the Internet and are proving to be a great complement to the more “traditional” environmental monitoring efforts. AppEAR (an app to evaluate...

Citizen science, or participatory science, is the process by which the general public actively contributes with scientific projects. Citizen science projects have proliferated in the few last decades thanks to the Internet and are proving to be a great complement to the more “traditional” environmental monitoring efforts. AppEAR (an app to evaluate...

The aim of this study was to describe the colonization of the biofilm during its early stages under different concentrations of nutrients and organic matter, specifically in urban streams influenced by agriculture and urbanization. We hypothesized that in a stream with higher concentrations of nutrients and organic matter, the initial biomass growt...

El objetivo del presente estudio fue evaluar la colonización temprana del ensamble de diatomeas bentónicas en sustratos artificiales bajo distintas condiciones de la calidad del agua en dos arroyos pampeanos. Para esta finalidad se colocaron vidrios esmerilados estériles como sustrato artificial, paralelos al sustrato natural, en ambos arroyos, que...

Caza Mosquitos is a citizen science project that seeks to determine the distribution patterns of mosquitos

Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents are sources of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and inorganic nitrogen (DIN) to receiving streams, which can eventually become saturated by excess of DIN. Aquatic plants (i.e., helophytes) can modify subsurface water flowpaths as well as assimilate nutrients and enhance microbial activity in the rhizosphere...

Comparison of biofilm development in three substrates (acetate, glass and sediment)

The objective of the present article is to propose an index that allows the assessment of the fluvial habitat quality in lowland streams that run through urbanized areas, by the use of metrics related to the quality of the watercourse, the river banks, the riparian zone and the fluvial geomorphology. The metrics retained in the index (USHI, Urban S...

Chronic and pulse increments of salinity can cause different consequences on the aquatic communities, and its effects are related to factors such as the magnitude, frequency and ionic composition, as well as on the baseline salt concentrations in the water. The aim of this study was to explore the responses of the biofilms from a nutrient-rich stre...

Los microplásticos, partículas menores a 5mm, considerados contaminantes emergentes en los ecosistemas acuáticos, son transportados por el agua y se acumulan en las costas. Sus consecuencias son más estudiadas en el medio marino que en el agua dulce. Los organismos interactúan con los microplásticos por dos vías, ingiriéndolos y/o colonizándolos. A...

El aumento de la disponibilidad de dispositivos móviles en las últimas dos décadas, como celulares y tablets, ha facilitado el desarrollo de lo que se denomina E-ciencia ciudadana, término referido al uso de tecnologías de información y comunicación en proyectos científicos en los que se involucra la participación de voluntarios. AppEAR es un proye...

Hydrological ecosystem services involve the regulation of water flows, the reduction of the flooding impact, the soil erosion and the sediment accumulation in the watercourses, also including the maintenance and improvement of the water quality, the aquiferous recharge and the aquatic habitats. The impermeability of the soil due to urbanization, th...

Introducción. Los macroinvertebrados son un grupo bien representado en los ecosistemas de agua dulce y ampliamente utilizados en la evaluación de la calidad del agua. Problema. Muchos índices bióticos utilizados para tal fin se basan en valores de tolerancia estimados en ciertos casos a partir de información obtenida de la bibliografía, no siempre...

The aim of this study was to explore the responses of the epipelic biofilm of a Pampean stream with little impact from human activity to two environmental conditions, with joint modifications in nutrients, temperature, water velocity and turbidity. The experiment was conducted using artificial channels and lasted five weeks. The biological variable...

In streams and rivers, the first organisms which directly receive and respond to nutrients are primary producers (algae, macrophytes) and microbial heterotrophs (bacteria, fungi) since they rely on available inorganic nutrients from the water column. The aim of the present study was to analyze the response of the epipelic microbial biofilm in a Pam...

La valoración ambiental de las riberas es una tarea necesaria para conocer el estado ecológico de los cursos de agua, lo cual permite evaluar los méritos de eventuales experiencias de manejo, impactos antropogénicos o bien detectar problemas ambientales de forma temprana. En tal sentido, el objetivo de este estudio fue desarrollar una metodología p...

Evaluating the coastal environment is a necessary task to assess the ecological status of water bodies, which allows to determine the merits of management programs, anthropogenic impacts, or to detect early signs of environmental impacts. To this purpose, the objective of this research was to develop a methodology to assess the habitat quality in t...

We assessed the effects of nutrient enrichment on three stream ecosystems running through distinct biomes (Mediterranean, Pampean and Andean). We increased the concentrations of N and P in the stream water 1.6–4-fold following a before–after control–impact paired series (BACIPS) design in each stream, and evaluated changes in the biomass of bacteri...

The full text of this article is available in the PDF provided.

Brief explanation of the Karku project, a software to calculate biotic indices in Argentina

El objetivo del desarrollo del software KARKU es facilitar la obtención, el tratamiento y la interpretación de la información generada por los índices bióticos, facilitando así establecer la calidad ecológica de los distintos ecosistemas acuáticos de la Argentina. Estas herramientas de monitoreo exploran la respuesta de las comunidades a los cambio...

Establecer una base de datos con la información aportada por los índices bióticos empleados para evaluar y monitorear cursos de agua de Argentina y generar mapas sobre la calidad biótica constituyó uno de los lineamientos y metas que se fijaron en el “Taller de Bentos: Ecología y Sistemática”, realizado en noviembre de 2011 en la ciudad de Cayastá...

The epipelic biofilm is a biologic complex of autotrophs (algae) and heterotrophs(fungi, bacteria, microinvertebrates) embedded in a polysaccharide matrix that developson the fine sediments (silt and clay) of many aquatic ecosystem worldwide of lowlandfluvial streambeds. Biofilms play a key role in the energetic balance of the fluvialsystems, contr...

The relationship between microbenthic communities, the habitat characteristics, and physical and chemical gradients was studied in the Rio de la Plata estuary. Five replicates of the surface layer were collected seasonally, in 10 sampling sites influenced by different land uses. The distribution of microbenthic communities was governed by two gradi...

The epipelic biofilm is a biologic complex of autotrophs (algae) and heterotrophs (fungi, bacteria, microinvertebrates) embedded in a polysaccharide matrix that develops on the fine sediments (silt and clay) of many aquatic ecosystem worldwide of lowland fluvial streambeds. Biofilms play a key role in the energetic balance of the fluvial systems, c...