
Juan Rubio RíosRey Juan Carlos University | URJC · Biology and Geology
Juan Rubio Ríos
PhD
About
42
Publications
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Introduction
Freshwater ecologist interested in how increasing aridity will affect to the quality of the leaf-litter inputs to low order streams by the leaf traits variation and/or changes in riparian communities composition, and its potential effects on fluvial food webs.
Publications
Publications (42)
Running waters contribute substantially to global carbon fluxes through decomposition of terrestrial plant litter by aquatic microorganisms and detritivores. Diversity of this litter may influence instream decomposition globally in ways that are not yet understood. We investigated latitudinal differences in decomposition of litter mixtures of low a...
Anthropogenic impacts on freshwater ecosystems cause critical losses of biodiversity that can in turn impair key processes such as decomposition and nutrient cycling. Forest streams are mainly subsidized by terrestrial organic detritus, so their functioning and conservation status can be altered by changes in forest biodiversity and composition, pa...
Aim
Leaf litter inputs from riparian vegetation and its decomposition play a key role in energy and nutrient transfer in many stream ecosystems. Instream leaf litter decomposition is driven by both leaf traits and environmental conditions. Therefore, understanding and predicting leaf trait variation under current environmental changes and their put...
Understanding how stream detritivores can cope with riparian plant invasions is relevant to predict future impacts on detritivore assemblages and the functioning of small stream ecosystems, where litter decomposition mainly fuels food webs. In a microcosm feeding trial, we examined survival, consumption, growth, and energetic status of two detritiv...
During the last century, the abandonment of traditional dryland farming and pastures in the Mediterranean basin
promoted the development of ambitious afforestation programs causing a drastic transformation of the landscape.
Afforestation programs were usually accomplished without considering the potential ecological impacts
on the recipient ecosyst...
We investigated how microbial decomposition in headwater streams is influenced by environmental factors and litter quality, including the potential adaptation of microbes to decompose more efficiently leaf‐litter species from their native range (HFA, ‘home‐field advantage’ hypothesis).
We conducted a leaf‐litter decomposition experiment in streams...
Freshwater fish of the Iberian Peninsula are exceptionally vulnerable to a myriad of threats, particularly the one posed by invasive fish. Preventing introductions and targeting the early stages of invasion are the most cost-effective management options for the spread of invasive species. Because these approaches directly depend on people's attitud...
Permanent ponds are valuable freshwater systems and biodiversity hotspots. They provide diverse ecosystem services (ES), including water quality improvement and supply, food provisioning and biodiversity support. Aquatic subsidies provide a high nutritional quality, energy density and nutrient concentration. Among those, emerging insects are rich i...
Catchment urbanisation results in urban streams being exposed to a multitude of stressors. Notably, stressors originating from
diffuse sources have received less attention than stressors originating from point sources. Here, advances related to diffuse
urban stressors and their consequences for stream benthic communities are summarised by reviewing...
Resilience research is central to confront the sustainability challenges to ecosystems and human societies in a rapidly changing world. Given that social-ecological problems span entire Earth system, there is a critical need for resilience models that account for the connectivity across intricately linked ecosystems (i.e., freshwater, marine, terre...
Permanent ponds represent important habitats for aquatic biodiversity and provide vital
ecosystem services as key elements for blue landscape connectivity. Although mostly
neglected in management programmes, protection schemes and biodiversity studies in
general, ponds constitute habitats with high α- and spatial β-diversity, providing unique
habit...
Ponds, whilst being mostly neglected in management and protection plans, can constitute habitats with high α- and β-diversity, including many rare and endemic species. In heterogeneous landscapes, ponds can also contribute to habitat connectivity and enhance γ-diversity whilst delivering many ecosystem services. Semi-aquatic insects are one of the...
Whilst being small and shallow, permanent ponds provide valuable habitats for a multitude
of organisms as well as provide habitats for animals like aquatic insects and others,
including many rare species. These ponds, which were often neglected in limnological
studies, were the core of our joint project, the 3rd freshwater project - EUROPONDS in or...
This document includes:
Supporting Methods, a glossary, seven tables (Tables S1-S7) and three figures (Figures S1-S3)
Mounting evidence points to a linkage between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (B‐EF). Global drivers, such as warming and nutrient enrichment, can alter species richness and composition of aquatic fungal assemblages associated with leaf‐litter decomposition, a key ecosystem process in headwater streams. However, effects of biodiversity chang...
Within the EUROPONDS project we looked into the contribution of aquatic invertebrates to terrestrial ecosystems, which are globally declining, in various countries all over Europe. Our study encompassed a restored quarry in Alpedrete, Madrid, Spain, a landscape destined for livestock activities. We hypothesized that the emergence during autumn and...
The relationship between detritivore diversity and decomposition can provide information on how biogeochemical cycles are affected by ongoing rates of extinction, but such evidence has come mostly from local studies and microcosm experiments. We conducted a globally distributed experiment (38 streams across 23 countries in 6 continents) using stand...
The linkage between leaf‐litter and macroinvertebrate shredders is pivotal for stream food webs. Global change is predicted to decrease the nutritional quality of litter inputs to streams. However, little is known about shredder's ability to develop local interpopulation adaptations to face nutrient‐depleted leaf‐litter. We hypothesized that this a...
Running waters contribute substantially to global carbon fluxes through decomposition of terrestrial plant litter by aquatic microorganisms and detritivores. Diversity of this litter may influence instream decomposition globally in ways that are not yet understood. We investigated latitudinal differences in decomposition of litter mixtures of low a...
This poster was a contribution by Juan Rubio-Ríos and Encarnación Fenoy from EUROPONDS project to the online Symposium about "Researches in Experimental Sciences" ("IX Simposio de Investigación en Ciencias Experimentales") from University of Almería in Spain.
Best poster award (Environmental Sciences)
Abstract Plant litter decomposition is a key ecosystem process that can be altered by global changes such as biodiversity loss. These effects can be particularly important in detritus-based ecosystems, such as headwater streams, which are mainly fuelled by allochthonous plant litter inputs. However, experiments examining effects of plant diversity...
Riparian areas have experienced long term anthropogenic impacts including the effects of plant introductions. The giant reed (Arundo donax) is one of the most common invasive species in the riparian areas of the Iberian Peninsula (Aguiar & Ferreira, 2013). Arundo displaces native vegetation causing an impoverishment of the native flora and fauna (M...
Little is known regarding consequences of climate change on riparian plant functional types (PFTs) related to leaf traits, with putative domino effects on stream food webs, plausible even if the tipping point of stream-desiccation is not reached. We hypothesized that, as stream food-webs are highly dependent on riparian subsidies, climate change mi...
Study area (Andalusia, Southern Spain).
Location of sampling sites (red dots) in protected areas, which are listed from 1 to 11. The color scale shows values of the UNEP index of aridity (annual precipitation / potential evapotranspiration). 1 to 4: areas under Mediterranean subdesert climate; 5 to 9, and 11: areas under Mediterranean inland and mo...
Biplots of correlations of predictor (X) and dependent (Y) variables with latent variables (t1 and t2) extracted by multivariate dependent PLS regression.
These multivariate models correspond to the sum of the environmental matrices (climate + soil + physical). For clarity, only are represented predictors with correlation ≥ 0.5. Dependent variables...
Type of riparian vegetation and species richness per site and plant functional type.
The type of riparian vegetation is based on the EUNIS habitat classification* of the European Environment Agency (EEA) (http://eunis.eea.europa.eu/habitats.jsp): the first alpha-numeric code indicates the type of habitat according to this classification and the cod...
Scientific name of species, family, plant functional type (PFT), and mean percent coverage recorded in the 34 streams studied.
In bold, species which leaves have been collected and their traits analysed. PFT: deciduous shrubs (DS), deciduous trees (DT), evergreen shrubs (ES), evergreen trees (ET), giant graminoids (GG), and giant forbs (GF).
(XLSX)
The objective of the present study was to test the application of an in vitro assay simulating the digestive hydrolysis of leaf litter by the freshwater snail M. praemorsa, as well as to determine the possible influence of different factors in the efficiency of such process to release biologically available C and N under the forms of reducing sugar...
Increasing aridity in the Mediterranean region has the potential to deplete the nutritional value of leaf litter inputs to shredders in headwater streams. We hypothesized that shredders from streams in arid zones should have compensatory feeding mechanisms to cope with diets of low nutritional quality. We evaluated the performance of four shredders...
Abiotic factors, substrate chemistry and decomposers community composition are primary drivers of leaf litter decomposition. In soil, much of the variation in litter decomposition is explained by climate and substrate chemistry, but with a significant contribution of the specialization of decomposer communities to degrade specific substrates (home-...
Abiotic factors, substrate chemistry and decomposers community composition are primary drivers of leaf litter decomposition. In soil, much of the variation in litter decomposition is explained by climate and substrate chemistry, but with a significant contribution of the specialisation of decomposer communities to degrade specific substrates (home-...
Questions
Question (1)
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