María Rosario Vidal-Abarca

University of Murcia | UM · Department of Ecology and Hydrology

Los ríos secos constituyen el extremo del grupo de ríos no perennes caracterizados por la ausencia total de agua durante el ciclo hidrológico anual. A pesar de la falta de agua, estos ecosistemas son capaces de proporcionar una gran diversidad de beneficios al ser humano, que sólo se hacen evidentes cuando se analizan desde la perspectiva de la soc...

Although dry rivers only flow after heavy rainfall, recent studies have evidenced that they provide benefits to people. However, part of society undervalues these benefits, raising the question of whether they contribute to a good quality of life (GQL). We hypothesised that the benefits of dry rivers contribute to GQL of local communities as long a...

Los ríos temporales (RTs) son ecosistemas fluviales en los que los efectos de las perturbaciones antrópicas se mezclan con los de la propia perturbación natural que impone la temporalidad del flujo. A pesar de los avances en el conocimiento de los RTs, todavía persisten muchas lagunas de conocimiento que limitan el desarrollo de metodologías adecua...

The goal of this project is to assess the state of marine biodiversity in the Natura 2000 marine network in Spain and analyze the impact of fishing policies on it. The study focuses on three marine demarcations in Spain: North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and the Strait of Gibraltar and Alborán Sea. The research uses the DPSIR (Drivers of Change-Press...

Dry rivers are non-perennial rivers with no surface water in their channels except after heavy rainfall or snowmelt. The lack of water flow is often associated with a low provision of Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) and a poor quality of life. However, recent review studies have found evidence of human communities thriving in dry rivers thro...

Understanding the disconnection between people and nature represents one of the most important challenges for humanity. The scientific contribution of Fernando González Bernáldez, a Spanish naturalist by vocation and dedication, was built on the need to experience and understand conservation through the affective relationships that people develop i...

In this work, we use an integrated modelling approach to explore the complex relationships and interconnections in marine ecosystems among anthropogenic pressures, biodiversity loss, delivery of ecosystem services (ES), and implemented conservation and management strategies. We selected 60 indicators at regional (34), national (12) and internationa...

Dry rivers are a type of non-perennial river characterized by extreme dry conditions and dominance of terrestrial habitats. They are present in all continents, being especially abundant in arid and semiarid regions. Recent studies have shown their capacity to provide ecosystem services, although they are often undervalued and altered. This study is...

Ephemeral channels (ramblas or dry channels - except in sudden occasional flash floods) are prevalent in the Mediterranean, where they make up most of the fluvial network. They are fundamental natural systems in the hydrological cycle for transporting water, sediment and nutrients, and, therefore, are excellent indicators of climate and global chan...

Los ríos secos son cauces cuyo hábitat es terrestre, están desconectados de las aguas subterráneas, únicamente transportan agua que evacuan rápidamente tras fuertes lluvias esporádicas y, por tanto, no albergan organismos acuáticos. La ausencia permanente de agua en estos cauces constituye la principal razón por la que gestores y sociedad civil, en...

Las ramblas (ríos secos) son ecosistemas de gran relevancia en la cuenca del Segura por la extensión que ocupan. Estos ecosistemas albergan comunidades vegetales caracterizadas por la diversidad y singularidad de especies que las componen. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los rasgos biológicos que caracterizan estas comunidades y relacionarl...

En el mundo mediterráneo la acción antrópica sobre los sistemas fluviales es muy antigua. Los impactos sobre los ríos efímeros han sido tan importantes como en los ríos permanentes. Sin embargo, por diferentes circunstancias, inherentes tanto a sus características físicas, como a la escasa consideración que tienen para los gestores hidráulicos, se...

En el mundo mediterráneo, la acción antrópica sobre los sistemas fluviales es tan antigua como la humanidad. Los impactos han afectado tanto a los ríos perennes como a los efímeros. Sin embargo, debido tanto a las características inherentes a los ríos efímeros (escasa circulación hídrica,) como a la escasa consideración por parte de la administraci...

En la Región de Murcia la coevolución hombre-naturaleza ha generado paisajes culturales multifuncionales de enorme interés, entre los que destacan por su singularidad los paisajes áridos. Estos sistemas proporcionan gran cantidad de servicios ecosistémicos, entre ellos los culturales relacionados con la estética de los paisajes y las sensaciones de...

Los cursos efímeros (ramblas, rieras, cauces secos salvo en avenidas repentinas y eventuales) tienen una gran presencia en el territorio mediterráneo, donde constituyen la mayor parte de la red fluvial. Son sistemas naturales fundamentales en el ciclo hidrológico para el transporte de agua, sedimentos y nutrientes, y, por tanto, excelentes indicado...

Dry rivers (DR) are a non-perennial type of river that flows for only hours or a few days, primarily after heavy rain that often causes flash floods. Unlike intermittent and ephemeral rivers, they are disconnected from groundwater and do not support aquatic life. DR have often been undervalued by some scientific and social groups in terms of nature...

Urban streams and ecosystems are highly affected by the intense development of cities and an increase of impervious surfaces. If these environments are close to their pristine state, they can be considered a nature-based solution promoting the integration of both green and blue elements in the cities, while providing a wide range of services (e.g....

Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams are subject to high levels of environmental variation, shifting between aquatic and terrestrial states. These ecosystems are widespread, abundant and increasing in extent, but a proper biomonitoring program to determine their ecological quality is still lacking and challenging to develop. When rivers are dr...

We define Dry Rivers as those whose usual habitat in space and time are dry channels where surface water may interrupt dry conditions for hours or a few days, primarily after heavy rainfall events that are variable in time and that usually lead to flash floods, disconnected from groundwater and thereby unable to harbor aquatic life. Conceptually, D...

El conjunto Huerta-Río constituye un ecosistema característico de muchas zonas del área mediterránea que ha venido sufriendo, sobre todo en las áreas periurbanas, un elevado deterioro debido a la presión antrópica sobre el espacio que ocupan. Dada su capacidad de generar bienes y servicios de no mercado, que benefician a toda la población, en mucha...

Fire is a phenomenon inherent to natural forests, but the management model for forest plantations may increase its frequency and intensity, since it is an important disturbing agent which generates changes in the dynamic that governs the operation of ecosystems and the loss or reduction of many ecosystem services. The main objective of this work is...

The ecosystem services approach is being used by academics, researchers and managers to support and inform environmental management and biodiversity conservation. However, including this concept in training programs for university students is still poor or nonexistent. We analyzed student preferences in the degrees of Biology and Environmental Scie...

We explored the capacity of the biological and hydromorphological indices used in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to assess ecosystem services by evaluating the ecological status of Spanish River Basins. This analysis relies on an exhaustive bibliography review which showed scientific evidence of the interlinkages between some ecosystem service...

In tropical areas very few studies have analysed wetlands’ ability to control nutrients. We analysed the efficiency of the Pátzcuaro subtropical wetland in Mexico to retain nutrients (total phosphorus: TP; soluble reactive phosphorus: PO43-, nitrite: NO2- and nitrate: NO3-) and total suspended solids (TSS) and its temporal variability from November...

Functional trait diversity can provide insight into ecosystem function beyond that provided by species diversity measures. The relationship between functional diversity and natural stressors has received less attention compared to anthropogenic stressors. In this study, we investigated how two natural stressors, water salinity and flow intermittenc...

Intermittent streams are dynamic ecosystems that alternate between dry and wet states. Despite their global dominance, we have scant information about the effects of surface flow drying on terrestrial arthropods in channel and adjacent terrestrial habitats. In the present study, we used pitfall traps to characterise the terrestrial arthropod assemb...

In the Mediterranean Basin the ecosystems and social systems have co-evolved historically, forming what is currently denominated socio-ecosystem. This study examines the Huerta de Murcia as a territory where historically the ecosystem and society have coevolved, setting the current socio-ecosystem. A total of 31 ecosystem services (13 provisioning,...

http://www.revistaambienta.es/WebAmbienta/marm/Dinamicas/secciones/articulos/EMEpesca.htm

Resumen de los grupos funcionales de los vertebrados marinos (peces, cetáceos, aves y tortugas), de los hábitas marinos que ocupan, y de sus categorías de conservación internacionales, nacionales y regionales.

El proyecto de investigación aplicada que aquí se presenta se enmarca, conceptual y metodológicamente, en la Evaluación de los Ecosistemas del Milenio de España (http//www.ecomilenio.es) que ha evaluado el estado de los servicios de los ecosistemas y su incidencia en el bienestar humano a escala estatal en los últimos 50 años. Este proyecto que se...

Most streams draining to the Mediterranean basin are temporary. As a result of their hydrological regime, temporary streams are affected by drying and rewetting periods. Drying can alter in-stream nitrogen (N) availability and reduce N processing rates and subsequent retention after re-wetting. We sought to determine if hydrologic drying modifies r...

The Baja California peninsula experienced a radical climatic change after the Wisconsin glaciation ca. 8,000 years, from wet to dry conditions. Following this event, the mesophilic tropical vegetation was restricted to the few remaining water bodies in the peninsular desert landscape, the oasis ecosystems, which act as genuine biological islands wh...

Aunque los cursos secos constituyen la mayoría de los cauces de la red de drenaje de las regiones áridas y semiáridas, existen muy pocos estudios que aborden las características morfoestructurales, ambientales y estado de conservación de estos singulares ecosistemas. En este trabajo se analizan las características geomorfológicas, ambientales y uso...

By applying the framework proposed by Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, we analysed the current state and trends of 20 ecosystem services provided by Spanish rivers and riparian areas using 139 indicators. We compared the obtained results with the Europe and UK assessment. It is the first document that attempts to analyse the importance of services...

We examined the effect of spatial scale on aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in Mediterranean streams from six basins distributed across southern Europe, including Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. We classified the studied streams according to their long-term aquatic regime into the three following types: (i) permanent (P), (ii) intermittent w...

We estimated subsurface nitrogen (N) retention efficiency of two Mediterranean wetland-streams affected by agricultural runoff, and analysed the influence of hydrology and physicochemical factors such as N load. Subsurface N retention efficiency was high and greater than the surface N retention quantified in a previous study. The studied wetlands c...

In this study, we tested the hypothesis that agriculture, through its influence on water NO3−-N availability, would control denitrification in agriculturally influenced temporary saline streams, and that water salinity would not affect this process. We also tested the effect of summer drought on the denitrification process. We approached these obje...

En los últimos 60 años los ecosistemas y la biodiversidad de Andalucía han sufrido un proceso acelerado, profundo y sin precedentes de alteraciones, como resultado de la falta de sostenibilidad de los modelos económico y productivo predominantes y del estilo de vida asociado al mismo.

Type-specific physico-chemical reference conditions are required for the assessment of ecological status in the Water Framework Directive context, similarly to the biological and hydro-morphological elements. This directive emphasises that natural variability of quality elements in high status (reference condition) needs to be quantified. Mediterra...

In this study we examined the importance of seasonal changes in habitat features and aquatic macroinvertebrate responses in temporary and perennial streams from two different catchments in the Western Mediterranean region in Spain. Macroinvertebrate sampling was spatially intensive to account for the relative frequency of meso- (i.e., riffles and p...

La biodiversidad es esencial para la supervivencia del ser humano en la Tierra. Del buen funcionamiento de los ecosistemas acuáticos y terrestres españoles y de la biodiversidad que albergan, depende en buena medida el futuro social, cultural y económico de la población, ya que constituyen el capital natural de nuestro país. El bienestar humano en...

Within the wetlands of the semiarid region of Central Chile, The Yali wetlands complex is the most important because it is protected as a RAMSAR's wetland. However, information about their hydro-geomorphological characteristics is almost non existent. In this study, the hydrochemical characteristics of 20 sampling sites, surveyed in July 2008 and w...

http://www.fundacion-biodiversidad.es/images/stories/recursos/proyectos/biodiversidad/2008/fgua/lecomilenio.pdf

Freshwater ecosystems play a primary role in the biosphere, which justifies interest in the assessment their health or condition. One important component of the biological assessment of stream conditions is evaluating the direct or indirect effects of human activities or disturbances. Most biological assessments are based on the concept of comparin...