Sandra Saura Mas

Autonomous University of Barcelona | UAB · CREAF, Department of Animal Biology, Vegetal Biology and Ecology

The increasingly gender-sensitive legislation promotes the inclusion of substantial legislative changes and actions to move towards effective gender equality in higher education. However, scholars frequently lack information and training to implement the gender perspective in their teaching. Moreover, there is extensive evidence of gender differenc...

The study we are presenting in this article is based on an analysis of the critical observations of the state of the art of the prevailing educational systems today through evaluations by institutions like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development and...

In gynodioecious species, hermaphrodite plants invest both in seed and pollen production, whereas female plants only produce fruits. For both sexes to coexist, such unbalanced investment is expected to translate in some kind of reproductive compensation, particularly under severe nutrient shortage or environmental stress. This study investigates 1)...

Although several invasive species have induced changes to the fire regime of invaded communities, potential intraspecific shifts in fire-related traits that might enhance the invasion success of these species have never been addressed. We assumed that traits conferring persistence and competitiveness in postfire conditions to downy brome, a quintes...

Aims Extreme climatic events mayhave important consequences forplant community structure and composition. In 2005, a severe drought together with a cold winter promoted extensive damage and mortality in shrubland communities of southwest Spain (DoñanaNational Park). Here, we aim to identify the mechanisms underlying community stability (resistance...

Hydroelectricity is increasingly used worldwide as a source of renewable energy, and many mountain ranges have dozens or hundreds of hydropower plants, with many more being under construction or planned. Although the ecological impacts of large dams are relatively well known, the effects of small hydropower plants and their weirs have been much les...

Extreme climatic episodes, likely associated with climate change, often result in profound alterations of ecosystems and, particularly, in drastic events of vegetation die-off. Species attributes are expected to explain different biological responses to these environmental alterations. Here we explored how changes in plant cover and recruitment in...

In recent years, the amphibians have suffered a major decline worldwide, because they are one of the animal groups more vulnerable to the effects of global change. The main aim of the study was to improve the knowledge on the conservation status of the amphibian populations in the Natural Park of Aiguamolls de l’Empordà (PNAE) with the objective of...

Crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci) is the main problem that hinders the conservation of European crayfish species. Every year, dozens of native crayfish populations disappear due to this disease. We used an electric fish barrier to block the dispersal of infected crayfish upstream. One of the main objectives of this communication is to transfer o...

Climate change has increased drought-induced tree die-off in many parts of the world, and future climate models expect a higher recurrence of these perturbations. However, few studies have addressed plant community recovery after drought events, particularly in Mediterranean forests. This study evaluates the consequences of drought-induced die-off...

Life-history attributes can impose differences on root system structures and properties related to nutrient and water uptake. Here, we assess whether plants with different post-fire regenerative strategies (resprouters, seeders and seeder-resprouters) differ in the topological and morphological properties of their root systems (external path, altit...

Es dóna a conèixer la troballa d'ous de Salamandra salamandra terrestris Lacépède, 1788, dipositats en basses d'aigua de dues localitats catalanes diferents: Sant Pere de Rodes (Alt Empordà) i Camprodon (Ripollès), amb la particularitat que a l'interior d'aquests ous s'han detectat embrions en fase de desenvolupament. Aquests són els primers casos...

Decomposition is a determining factor for the functioning of ecosystems because litter dynamics (litter fall and litter decomposition) constitute a key process in the regulation of the recycling of carbon and nutrients. We studied the litter decomposition properties of a set of 19 Mediterranean-basin woody species with different post-fire regenerat...

Questions We studied the soil seed bank under field‐simulated climate change conditions and addressed the following questions: Is the effect of climate change on seed banks more evident in areas without vegetation? Are short‐lived species more sensitive to this directional climate change than long‐lived species? Location A M editerranean shrubland...

This is the first record of the spiny-cheek crayfish, Orconectes limosus (Rafinesque, 1817), introduced into the Iberian Peninsula. Sixteen individuals of this crayfish species were detected in the Muga River, near to the Boadella Reservoir (Catalonia, NE Iberian Peninsula) on October 9, 2010. This reservoir is only 14 km away from France, where th...

The flammability and combustibility of plant communities are determined by species features related to growth-form, structure and physiology. In some ecosystems, such as the Mediterranean ones, these characteristics may contribute to the existence of fire-prone species. We measured several parameters associated with the flammability and fuel loadin...

Wildfire is an important ecological disturbance factor in most Mediterranean ecosystems. In the Mediterranean Basin, most shrub species can regenerate after fire by resprouting or seeding. Here, we hypothesize that post-fire regenerative syndromes may potentially co-vary with traits directly related to functional properties involved in resource use...

We explored differences in leaf nutrient contents between species from Mediterranean shrublands with the ability to resprout after disturbances such as fire (resprouters) and others without this capacity (non-resprouters). Since it is to be expected that resprouting capacity is related to a more conservative use of nutrients, we hypothesize that re...

1. Recent work has identified global-scale relationships between key leaf traits (leaf economics spectrum). However, it is important to determine whether this approach can be applied at local scale with smaller subsets of species facing similar environments. Since fire is a key process in Mediter-ranean shrubland dynamics we analyze whether fire-re...

L'effet d'une fréquence élevée de feu sur la composition en espèces de communautés de plantes de type méditerranéen est rapporté pour des peuplements arbustifs situés en Catalogne (Espagne) qui ont subi de 1 à 5 feux au cours des 31 dernières années. Nous nous sommes concentrés sur les changements d'abondance des espèces, regroupées selon leurs tra...

Post-fire regeneration is a key process in Mediterranean shrubland dynamics, strongly determining the functional properties of the community. In this study, a test is carried out to determine whether there is co-variation between species regenerative types and functional attributes related to water use. An analysis was made of the seasonal variatio...

Dispersal and establishment of recruits are key steps in the seed invasion process of alien plants. We analysed the effects of wind on the dispersal pattern of Cortaderia selloana, an invasive alien tussock grass in the wetlands of the Mediterranean basin. C. selloana dispersal curves (with QDx values, it is seed density at a given distance from th...