Saúl Blanco

Universidad de León | UNILEON · Department of Biodiversity and Environment Management

A factorial experiment was carried out in order to assess the effects of four treatment steps in diatom processing techniques (the quantity of hydrogen peroxide added to the sample, the time allowed to the digestion reaction, the use of centrifugation and the method used to settle the frustules onto the coverslip) on different aspects of the qualit...

Biotic indices based on macro-invertebrates and diatoms are frequently used to diagnose ecological quality in watercourses, but few published works have assessed their effectiveness as biomonitors of the concentration of micropollutants. A biological survey performed at 188 sites in the basin of the River Duero in north-western Spain. Nineteen diat...

Aim: Understanding the roles of deterministic and stochastic processes in community assembly is essential for gaining insights into species biogeographical patterns. However, the way community assembly processes operate is still not fully understood, especially in oceanic islands. In this study, we examine the importance of assembly processes in sh...

Diatoms are microalgae, known to present several characteristics that make them excellent bioindicators. In this study, we analyzed the epiphytic diatom communities of ponds, with the aim of exploring the genetic variability explained by physical, chemical or geographical variables. We selected 77 lakes within the Spanish part of the Duero River Ba...

Kaçkar Mountains is located in the Eastern Black Sea Region in Türkiye. The mountainous area includes granite and volcanic rocks influencing water conditions. Moçar Lake is located at 40°42'35'' N and 40°54'51'' E in the Verçenik Valley with an altitude of 3.060 m. a.s.l. The samples were collected in July 2015 from epilithic and epipelic substrata...

Typology systems are frequently used in applied and fundamental ecology and are relevant for environmental monitoring and conservation. They aggregate ecosystems into discrete types based on biotic and abiotic variables, assuming that ecosystems of the same type are more alike than ecosystems of different types with regard to a specific property of...

Diatoms are microalgae, known to present several characteristics that make them excellent bioindicators. In this study, we analyzed the epiphytic diatom communities of shallow lakes, with the aim of exploring the genetic variability explained by physical, chemical or geographical variables. We selected 77 lakes within the Spanish part of the Duero...

The time required for diatom assemblages to integrate the abiotic variables of the aquatic environment has been subject of discussion for many years, with contrasting opinions as shown by field observations and experiments. Numerous diatom-based water quality indices are being used in the bioassessment of freshwaters; one of the most widely used (S...

Typology systems are frequently used in applied and fundamental ecology and are relevant for environmental monitoring and conservation. They aggregate ecosystems into discrete types based on biotic and abiotic variables, assuming that ecosystems of the same type are more alike than ecosystems of different types with regard to a specific property of...

Increased salt concentration is one of the most widespread problems affecting freshwater worldwide. Aquatic communities, and in particular periphytic diatoms, react to this alteration in water quality by modifying their structural parameters and physiology at the individual level, which is commonly manifested by the appearance of teratological form...

Aim The species–area relationship (SAR) is one of the most distinctive biogeographic patterns, but global comparisons of the SARs between island and mainland are lacking for microbial taxa. Here, we explore whether the form of the SAR and the drivers of species richness, including area, environmental heterogeneity, climate and physico‐chemistry, di...

We developed the Trophic Diatom Index for Reservoirs (TDIR), the first index proposal for water trophic quality assessment of tropical reservoirs in Brazil. Furthermore, we applied four borrowed diatom indices to compare their performances with TDIR. The proposal development considered a cali- bration set from surface sediment diatoms (n=113) from...

The present study is based on the identification of benthic diatoms sampled along the Coastal Central Constantine in northeastern of Algeria. Our work aims to address relationships between environmental variables and characterize the spatial and temporal distribution of the diatom flora. Diatoms and samples for physicochemical analysis were collect...

This work aimed at integrating the anaerobic digestion of food waste (FW) with photosynthetic biogas upgrading at pilot scale in order to obtain a high quality biomethane and a nutrient-laden algal biomass as the main byproducts from FW treatment. The performance of a 100 L anaerobic digester treating food waste integrated via raw biogas and digest...

The treatment of pig manure is a major environmental issue, and photobioreactors containing consortia of microalgae and bacteria have proven to be a promising and sustainable treatment alternative. This work studies the effect of Cu, Zn and As, three toxic elements frequently present in piggery wastewater, on the performance and microbiome of photo...

Anaerobic digestion can biotransform the biodegradable fraction of sewage sludge into biogas, while the symbiotic action of algal-bacterial consortia can remove both the CO2 and H2S from biogas and nutrients from digestate. A 100 L anaerobic digester operated at 20 days of retention time coupled with a 180 L high-rate algal pond (HRAP) engineered t...

Gomphosphenia minima sp. nov. is a new freshwater diatom described from central Portugal, found in samples from a mountain stream. The species is described here based on light and scanning electron microscopy. This taxon is compared with other Gomphosphenia taxa such as G. fontinalis, G. lingulatiformis and G. tackei. Gomphosphenia minima sp. nov....

Background and aims – Kützing separated the genus Achnanthidium from the genus Achnanthes based on two species: Achnanthes minutissima and Achnanthidium microcephalum . These two genera were distinguished by the presence of stalks in the Achnanthes genus and their absence in Achnanthidium . Before electron microscopy, the difference between Achnant...

Two morphologically similar populations of Didymosphenia were reported from the West Branch of the Farmington River, Connecticut, USA in 2014 and 2016. We described one of them as a new species, D. hullii. The other was observed subsequently in late 2016 and resembled D. geminata, but given the worldwide nuisance characteristic of this species, the...

Nowadays, piggery wastewater (PWW) management still represents an unsolved global environmental problem. Photosynthetic processes have emerged as an innovative biological platform capable of performing a cost-effective treatment of wastewater with a concomitant assimilation of nutrients into biomass. In this work, the performance of a purple photot...

Traditional microscope imaging techniques are unable to retrieve the complete dynamic range of a diatom species with complex silica-based cell walls and multi-scale patterns. In order to extract details from the diatom, multi-exposure images are captured at variable exposure settings using microscopy techniques. A recent innovation shows that image...

The genus Hyalosira Kützing was recently split and emended based on morphology and molecular phylogeny but many uniseriate taxa could not be resolved. All populations examined in that study had one rimoportula on each valve (i.e., 1+1 in the cell). Recent collections from Turkey, Australia, and Micronesia had uniseriate taxa with different numbers...

Background and objective: Training a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) for automatic image classification requires a large database with images of labeled samples. However, in some applications such as biology and medicine only a few experts can correctly categorize each sample. Experts are able to identify small changes in shape and texture...

The Krka River is located at Balkan Peninsula in the Dinaric region of Croatia and it is a typical groundwater-fed karst river characterized by an unusual phenomenon-tufa. Tufa designates porous CaCO3 deposits forming under specific physical and chemical conditions and hosting very diverse freshwater biota. Karst springs are considered one of the m...

Delicatophycus wulingensis sp. nov., D. qinghainensis sp. nov., and D. menyuanensis sp. nov., are described, illustrated, and compared to similar taxa. Two types of apical pore fields (APFs) in the genus Cymbella are defined. The three new Delicatophycus all possess the type II APF found in some species of Cymbella, i.e. the APF is divided by the d...

Fragilaria construens var. subsalina is a common diatom found in a wide variety of aquatic systems worldwide. It was described by Hustedt (1925) from brackish waters in Oldesloe, Germany; a lectotype specimen was established by Simonsen (1987). We analysed the ultrastructure of specimens from the lectotype material by means of light (LM) and scanni...

Representatives of the Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kütz.) Czarn. complex are common and widespread diatoms in Poland. The following species were included in this study: Achnanthidium affine (Grunow) Czarn., A. caledonicum (Lange-Bert.) Lange-Bert., A. eutrophilum (Lange-Bert.) Lange-Bert., A. exile (Kütz.) Hérib., A. jackii Rabenh., A. lineare W. S...

Citation: Turiel, S.; Garrido-Cardenas, J.A.; Gómez-Serrano, C.; Acién, F.G.; Carretero-Paulet, L.; Blanco, S. A Polyphasic Characterisation of Tetradesmus almeriensis sp. nov. (Chlorophyta: Scenedesmaceae). Abstract: The microalga Tetradesmus almeriensis, previously known as Scenedesmus almeriensis, has been isolated and cultivated as a highly pro...

In the ablation zone of glacier habitats, cryoconite holes are known to harbor diverse microbial communities, including unique diatom floras distinct from those of surrounding aquatic and terrestrial systems. Besides descriptive studies, little is known about the diversity of cryoconite dia-toms and their response to environmental stressors, partic...

An Encyonema population collected in the Zambeze River near the Victoria Falls, Namibia, is here described and illustrated in detail with the aid of LM and SEM microscopy. This taxon had already been presented in the literature under the name E. volkii, the reasons leading to treat this species as a new, independent taxon are here discussed. Encyon...

The domestic wastewater treatment performance of an integrated anoxic-aerobic photobioreactor with biomass settling and recycling, coupled with anaerobic digestion of the produced bacterial-algal biomass and biogas upgrading in the photobioreactor was investigated. Hydraulic retention time in the photobioreactor initially was 4 days (stage I and II...

During a survey of freshwater diatoms from Mojiang River, Chebaling Nature Preserve in Shaoguan City, Shixing County, Guangdong Province, China, a new Encyonema species, Encyonema chebalingense sp. nov., was discovered. Based on observations with light and scanning electron microscopy, a detailed morphological description of E. chebalingense is her...

The Upper Paraná River floodplain is one of the few remaining non-dammed stretches in Brazil. It has a typical fluvial dynamics represented by the flood pulse and a highly complex habitat, which allows the existence and maintenance of a great biodiversity, including diatom species. As it happens in tropical lowland environments, also in this floodp...

Benthic diatoms have traditionally been used as bioindicators of aquatic ecosystems. Because diatom-based monitoring of water quality is required by European legislation, molecular-based methods had emerged as useful alternatives to classical methods based on morphological identification using light microscopy. The aim of this study was to test the...

Diatoms are important organisms in freshwater ecosystems due to their position as primary producers and therefore, analyzing their assemblages provides relevant information on ecosystem functioning. Diatoms have historically been identified based on morphological traits, which is time-consuming and requires well-trained specialists. Nevertheless, D...

Benthic diatoms are well known bioindicators of water quality, used in many aquatic ecosystems. Since diatom-based monitoring of water quality is required by European legislation, the search for methods that facilitate this task has become more relevant. The aim of this study was to test the reliability of DNA metabarcoding combined with high-throu...

The diatoms have intricate silica-based cell walls with multi scale patterns. High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging is widely used to examine the 3D structure of diatoms for recovering the wide range of contrast and brightness. In order to construct a HDR image of a diatom, multiple images of the specimen are taken at different exposure settings with br...

The descriptions of the new species Cymbella balkii sp. nov. and C. yerlii sp. nov. were given in this study. The species were found in a karstic limnocrene spring which is one of the most important sources of Sakarya River. Cymbella balkii sp. nov. is very similar to C. pervarians, C. simonsenii, C. percymbiformis, C. perparva, C. alpestris and C....

Pinnularia qinghainensis Bing Liu & S. Blanco sp. nov. Valves linear with broadly rounded apices, dimensions (n=31): 35–70 μm long, 8–11 μm wide. Sternum narrow, widening towards central area. Central area hexagonal with three forms: reaching both margins, meeting one margin and bordering the other with few short striae, or bordering both margins...

Three innovative operational strategies were successfully evaluated to improve the quality of biomethane in an outdoors pilot scale photobioreactor interconnected to an external absorption unit: i) the use of a greenhouse during winter conditions, ii) a direct CO2 stripping in the photobioreactor via air stripping during winter conditions and iii)...

Diatoms are important organisms in freshwater ecosystems due to their position as primary producers and therefore, analyzing their communities provides relevant information on ecosystem functioning. Diatoms have historically been identified based on morphological traits, which is time-consuming and requires well-trained specialists. Nevertheless, D...

The diatom Berkeleya transfretana is described as a new species from samples collected at Playa Punta Sauciño, an intertidal coastal area in Ceuta, North Africa. Its main features are the comparatively small size in relation to other Berkeleya species and the very fine and dense striae pattern (more than 40 striae per 10 µm). The new species is her...

The performance of an anoxic-aerobic microalgal-bacterial system treating synthetic food waste digestate at 10 days of hydraulic retention time via nitrification-denitrification under increasing digestate concentrations of 25%, 50%, and 100%(v/v) was assessed during Stages I, II and III, respectively. The system supported adequate treatment without...

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Gomphonema alavariense sp. nov. is a new freshwater diatom described in Portugal from phytobenthos samples in an urban pond located in Aveiro (Portugal). This new diatom is illustrated and discussed based on different samples collected in July-August 2017 from Santo António Park pond in the city centre. This taxon was compared with other Gomphonema...

Background: Due to their isolation, islands offer excellent areas for the study of distribution of benthic diatoms. On the other hand, diatoms bearing canal raphe have received less attention compared to other groups of diatoms such as Navicula, Pinnularia or Amphora. Questions: Is it possible that thermal springs on islands offer a refuge for inf...

Is a rare diatom relevant for Brazilian reservoirs? Planktonic diatom data sets were compared within different rarity categories to verify their responses using the weighted average (WA) approach. Our hypothesis is to proportionally reach an increased performance for the WA model by reducing the taxa weight according to their categories considering...

Currently, microalgae (i.e., diatoms) constitute a generally accepted bioindicator of water quality and therefore provide an index of the status of biological ecosystems. Diatom detection for specimen counting and sample classification are two difficult time-consuming tasks for the few existing expert diatomists. To mitigate this challenge, in this...

A new species, Nupela eremica sp. nov. is described from a high mountain lake located in the Eastern Range of Colombian Andes. The new taxon was studied from sediment and epiphyton samples and under light and scanning electron microscope. Comparison with morphologically similar taxa is showed. N. giluwensis, N. carolina, N. gomphosphenioides, N. en...

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During a survey of freshwater diatoms from a mountain lake, Lake Tiancai, Laojunshan National Park, Hengduan Mountain Range, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, China, a new Kurtkrammeria species, Kurtkrammeria tiancaiensis sp. nov. was recorded. A detailed morphological description of K. tiancaiensis is presented, based on light and scanning electron m...

This field guide is available on: http://www.lifeinvasaqua.com/main-files/uploads/2020/07/LIBRO-ESPECIES-INVASORAS-ESPA%C3%91OL-WEB-1.pdf

This paper is an examination of Thomas Comber's diatom contribution to the Catalogue of African Plants Collected by Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853-1861. It includes notes on the new taxa described, deals with a few nomenclatural issues and very briefly considers the biogeographical implications of museum collections.

Human skin is one of the most complex body organs that functions as a physical barrier against water loss and environmental stressors that include UV radiation, reactive oxygen species, pathogens, chemicals and physical agents. Skin texture may undergo ageing, fragility of the dermal layer, thinning, laxity, enlarged pores, dryness, fine lines, and...

Diatom metrics methods are becoming important tools for the assessment of environmental conditions in aquatic systems. Diatoms have several advantages as bioindicators: their ubiquitous distribution across world aquatic environments, their ability to integrate multiple water quality features, and the relatively simple and standardized sampling and...

Correct identification of diatom taxa is indispensable for diatom-based water quality studies, as well as for biotechnological applications. Biological applications of taxonomy include the identification of taxa from particular specimens. In this regard, identification keys, that use a predetermined set of characters to identify a given individual,...

This chapter introduces the antecedents, motivation, and necessity of the use of automatic identification methods in diatom taxonomy. Expert biologists have a repetitive and laborious identification mission. The principal taxonomic features used to describe and classify diatoms relate to the morphology and texture of frustule. Classical taxonomic d...

Diatom identification must consider the large variability in both morphological and morphometric features, characteristic of this group of microorganisms. This chapter describes variations in shape/size observed in diatom populations either as a consequence of their particular asexual reproductive cycle or induced by environmental conditions. Conce...

Diatom metrics methods are becoming important tools for the assessment of environmental conditions in aquatic systems. Diatoms have several advantages as bioindicators: their ubiquitous distribution across world aquatic environments, their ability to integrate multiple water quality features, and the relatively simple and standardized sampling and...

This study aims at elucidating the environmental factors controlling benthic diatom diversity and uniqueness in Mediterranean mountain ponds. Samples of periphytic diatoms were collected in 45 ponds in Andalusia, south of Spain, and analysed by standard methods. Data analysis reveals that diatom diversity is mainly controlled by elevation and hydro...

Type specimens of Kützing's similarly named Synedra acus (= Ulnaria acus) and Synedra arcus (= Tabularia arcus D.M. Williams, nov. comb.) are examined with light and electron microscopy. Their morphology is documented and their nomenclature and typification clarified. Comments are made on several other members of the genus Ulnaria that may be, or h...

During a recent floristic–taxonomic study on the algal flora, including diatoms, from the estuary of the Damietta Branch of the Nile in Egypt, an interesting epilithic diatom species belonging to the genus Seminavis (Naviculaceae) was collected and investigated using both light and scanning electron microscopy. This new diatom species shares morpho...

Today, agro-industry is a key economic sector worldwide with a large associated generation of wastewaters. These wastewaters entail a hazard to the environment and a waste of valuable organic matter and nutrients. The use of microalgae to support an efficient and low cost treatment of agro-industrial wastewaters along with a sustainable resource re...

Cyanobacteria, an abundant source of natural products as biomedical compounds have emerged as a novel resource for the progression of synthetic analogs. Due to the rise of antibiotic resistance, there is a need for new medications and cyanobacteria-derived compounds with promising antimicrobial, immunosuppressant, anti-carcinoma, antiviral and prot...

High-resolution images of phytoplankton cells such as diatoms or desmids, which are useful for monitoring water quality, can now be provided by digital microscopes, facilitating the automated analysis and identification of specimens. Conventional approaches are based on optical microscopy; however, manual image analysis is impractical due to the hu...

Three new species of Ulnaria (Kützing) Compère are described based on light and scanning electric microscopy observations. Ulnaria oxybiseriata D.M. Williams & Bing Liu, sp. nov., has linear-lanceolate to lanceolate valves with apiculate and produced ends, biseriate striae, and a central area mostly forming an incomplete fascia surrounded by shorte...

The diatom Encyonema nevadense S.Blanco & al. sp. nov. is described as a new species, from epilithic samples collected from a high mountain pond in Sierra Nevada National Park. This taxon is characterized by the presence of narrow lanceolate valves with a moderate dorsiventrality, and the presence of areolae with irregular external openings. The ty...

Diatom identification is a crucial process to estimate water quality, which is essential in biological studies. This process can be automated with machine learning algorithms. For this purpose, a dataset with 10 common taxa is collected, with annotations provided by an expert diatomist. In this work, a comparison of the classical state-of-the-art g...