High mountain lakes offer research opportunities beyond what could be expected from their quantitative relevance in the Earth system.In this article we present a brief summary of carried out Pyrenees last twenty years by group limnology Centre for Mountain Research (CRAM) University Barcelona.The studies can included three main topics: life extreme conditions, catchment-lake relationships and environmental changes.

Climate change is affecting the phenology of organisms and ecosystem processes across a wide range environments. However, links between organismal process in complex communities remain uncertain. In snow-dominated watersheds, snowmelt spring early summer, followed by long low-flow period, characterizes natural flow regime streams rivers. Here, we examined how earlier will alter mountain stream via an outdoor mesocosm experiment channels Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. The treatment,...

Biota in disturbance-prone landscapes have evolved a variety of strategies to persist long term, either locally (resistance) or by regional recolonization (resilience). Habitat fragmentation and isolation can limit the availability pathways, thus dynamics post-disturbance community reestablishment. However, empirical studies on how may control mechanisms that enable recovery remain scarce. Here, we studied pristine intermittent stream (Chalone Creek, Pinnacles National Park, California)...

Species distributions can be analysed under two perspectives: the niche‐based approach, which focuses on species–environment relationships; and dispersal‐based metapopulation dynamics. The degree to each of these components affect species may depend habitat fragmentation, traits phylogenetic constraints. We 36 stream insect across 60 sites in three drainage basins at high latitudes Finland. used binomial generalised linear models (GLMs) predictor variables were environmental factors (E...

Organohalogen compounds are some of the most notorious persistent pollutants disturbing Earth biosphere. Although human-made, these chemicals not completely alien to living systems. A large number natural organohalogens, part secondary metabolism, involved in chemical trophic interactions. Surprisingly, relationship between organisms' position and synthetic organohalogen biotransformation capability has been investigated. We studied case for polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDE), a group...

Summary 1. Most high mountain lakes were free of fish until humans stocked them. This provides the opportunity to study extent which predation constrains thermal distribution large macroinvertebrates, among a suitable temperature for 2. We analysed aquatic beetles (Coleoptera, Dytisicidae, including genera Agabus , Platambus Hydroporus and Boreonectes ) in set 82 Pyrenees. Temperature was most important variable explaining overall dytiscids (out 29 environmental variables considered). The...

Abstract Nematode species are widely tolerant of environmental conditions and disperse passively. Therefore, the richness distribution in this group might largely depend on topological habitats main aerial aquatic dispersal pathways connecting them. If so, nematode distributions may serve as null models for evaluating that other groups more affected by gradients. We investigated hypothesis lakes across an altitudinal gradient Pyrenees. compared distribution, tolerance, richness, nematodes...

Abstract Metacommunity theory focuses on assembly patterns in ecological communities, originally exemplified through four different, yet non‐exclusive, perspectives: patch dynamics, species sorting, source‐sink and neutral theory. More recently, three exclusive components have been proposed to describe a different metacommunity framework: habitat heterogeneity, equivalence, dispersal. Here, we aim at evaluating the insect of subarctic stream network under these two frameworks. We first...

Abstract Aiming to elucidate whether large‐scale dispersal factors or environmental species sorting prevail in determining patterns of Trichoptera composition mountain lakes, we analyzed the distribution and assembly most common ( Plectrocnemia laetabilis , Polycentropus flavomaculatus Drusus rectus Annitella pyrenaea, Mystacides azurea ) lakes Pyrenees (Spain, France, Andorra) based on a survey 82 covering geographical extremes lake district. Spatial autocorrelation was determined using...

Climate warming is expected to drive an upward altitudinal shift of species distributions in mountain areas. In this study, we consider how environmental variables constrain the distribution freshwater mollusks across elevations based on extensive survey entire Pyrenean range. Results show that several altitude-related are significantly relevant for all (i.e., temperature, sediment organic content). Others respond more precisely some variables: fine substrate proportion increases probability...

Abstract The Younger Dryas-Holocene transition represents a period of significant thermal change, comparable in magnitude to modern warming, yet colder context and without the effect anthropogenic disturbance. This is useful as reference tackle how biodiversity affected by temperature natural conditions. Here, we addressed change during this southern Baltic coastal lake (Konarzewo Lake, Poland), inferred chironomid remains. We evaluated changes communities used Hill numbers explore...

Nematodes disperse passively and are amongst the smallest invertebrates on Earth. Free-living nematodes in mountain lakes highly tolerant of environmental variations thus excellent model organisms dispersal studies, since species-environment relationships unlikely to interfere. In this study, we investigated how population or organism traits influence stochastic physical nature passive a topologically complex environment. Specifically, analyzed female proportion body size geographical...

Climate change is projected to decrease snowpack and advance snowmelt in mountain ranges globally–including California’s Sierra Nevada, where streamflow snow-dominated rivers expected peak up 2 months earlier, remain baseflow conditions for extended periods of time. Predators may be particularly sensitive low flows, owing their larger body sizes, higher metabolic demands, longer lifespans. Experimental manipulations can help understand mechanistic links between future hydroclimates stream...

Abstract The species richness‐elevation relationship ( SRE ) is predominantly hump‐shaped along terrestrial gradients, but has been less explored in aquatic environments. Chironomids were used to evaluate the generality of mountain lakes, and role methodological biological factors determining its shape. shape 39 chironomid s distributed worldwide was identified by consensus between statistical visual methods. A ‘coefficient integrity’ C developed combine information on sampling effort...

Se recopila la corologia de las especies consideradas autoctonas que integran tribu Cytiseae Bercht. & J. Presl., en Comunidad Madrid. indican localidades y los mapas distribucion coordenadas UTM 10 x km para 20 especies, pertenecientes a generos Adenocarpus, Cytisus, Echinospartum, Erinacea, Genista, Lupinus, Pterospartum Retama. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren informacion corologica recopilada presenta un cierto sesgo, favor con una mas restringida.