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Advanced tools for the assessment of the ecological status of Mediterranean temporary rivers during the dry phase, including disconnected pools and dry channels, to address the specific challenges and needs of their management.

BACKGROUND

Temporary rivers (TRs) are fluvial ecosystems that experience interruptions in their flow, drying up partially or completely at certain times of the year. This temporal characteristic can be considered a natural disturbance, but it is often exacerbated by anthropogenic impacts. Representing approximately 60% of the global river network, TRs are predominant in arid and semi-arid regions like the Mediterranean, although their extent is expected to increase due to climate change and land use modification. Despite their ecological importance and the ecosystem services they provide, these ecosystems have historically been underestimated. Although there have been significant advances in their study over the last few decades, important gaps persist in their management and scientific understanding.

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) represented a significant advance in the management of fluvial ecosystems, but it does not adequately address temporary rivers (TRs). Although Spain has preliminarily incorporated TRs into its regulations, their ecological assessment remains insufficient. Current methodologies do not effectively distinguish between natural and anthropogenic disturbances, leading to inaccurate evaluations of the ecological status of TRs.

Invertebrates, diatoms, and macrophytes could be the key to better understanding these ecosystems, assessing their health, and promoting strategies to improve their management. In recent years, changes in species composition between aquatic and terrestrial communities throughout the hydrological cycle of temporary rivers have been studied in depth.

The solid black arrows indicate organisms that arrive or leave through the riverine pathway, the dotted arrows indicate organisms that arrive or leave by aerial means, while the dashed arrows indicate organisms that recolonize from resistant forms that were buried. The red arrows represent the colonization or decolonization of terrestrial habitats by terrestrial plants and invertebrates (highlighted in red).

To learn more:

Web page of the project

Bonada, N., Sánchez Montoya, M. del M., Cid, N., ... 2024. Retos y oportunidades para la evaluación del estado ecológico en ríos temporales. Ecosistemas 33(1): 2632. https://doi.org/10.7818/ECOS.2655

ObjeCtiVES

Develop advanced tools for the assessment of the ecological status of Mediterranean temporary rivers during the dry phase, including disconnected pools and dry riverbeds, to address the specific challenges and needs of their management.
This will be achieved through:

the application of the metacommunity concept to biological assessment, and
the generation of appropriate biological, physicochemical, and hydro-geomorphological metrics for assessing isolated pools and dry riverbeds.

We will focus on diatoms and macroinvertebrates for disconnected pools, and terrestrial invertebrates and plants for dry riverbeds.