Search

Humans have severely altered freshwater ecosystems globally, causing a loss of biodiversity. Regulatory frameworks, like the Water Framework Directive, have been developed to support actions that halt and reverse this loss. These frameworks use typology systems that summarize freshwater ecosystems into environmentally delineated types. Within types, ecosystems that are minimally impacted by human activities, i.e., in reference conditions, are expected to be similar concerning physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. This assumption is critical when water quality assessments rely on comparisons to type-specific reference conditions. Lyche Solheimet al. (2019) developed a pan-European river typology system, the Broad River Types, that unifies the nationalWater Framework Directive typology systems and is gaining traction within the research community. However, it is unknown how similar biological communities are within these individual Broad River Types. We used analysis of similarities and classification strength analysis to examine if the Broad River Types delineate distinct macroinvertebrate communities across Europe and whether they outperform two ecoregional approaches: the European Biogeographical Regions and Illies' Freshwater Ecoregions. We etermined indicator and typical taxa for the types of all three typology systems and evaluated their distinctiveness. All three typology systems captured more variation in macroinvertebrate communities than random combinations of sites. The results were similar among typology systems, but the Broad River Types always performed worse than either the Biogeographic Regions or Illies' Freshwater Ecoregions. Despite reaching statistical significance, the statistics of analysis of similarity and classification strength were low in all tests indicating substantial overlap among the macroinvertebrate communities of different types. We conclude that the Broad River Types do not represent an improvement upon existing freshwater typologies when used to delineate macroinvertebrate communities and we propose future avenues for advancement: regionally constrained types, better recognition of intermittent rivers, and consideration of biotic communities. This study was part of the GETREAL (Incorporating spatial and seasonal variability in community sensitivity into chemical risk assessment) project, which was funded by the European Chemical Industry Council long-range research initiative (CEFIC-LRi project ECO 50). Dénes Schmera was supported by the NKFIH K140352 and 471-3/2021 grants. Petr Pařil, Marek Polášek and Michal Straka were supported by the P505-20-17305S grant. We are grateful to the staff that collected and analyzed data for the AQEM (EU FP5, contract No: EVK1-CT1999- 00027), BIODROUGHT, STAR (EU FP5, contract No: EVK1-CT 2001-00089), and WISER (EU FP7, contract No 226273) projects and to the various water agencies that participated in the abiotic and biotic data collection and analysis.

Riverine landscapes provide numerous ecosystem services, of which pollination is essential to increase the yield, quality, and stability of crops and the biodiversity of wild flora. Pollinators’ behaviour and their community dynamics are often affected by the spatial distribution of floral and nesting resources at the landscape scale, and are thus sensitive to land-use land-cover (LULC) changes and management practices. The main objective of this study is to understand how changes in riparian vegetation and LULC at River Minho affect pollination services. For this, an approach based on the temporal analysis of historical cartography (1898) and current satellite imagery (2016) was used. We developed a novel Pollination Suitability Index for Riverine Landscapes (PSIRL) using LULC data as a proxy of habitat suitability for insect pollinators. PSIRL scores were derived from expert judgment of the local habitat conditions, floral diversity and field surveys. The PSIRL values obtained for both periods were compared using pairwise T-tests. We detected an overall reduction of the pollination services in the riverine landscape of River Minho from 1898 to 2016. However, at local level we observed gains and losses of pollination suitability as a result of distinct LULC changes. There was a marked decrease in the PSIRL in the most downstream and upstream riverine sections due to generalized conversion of scrublands, broadleaved-forests and heterogeneous agricultural areas to artificial surfaces and managed forests dominated by maritime pine and eucalyptus. However, in the middle section of the river, the area occupied by scrublands, riparian and broadleaved forests increased, resulting in an increase of the foraging resources for insects, and a consequent increase of the PSIRL. This index can be used to monitor and capture changes in the pollination suitability of complex riverine landscapes and support further land and river management decisions. The historical cartography proved to be a valuable source of information to characterize LULC change and hence to assess the evolutionary trajectory of pollination ecosystem services, at global and local level.

Climate and land-use change drive a suite of stressors that shape ecosystems and interact to yield complex ecological responses (that is, additive, antagonistic and synergistic effects). We know little about the spatial scales relevant for the outcomes of such interactions and little about effect sizes. These knowledge gaps need to be filled to underpin future land management decisions or climate mitigation interventions for protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems. This study combines data across scales from 33 mesocosm experiments with those from 14 river basins and 22 cross-basin studies in Europe, producing 174 combinations of paired-stressor effects on a biological response variable. Generalized linear models showed that only one of the two stressors had a significant effect in 39% of the analysed cases, 28% of the paired-stressor combinations resulted in additive effects and 33% resulted in interactive (antagonistic, synergistic, opposing or reversal) effects. For lakes, the frequencies of additive and interactive effects were similar for all spatial scales addressed, while for rivers these frequencies increased with scale. Nutrient enrichment was the overriding stressor for lakes, with effects generally exceeding those of secondary stressors. For rivers, the effects of nutrient enrichment were dependent on the specific stressor combination and biological response vari- able. These results vindicate the traditional focus of lake restoration and management on nutrient stress, while highlighting that river management requires more bespoke management solutions. This work was supported by the MARS project (Managing Aquatic Ecosystems and Water Resources under Multiple Stress) funded under the 7th EU Framework Programme, Theme 6 (Environment including Climate Change), contract no. 603378 (http://www.mars-project.eu). Further support was received through the ILES (SAW- 2015-IGB-1) and BIBS (BMBF 01LC1501G) projects. Partner organizations provided 25% cofunding through their institutional budgets. We thank J. Strackbein, J. Lorenz and L. Mack for their support. This work was supported by the MARS project (Managing Aquatic Ecosystems and Water Resources under Multiple Stress) funded under the 7th EU Framework Programme, Theme 6 (Environment including Climate Change), contract no. 603378 (http://www.mars-project.eu). Further support was received through the ILES (SAW- 2015-IGB-1) and BIBS (BMBF 01LC1501G) projects. Partner organizations provided 25% cofunding through their institutional budgets. We thank J. Strackbein, J. Lorenz and L. Mack for their support.

There are infinite possible future scenarios reflecting the impacts of anthropogenic multiple stress on our planet. These impacts include changes in climate and land cover, to which aquatic ecosystems are especially vulnerable. To assess plausible developments of the future state of European surface waters, we considered two climate sce- narios and three storylines describing land use, management and anthropogenic development (‘Consensus’, ‘Techno’ and ‘Fragmented’, which in terms of environmental protection represent best-, intermediate- and worst-case, respectively). Three lake and four river basins were selected, representing a spectrum of European conditions through a range of different human impacts and climatic, geographical and biological characteristics. Using process-based and empirical models, freshwater total nitrogen, total phosphorus and chlorophyll-a concentrations were projected for 2030 and 2060. Under current conditions, the water bodies mostly fail good ecological status. In future predictions for the Techno and Fragmented World, concentrations further increased, while concentrations generally declined for the Consensus World. Furthermore, impacts were more severe for rivers than for lakes. Main pressures identified were nutrient inputs from agriculture, land use change, inade- quately managed water abstractions and climate change effects. While the basins in the Continental and Atlantic regions were primarily affected by land use changes, in the Mediterranean/Anatolian the main driver was climate change. The Boreal basins showed combined impacts of land use and climate change and clearly reflected the climate-induced future trend of agricultural activities shifting northward. The storylines showed positive effects on ecological status by classical mitigation measures in the Consensus World (e.g. riparian shading), technical im- provements in the Techno World (e.g. increasing wastewater treatment efficiency) and agricultural extensification in the Fragmented World. Results emphasize the need for implementing targeted measures to re- duce anthropogenic impacts and the importance of having differing levels of ambition for improving the future status of water bodies depending on the societal future to be expected. This study was funded by the MARS project (Managing Aquatic eco- systems and water Resources under multiple Stress) funded under the 7th EU Framework Programme, Theme 6 (Environment including Cli- mate Change), Contract No.: 603378 (http://www.mars-project.eu). We thank Jan Lemm (University of Duisburg-Essen) for his support in GIS and all contributors to the individual case studies that this synthe- sis is based on. This study was funded by the MARS project (Managing Aquatic eco- systems and water Resources under multiple Stress) funded under the 7th EU Framework Programme, Theme 6 (Environment including Cli- mate Change), Contract No.: 603378 (http://www.mars-project.eu). We thank Jan Lemm (University of Duisburg-Essen) for his support in GIS and all contributors to the individual case studies that this synthe- sis is based on.

One of the most salient causes of the degradation of freshwater systems is the physical habitat changes attributed to river damming. Environmental flows reduce such degradation but are still generally based on the requirements of aquatic species and disregard other biotic components of the ecosystem, such as riparian vegetation. Nevertheless, when environmental flow methods claim to consider riparian vegetation habitats and propose specific flows, their outcomes are rarely predicted quantitatively prior to their implementation. We used a dynamic floodplain vegetation model to analyze the riparian patch dynamics predicted for different flow regimes in two river stretches and to assess vegetation requirements to ensure long-term ecological maintenance and vitality of riparian structure in rivers with altered flow regimes. Furthermore, we assessed the capability of flushing flows to restore and manage riparian vegetation and the efficiency of environmental flows to satisfy riparian vegetation requirements. We found that vegetation encroachment is mainly prevented by floods with a recurrence interval of at least 2 years but that environmental flow regime planning aimed at complying with riparian vegetation requirements is watershed-specific. Additionally, reservoir flows controlled vegetation encroachment without causing severe geomorphic impacts on downstream river channels and with minor water losses to dam managers.

Climate change will predictably change hydrological patterns and processes at the catchment scale, with impacts on habitat conditions for fish. The main goal of this study is to assess how shifts in fish habitat favourability under climate change scenarios are affected by hydrological stressors. The interplay between climate and hydrological stressors has important implications in river management under climate change because management actions to control hydrological parameters are more feasible than controlling climate. This study was carried out in the Tamega catchment of the Douro basin. A set of hydrological stressor variables were generated through a process-based modelling based on current climate data (2008-2014) and also considering a high-end future climate change scenario. The resulting parameters, along with climatic and site-descriptor variables were used as explanatory variables in empirical habitat models for nine fish species using boosted regression trees. Models were calibrated for the whole Douro basin using 254 fish sampling sites and predictions under future climate change scenarios were made for the Tamega catchment. Results show that models using climatic variables but not hydrological stressors produce more stringent predictions of future favourability, predicting more distribution contractions or stronger range shifts. The use of hydrological stressors strongly influences projections of habitat favourability shifts; the integration of these stressors in the models thinned shifts in range due to climate change. Hydrological stressors were retained in the models for most species and had a high importance, demonstrating that it is important to integrate hydrology in studies of impacts of climate change on freshwater fishes. This is a relevant result because it means that management actions to control hydrological parameters in rivers will have an impact on the effects of climate change and may potentially be helpful to mitigate its negative effects on fish populations and assemblages.

High levels of morphological differentiation have been found among pumpkinseeds (Lepomis gibbosus) occupying four habitat types in Portuguese reservoirs. To investigate the underlying mechanism behind the phenotypic differentiation among ecomorphs, we used six microsatellite markers to assess patterns of genetic differentiation among and within eight naturalised reservoir populations. Greater genetic differentiation was seen among reservoir populations than within reservoirs (FST > 0.041, P < 0.002). structure analysis revealed the presence of two distinct genetic groups among the set of eight reservoir populations. However, an analysis of co- occurring forms that were identified a priori by their respective habitats was consistent with a single panmictic group, suggesting that morphological differentiation has arisen in sympatry (i.e., within a reservoir, postintroduction). The observed relationships within and among reservoir populations, combined with the timeframe of ecomorph divergence, suggest the strong likelihood of phenotypic plasticity as the underlying mechanism of diversification in the introduced pumpkinseed.

1. A comparison was made between a variety of alien and endemic plant species from 272 aquatic and riparian habitats in Portuguese Mediterranean-type streams in reference condition — i.e. near-natural river corridors — and non-reference condition. The objective was to detect differences in relative proportion and cover between these species groups. The differences in endemic and alien flora from siliceous and calcareous river types were also analysed. Environmental and human disturbance factors were related with the richness and cover of both species groups. 2. A total of 568 species were found, of which 44 were alien and 28 were endemic. Alien species were present at 91% of the surveyed locations, and were consistently more widespread at non-reference sites than at reference ones for both river types, with calcareous sites having a higher invasibility. Endemic species occurred at 45% of the sampling sites and displayed a significantly lower richness and cover than their alien counterparts. 3. Alien richness and cover were positively related to direct human disturbance within the river systems, and with floodplain uses such as urban occupation, intensive agriculture, and nutrient inputs. Endemic species also respond to anthropogenic variables, rather than to climatic and geographical ones, with richness and cover increasing as human impacts on fluvial systems and related floodplains decrease. 4. Comprehensive control of alien invasive species and the protection of endemic plant populations will require attempts at monitoring ecological river integrity, and the achievement of ‘good ecological status’ — one of the goals of the European Union's Water Framework Directive. Portuguese riparian areas must be managed in such a way as to protect the relatively few preserved riparian habitats by lowering the direct and indirect pressures in fluvial corridors and thus preventing future alien plant invasions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Chronological studies (1951–1995) of the changing land use in three river basins belonging to the Tagus fluvial system (Portugal) were conducted using remote sensing data. The spatial characteristics of riparian woody vegetation and the temporal changes therein were quantified using landscape metrics such as average riparian canopy width, length of stand canopy closure types on river segments and patchiness indicators (e.g., the number of changes between types per survey unit). We also studied the predictive potential of geomorphology and climate features for explaining biological variability. We identify significant spatio-temporal land use changes on the adjacent floodplains, accompanied by remarkable differences in riparian integrity. Neither fragmentation patterns nor the loss or increase of riparian cover were consistent with similar land use changes throughout the rest of the studied basins, particularly in urbanizing landscape patches. The longitudinal patterns of streamside forests along Mediterranean-type rivers – particularly in Iberia – appear to be complex and dependent upon the previous life-history features of land use. Results also suggest that the proximity, type and extension of land use patch interplay influence the degree of changes in riparian integrity, which in overall terms displayed appreciable resistance to alterations and indirect disturbance. The results are broadly discussed with regard to spatial fine-grained scale changes in both land use and riparian integrity.

This study was carried out in eight stands of wetland woods located in the north-western part of the Iberian Peninsula. The number of sampling sites per stand depended on the physical heterogeneity and area of each stand. Biological data recorded per site included species composition and a list of structural parameters (relative cover in each forest layer, tree height, tree diameter at breast height, number of live and dead trunks and individuals, and morphological adaptations to flooding). Hydro-geomorphologic, geological and climatic variables were also obtained. The floristic data set was subjected to a non-hierarchical cluster analysis and a principal component analysis, which provided an overall image of vegetation grouping based on community composition that only considered perennial species (trees, shrubs, non-annual herbaceous plants and climbers). Three groups of plant communities were distinguished, with an overstorey that was dominated by Betula alba , Salix atrocinerea and Alnus glutinosa , respectively, which presented different environmental drivers. The structural features of each group that was characterised by a different overstorey species were analysed and differences were tested. The number of trunks per individual, number of dead trunks, canopy height and the presence of adaptations to flooding were the structural parameters that best separated the wetland wood groups. Environmental variables were correlated with the ordination axis to analyse community distribution trends and the hydrological regime was found to be the key environmental factor controlling both floristic and structural patterns.

(1994). Aquatic and marginal vegetation of the River Divor and its relation to land use. SIL Proceedings, 1922-2010: Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 2309-2315.

Occurrence of the West Indian drywood termite, Cryptotermes brevis, is registered for the first time as established populations in Barcelona (Spain) and also additional information is given regarding a recent record from Lisbon (Portugal). This serious invasive termite pest was detected in five buildings in Barcelona, Spain and one building in Lisbon, Portugal.

Post mortem interval estimation is crucial in forensic sciences for both positive identification and reconstruction of perimortem events. However, reliable dating of skeletonized remains poses a scientific challenge since human remains decomposition involves a set of complex and highly variable processes. Many of the difficulties in determining post mortem interval and/or the permanence of a body in a specific environment relates with the lack of systematic observations and research in human body decomposition modalities in different environments. In March 2006, in order to solve a problem of misidentification, a team of the South Branch of Portuguese National Institute of Legal Medicine carried out the exhumation of 25 identified individuals buried for almost five years in the same cemetery plot. Even though all individuals shared similar post mortem intervals, they presented different stages of decomposition. In order to analyze the post mortem factors associated with the different stages of decomposition displayed by the 25 exhumed individuals, the stages of decomposition were scored. Information regarding age at death and sex of the individuals were gathered and recorded as well as data in the cause of death and grave and coffin characteristics. Although the observed distinct decay stages may be explained by the burial conditions, namely by the micro taphonomic environments, individual endogenous factors also play an important role on differential decomposition as witnessed by the present case.

Riparian woods are frequently fragmented and degraded, mainly as a consequence of land-cover related stresses, water diversion, regulation and invasive species. The need to enhance these systems towards their natural functioning has motivated numerous restoration efforts. However, river managers still need guidance on how to allocate scarce restoration resources, and to monitor and report the effectiveness of the restoration programmes. For this, the present work proposes a stepwise methodological procedure over spatial scales, using quantitative descriptors (metrics ) of the ecological condition of the riparian vegetation. This evaluation is based on the composition and cover of plant assemblages, species attributes, and spatial patterns, which can reflect the deviation of the structure and condition of the riparian zone from the near-natural state to an impaired situation. Landscape metrics obtained from high spatial resolution imagery are used for the evaluation of the spatial features of the riparian zone, followed by the calculation of a riparian multimetric index, based on field observations. The integration of multi-spatial scale information provided by landscape metrics and biological metrics is essential and recommended for decision support of end-users and to evaluate the success of restoration measures.