Coordinator: Eugenia Zandoná
Description: Human activities such as agriculture and urbanization lead to changes in the morphology of rivers, increasing water flow and concentration of nutrients. Under these conditions the survival of the biota depends on its potential for adjustment to the changes. Recently it has been suggested that environmental changes resulting from urban processes impose a rapid change in the phenotypic biota, but not all species can compensate for the speed of changes. Acknowledge which species and how they respond to and adapt to new environments is critical to ecosystem management. In this context, we propose the development of models that explain how the phenotypic plasticity of species and ecosystems changes. The limnological characteristics and the composition of the biota are the essential foundations for understanding and modeling the maintenance and functioning of ecosystems. GP of Ecology and Evolution professors already collaborate with several reference institutions, in international projects supported by development agencies. The research that has been carried out focuses on different aspects of Rivers and Streams Ecology, with emphasis on Fish and Macroinvertebrate Ecology and its role in nutrient cycling, ecosystem structure and functioning, as well as aspects of life history and evolution of biological of local species. There is already an important collection of articles published with the working groups involved and maintaining the partnership. Issues relating to the first set of approaches follow the cutting-edge methodology involving nutrient concentration reading and physical structure of habitats and have the collaboration of University of Victoria - Canada, Cornell University and University of Nebraska - USA. The studies on the second set of approaches are focused on the understanding of issues related to reproduction, migration, behavior and adaptation to environmental changes and variations and have the collaboration of a researcher from the Museum of Natural Sciences of Madrid - Spain.