Recovery of submersed vegetation in a high mountain oligotrophic soft-water lake over two decades after impoundment

Este artículo contiene 13 páginas, 5 figuras, 2 tablas.Recovery of the submersed vegetation is a target for the management of soft-water shallow lakes if they are to meet water quality and biodiversity standards. Knowledge of patterns of macrophyte space occupation and time to recovery is poor and mostly restricted to free floating species or riparian vegetation. Here we use pre- and post-impact monitoring data over 20 years showing the evolution of submersed aquatic vegetation of lake Baciver (Pyrenees), and develop models to infer space occupation and time to recovery. We use pre-impact macrophyte distribution in relation to bathymetry-derived data to fit logistic models to further simulate lake equilibrium scenarios. Depth and slope were found to be the best predictors, and models suggested that an assemblage dominated by Sparganium angustifolium was, at time of this study, over 95% of its potential distribution area. A dense, newly grown monospecific Isoetes lacustris population occupied\10% of its potential area and model projections suggest that it will take decades to recover. An I. lacustris residual population remains below the estimated depth threshold for survival and is bound to disappear. The lake appears to evolve towards a new steady-state where the current lake hypsography promotes the expansion of algae (Nitella sp.) over angiosperms.This study was funded by the Red de Parques Nacionales of the Spanish Ministry of the Environment (PN I?D?I ref. 118/2003 and AQUAREST ref. OAPN 212/2010) and Intramural CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas) ref. 0065.Peer reviewe

Los usos de las TIC en la mercantilización de la universidad: análisis de los documentos oficiales del EEES

The construction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is profoundly transforming the university. Changes underway orient the university institution toward a model in which economic profitability and private utilization of knowledge wield a greater role. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a strategic role in this process. By analyzing the documents that define the project of the EHEA, the article discusses the uses of ICT being promoted by official institutions to contribute to the ongoing transformation of the university.La construcción del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) está transformando profundamente la universidad. Los cambios en curso orientan a la institución universitaria hacia un modelo en el que la rentabilidad económica y el aprovechamiento empresarial del conocimiento pasan a detentar el mayor protagonismo. Las Tecnologías de la Información y de la Comunicación (TIC) juegan un papel estratégico en este proceso. Mediante el análisis de los documentos en los que se define el proyecto del EEES, el artículo aborda los usos de las TIC que se están promoviendo desde las instituciones oficiales para contribuir a la actual transformación de la universidad

Communication and Social Change in the Origins of Modern Political Ideologies

El artículo analiza los vínculos entre el cambio social y la comunicación pública en el pensamiento de John Arbuthnot, Thomas Jefferson y Karl Marx, autores que se encuentran en el origen de las tres ideologías políticas características de la modernidad: conservadora, reformista y revolucionaria, respectivamente. Se pone de relieve su posición frente al cambio, su proyecto de sociedad y los actores sociales protagonistas, todo ello en relación con el papel que otorgan a la comunicación en dichos procesos.This article analyses the links between social change and public communication in the thought of John Arbuthnot, Thomas Jefferson and Karl Marx, authors who are at the origin of the three political ideologies characteristic of modernity: conservative, reformist and revolutionary, respectively. It highlights their stance on change, their social project and the leading social actors they identify, all in relation to the role granted to communication in these processes

Distributed leadership in improvement processes from participatory action research

El presente estudio parte de la idea de escuela incluida, como centro educativo inclusivo, intercultural y vinculado a su territorio como agente de cambio. A partir de las características de este modelo escolar, nos planteamos los procesos de mejora desde una perspectiva comunitaria y participativa, por lo que trabajamos de forma colaborativa con dos escuelas, una en la Comunidad Valenciana y otra en la Comunidad de Madrid, que han iniciado un proceso de investigación acción participativa para problematizar sus prácticas curriculares y reformularlas entre todos los colectivos de la comunidad educativa, a través de dinámicas de Diagnóstico Social Participativo. El objetivo es documentar este proceso para aprender sobre las estrategias y capacidad de liderazgo distribuido que se desarrollan, sacar conclusiones para el propio contexto y abrir nuevos interrogantes que permitan continuar con el proceso siempre inconcluso de mejora desde la inclusión y la participación democrática. Los primeros resultados apuntan la necesidad de escuchar todas las voces y generar espacios y tiempos de reflexión y debate. El sentido de pertenencia y la conciencia de comunidad son esenciales para el desarrollo de un liderazgo distribuido. El proceso de IAP es muy complejo y a menudo contradictorioThis study is based on the idea of included school, as an inclusive, intercultural educational centre that is linked to the territory as an agent of change. Based on the characteristics of this school model, we consider improvement processes from a communitarian and participatory perspective. Consequently, we work with two schools collaboratively, one in the Valencian Community and the other in the Community of Madrid. Both of them have started a process of participatory action research to problematize its curricular practices and reformulate them working together the whole educational community, through dynamics of Participatory Social Diagnosis. The aim is to document this process in order to learn about the strategies of distributed leadership that are developed, drawing conclusions for the school context and open new questions that allow us to continue with the always unending process of improvement from inclusion and democratic participation. The first results point out the need to listen to all voices and generate spaces and times for reflection and debate. The sense of belonging and community awareness are essential for the development of distributed leadership. The IAP process is very complex and often contradictory in natur

Leading the curriculum towards social change: distributed leadership and the inclusive school

This study forms part of a participatory action research project, undertaken in four Spanish schools, analysing the planning and development of educational practices that link each school with its territory through community participation processes. The article describes how school leadership can help to develop participatory processes with the educational community in order to foster such practices. Multiple case study methodology was used. Information was gathered and analysed with qualitative research tools, including participant observation, interviews, discussion groups, documentary analysis and the researchers’ field diaries. Results show the importance and influence of the management team’s leadership style in facilitating and developing such practices, and reveal a need to move towards collaborative leadership models. The study also highlighted the importance of ensuring that families and students assume responsibility

Functional diversity of macrophyte communities within and between Pyrenean lakes

Submersed vegetation is a common feature in about 70% Pyrene an high mountain (>1500 m a.s.l.) lakes. Isoetids and soft-water elodeids are common elements of this underw ater flora and can form distinct vegetation units (i.e. patches of vegetation dominated by different species) within complex mosaics of vegetation in shallow waters (<7 m). Since is oetids exert a strong influence on sediment biogeochemistry due to high radial oxygen loss, we examined the small scale characteristics of the lake environment (water and sediment) associated to vegetation patches in order to ascertain potential functional differences among them. To do so, we characterised the species composition and biomass of the main vegetation units from 11 lakes, defined plant communities based on biomass data, and then related each community with sediment properties (redox and dissolved nutrient concentration in the pore water) and water nutrient concentration within plant canopy. We also characterised lake water and sediment in areas without vegetation as a reference. A total of twenty-one vegetation units were identified, ranging from one to five per lake. A cluster analysis on biomass species composition suggested seven different macrophyte communities that were named after the most dominant species:Nitella sp.,Potamogeton praelongus, Myriophyllum alterniflorum, Sparganium angustifolium , Isoetes echinospora,Isoetes lacustris and Carex rostrata . Coupling between macrophyte communities and their immediate environment (overlying water and sediment) was manifested mainly as variation in sediment redox conditions and the dominant form of inorganic nitrogen in pore-water. These effects depended on the specific compositi on of the community, and on the allocation between above- and belowground biomass, and could be predicted with a model relating the average and standard deviation of sediment redox potential from 0 down to -20 cm, across macrophyte communities. Differences in pore-water total dissolved phosphorus were related to the trophic state of the lakes. There was no correlation between sediment and water column dissolved nutrients. However, nitrate concentrations tended to be lower in the water overlaying isoetid communities, in apparent contradiction to the patterns of dissolved nitrates in the pore-water. These tendencies were robust even when comparing the water over laying communities within the same lake, thus pointing towards a potential effect of isoetids in reducing dissolved nitrogen in the lakes

Recovery of submersed vegetation in a high mountain oligotrophic soft-water lake over two decades after impoundment

Recovery of the submersed vegetation is a target for the management of soft-water shallow lakes if they are to meet water quality and biodiversity standards. Knowledge of patterns of macrophyte space occupation and time to recovery is poor and mostly restricted to free floating species or riparian vegetation. Here we use pre- and post-impact monitoring data over 20 years showing the evolution of submersed aquatic vegetation of lake Baciver (Pyrenees), and develop models to infer space occupation and time to recovery. We use pre-impact macrophyte distribution in relation to bathymetry-derived data to fit logistic models to further simulate lake equilibrium scenarios. Depth and slope were found to be the best predictors, and models suggested that an assemblage dominated by Sparganium angustifolium was, at time of this study, over 95% of its potential distribution area. A dense, newly grown monospecific Isoetes lacustris population occupied <10% of its potential area and model projections suggest that it will take decades to recover. An I. lacustris residual population remains below the estimated depth threshold for survival and is bound to disappear. The lake appears to evolve towards a new steady-state where the current lake hypsography promotes the expansion of algae (Nitella sp.) over angiosperms