Presentación

The notions ‘conservative’ and ‘progressive’ in social sciences and public opinion have given rise to two distinctive political ideologies. In this issue we deal, starting from Kant, with different historical senses of the notions of conservative and progressive in the social sciences as applied to the present: Buchanan’s constitutional economy, Popper’s open society, Rawl’s theory of justice and Ortega y Gasset’s philosophical conception of social and political life

Connecting distinct realms along multiple dimensions: A meta-ecosystem resilience perspective

Resilience research is central to confront the sustainability challenges to ecosystems and human societies in a rapidly changing world. Given that social-ecological problems span the entire Earth system, there is a critical need for resilience models that account for the connectivity across intricately linked ecosystems (i.e., freshwater, marine, terrestrial, atmosphere). We present a resilience perspective of meta-ecosystems that are connected through the flow of biota, matter and energy within and across aquatic and terrestrial realms, and the atmosphere. We demonstrate ecological resilience sensu Holling using aquatic-terrestrial linkages and riparian ecosystems more generally. A discussion of applications in riparian ecology and meta-ecosystem research (e.g., resilience quantification, panarchy, meta-ecosystem boundary delineations, spatial regime migration, including early warning indications) concludes the paper. Understanding meta-ecosystem resilience may have potential to support decision making for natural resource management (scenario planning, risk and vulnerability assessments)

Diversity of patterns and processes in rivers of eastern Andalusia

We document the outstanding diversity of fluvial ecosystems in eastern Andalusia, mostly attributable to the high environmental heterogeneity of the region. The area's altitudinal and climatic gradients are among the most pronounced in the Iberian Peninsula, and together with a concomitant high variability in geological characteristics and human impacts, result in a noticeable heterogeneity of the rivers' thermal regime, discharge regime and chemical properties. Fluvial communities respond to this spatial heterogeneity with marked qualitative and quantitative changes among rivers and along the upstream-downstream continuum, generally exhibiting a great decrease in taxonomic and functional diversity as human impacts increase towards the lower reaches. Discharge fluctuations add heterogeneity on the temporal scale and are an additional essential determinant of biological diversity. Climatic, geological and hydrological characteristics profoundly affect the structure of the riparian vegetation, which in turn strongly conditions the community structure of benthic macroinvertebrates and organic matter turnover in fluvial ecosystems.Se ilustra la notable diversidad de ecosistemas fluviales de Andalucía Oriental, atribuible a la gran heterogeneidad ambiental de esta región. Gradientes altitudinales y climáticos de los más pronunciados de la península Ibérica, concomitantes con una gran variedad de condiciones litológicas y de impactos humanos, acentúan en esta región la heterogeneidad térmica, de caudal y calidad química de los ríos. Las comunidades fluviales responden a esta heterogeneidad espacial con profundos cambios cualitativos y cuantitativos, y generalmente con una disminución de la diversidad taxonómica y funcional en respuesta al incremento de impactos humanos hacia los tramos bajos de los ríos. Las fluctuaciones de caudal suman heterogeneidad en la dimensión tiempo, y constituyen un determinante esencial de los patrones de diversidad biológica. La estructura de la vegetación de ribera responde con grandes cambios a las condiciones climáticas, litológicas e hidrológicas, y ésta a su vez condiciona sustancialmente el marco trófico del ecosistema fluvial

Fair scans of the seesaw. Consequences for predictions on LFV processes

Usual analyses based on scans of the seesaw parameter-space can be biassed since they do not cover in a fair way the complete parameter-space. More precisely, we show that in the common "R-parametrization", many acceptable R-matrices, compatible with the perturbativity of Yukawa couplings, are normally disregarded from the beginning, which produces biasses in the results. We give a straightforward procedure to scan the space of complex R-matrices in a complete way, giving a very simple rule to incorporate the perturbativity requirement as a condition for the entries of the R-matrix, something not considered before. As a relevant application of this, we show that the extended believe that BR(mu --> e, gamma) in supersymmetric seesaw models depends strongly on the value of theta_13 is an "optical effect" produced by such biassed scans, and does not hold after a careful analytical and numerical study. When the complete scan is done, BR(mu --> e, gamma) gets very insensitive to theta_13. Moreover, the values of the branching ratio are typically larger than those quoted in the literature, due to the large number of acceptable points in the parameter-space which were not considered before. Including (unflavoured) leptogenesis does not introduce any further dependence on theta_13, although decreases the typical value of BR(mu --> e, gamma).Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

Elevated temperature may reduce functional but not taxonomic diversity of fungal assemblages on decomposing leaf litter in streams

First published: 15 October 2021Mounting evidence points to a linkage between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (B-EF). Global drivers, such as warming and nutrient enrichment, can alter species richness and composition of aquatic fungal assemblages associated with leaf-litter decomposition, a key ecosystem process in headwater streams. However, effects of biodiversity changes on ecosystem functions might be countered by the presumed high functional redundancy of fungal species. Here, we examined how environmental variables and leaf-litter traits (based on leaf chemistry) affect taxonomic and functional alpha- and beta-diversity of fungal decomposers. We analysed taxonomic diversity (DNA-fingerprinting profiles) and functional diversity (community-level physiological profiles) of fungal communities in four leaf-litter species from four subregions differing in stream-water characteristics and riparian vegetation. We hypothesized that increasing stream-water temperature and nutrients would alter taxonomic diversity more than functional diversity due to the functional redundancy among aquatic fungi. Contrary to our expectations, fungal taxonomic diversity varied little with stream-water characteristics across subregions, and instead taxon replacement occurred. Overall taxonomic beta-diversity was fourfold higher than functional diversity, suggesting a high degree of functional redundancy among aquatic fungi. Elevated temperature appeared to boost assemblage uniqueness by increasing beta-diversity while the increase in nutrient concentrations appeared to homogenize fungal assemblages. Functional richness showed a negative relationship with temperature. Nonetheless, a positive relationship between leaf-litter decomposition and functional richness suggests higher carbon use efficiency of fungal communities in cold waters.Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, Grant/Award Number: EST16/00771 and FPU13/01021; Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Grant/Award Number: CGL2012-39635; 2014-2020 FEDER Operative Program Andalusia, Grant/Award Number: FEDER-UAL18-RNM-B006-B; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology; COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI), Grant/Award Number: PTDC/ CTA-AMB/31245/201

Hydrographic variability (1994-2020) in the Ría de Vigo and adjacent shelf (NW Iberia)

The Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC) carries out monthly oceanographic samplings at across-shelf sections off the northern Spanish coast under the monitoring program RADIALES (https://www.seriestemporales-ieo.net/). This is a multidisciplinary marine research effort addressing long-term variability issues at the ecosystem level (Bode et al., 2015; Valdés et al., 2002). Currently, the monitoring program includes 5 perpendicular coastal transects in Northern Spain: Santander, Gijón, Cudillero, A Coruña and Vigo. Focusing on the section located in the Ría de Vigo and adjacent shelf, we have analysed a 27-year time series (1994 - 2020) of temperature and salinity obtained through CTD profiles in three stations, two inside the Ría (~30 and ~40 m depth) and one in the mid-shelf (~90 m depth). This study summarizes the hydrographic variability in the region through the construction of a local climatology. In addition, long-term trends and interannual changes in seasonality are examined. The results show a change in the salinity regime in medium depth waters in 2013, although not in temperature. Near the surface, the temperature undergoes a negative shift from 2016, in correspondence with the entry of the AMO into a new negative phase

Connexin 43 plays an important role in the molecular mechanisms implicated in ischemic preconditioning

Comunicaciones a congreso

Cadomian metabasites of the Eastern Pyrenees revisited

This study presents a new geochemical, petrological, and geochronological U-Pb dataset from Ediacaran metabasites of the Canigó and Cap de Creus massifs, Eastern Pyrenees. The rocks are composed of calcic amphibole + plagioclase + chlorite + epidote ± quartz plus titanite + apatite + ilmenite ± biotite ± rutile as accessory phases and show relict igneous textures. Peak pressure-temperature determinations share common conditions, ranging 452-482ºC and 5.2-7.7kbar. These intermediate P-T conditions suggest Barrovian-type metamorphism, most likely related to a collisional setting. The metabasites correspond to evolved basaltic rocks (Mg#<0.55) with moderate TiO2 content (up to 2.08wt.%) and relatively low Cr (43-416ppm). The rocks are moderately enriched in light rare earth elements (LREE) relative to heavy rare earth elements (HREE) (average (La/Lu)n of 2.7) and the N-MORB normalized multi-element patterns show negative slopes, with prominent negative Nb anomalies ((Nb/La)NMORB=0.33-0.78). These variations are akin to island arc tholeiites generated in back-arc basins and to other metabasites described in the Eastern Pyrenees with a putative Ediacaran age, and they differ from the Ordovician tholeiitic metabasites from the Canigó massif, which derived from a contaminated E-MORB source. The positive ƐNd(T) values (0.82-3.05) of the studied metabasites preclude a notable contribution from an older continental crust. U-Pb dating (LA-ICP-MS) of one chlorite-rich schist sample in contact with the metabasites from the Canigó massif yielded a main peak at ca. 632Ma. We argue that the Cadomian metabasites from the Pyrenees formed during back-arc extension in the continental margin of Gondwana and were later affected by (probably early Variscan) medium-P metamorphism before the HT-LP metamorphism classically described in the Pyrenees