Geographic location and phylogeny are the main determinants of the size of the geographical range in aquatic beetles

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Why some species are widespread while others are very restricted geographically is one of the most basic questions in biology, although it remains largely unanswered. This is particularly the case for groups of closely related species, which often display large differences in the size of the geographical range despite sharing many other factors due to their common phylogenetic inheritance. We used ten lineages of aquatic Coleoptera from the western Palearctic to test in a comparative framework a broad set of possible determinants of range size: species' age, differences in ecological tolerance, dispersal ability and geographic location.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When all factors were combined in multiple regression models between 60-98% of the variance was explained by geographic location and phylogenetic signal. Maximum latitudinal and longitudinal limits were positively correlated with range size, with species at the most northern latitudes and eastern longitudes displaying the largest ranges. In lineages with lotic and lentic species, the lentic (better dispersers) display larger distributional ranges than the lotic species (worse dispersers). The size of the geographical range was also positively correlated with the extent of the biomes in which the species is found, but we did not find evidence of a clear relationship between range size and age of the species.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings show that range size of a species is shaped by an interplay of geographic and ecological factors, with a phylogenetic component affecting both of them. The understanding of the factors that determine the size and geographical location of the distributional range of species is fundamental to the study of the origin and assemblage of the current biota. Our results show that for this purpose the most relevant data may be the phylogenetic history of the species and its geographical location.</p

Effects of temporal bias on the assessment of an ecological perturbation: a case study of the Prestige oil spill

The impacts of unpredictable ecological perturbations are often assessed via measurements of environmental change only after the event has occurred. Temporal series of satellite images provide a cost-effective way to gather information before ecological perturbations occur. However, in previous studies, the disturbances have neither been always centred in time in the series of the focal environmental variable nor has the relevance of the temporal coverage been explicitly tested through factorial designs. In this study, we manipulated the temporal coverage and the position of the disturbance event in the temporal series to examine whether and how the assessment is affected. Specifically, we tested the effect of the Prestige oil spill on monthly sea chlorophyll concentration and net primary productivity along the north-western Spanish coast. We designed planned comparisons through factorial analyses to test two alternative hypotheses: (1) the spill has negative consequences on phytoplankton activity and/or abundance due to physiological constraints or (2) it has positive consequences on phytoplankton abundance as a result of changes in biotic interactions. The relevance of the statistical effects was critically dependent on the temporal coverage and the position of the spill event in the temporal series. Short periods (three years) were insufficient to cover the range of variability even if the disturbance was centred in the time series. Similarly, results from longer time series (up to eight years) in which the event was temporally biased (at the beginning of the time series) also differed from those that were centred in the entire time window. Temporal series for the study of ecological impacts should be as long as necessary to encompass the temporal variability of the study systems (up to nine years in our study case), and the disturbance event should be centred in the time series to reduce potential spurious effects of temporal autocorrelation. However, our results revealed that each one of these requirements alone was not sufficient to encompass all of the natural variability, and thus both requirements should be met. For impact assessments we encourage the use of unbiased satellite data series to complement in situ measurements.PA was supported by a 'Ramón y Cajal' contract (RYC-2011-07670) and by the project CGL2014-56416-P, and DS-F by a 'Juan de la Cierva' contract (JCI-2011-10529), all from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. SV was supported by a postdoctoral contract from the Universidad de Alcalá.Peer reviewe

Effects of climate change on the distribution of threatened invertebrates in a Mediterranean hotspot

1. The effects of climate change may constitute a major threat factor for endemic and threatened species of invertebrates. A particularly dramatic case can be found in the Iberian Peninsula, because of its high rate of species diversity and endemism. We aim to evaluate the effects of climate change on the distribution of 36 endangered and endemic species of invertebrates within the Iberian Peninsula using species distribution models. 2. We used an ensemble species distribution modeling framework to estimate the species potential distributions under current and future (2050 and 2070) climatic conditions for two different areas: the whole Iberian Peninsula and the current species ranges. We assessed species vulnerability to climate change by calculating three complementary indexes: Change in Suitable Area, Persistence in Suitable Area and Turnover in Suitable Area. 3. Annual Mean Precipitation was the variable that contributed most to the climatic models. We categorized 25 species as “losers” because they will experience a reduction in their total suitable area under future climatic conditions, six species were categorized as “winners” and six showed contradictory results. 4. Climate change will have several effects on species by changing their suitable distributions and may affect their persistence. Species with narrow distributions associated to mountain ranges will experience the worst future projected conditions, while arid adapted species are expected to expand their distributions. Factors assessing the vulnerability of endemic and endangered species can be taken into account to develop strategies that mitigate the negative effects of climate change.Universidad de Sevilla-V Plan Propio de InvestigaciónMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España-PID2019-108895GB-I00Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades y Agencia Estatal de Investigación de España-MCIN/AEI/10.13039/50110001103

Tiempos de posverdad: ¿qué verdades son posibles en política?

Este artículo analiza la popularizada idea de “posverdad” como un régimen de discurso en el que la naturaleza verdadera o falsa de los hechos deviene irrelevante en favor de otras dimensiones emocionales o políticas. Con este propósito, se contextualiza la cuestión como parte del problema, perenne en la historia de las ideas políticas, para delimitar las posibilidades de verdad en los discursos políticos. Se rescatan algunas reflexiones clave al respecto, como la crítica socrática al sofismo, la “objetividad” posible en Ciencias Sociales, la diferencia entre hechos y juicios de valor o las peculiares cualidades del pensamiento político. Además, se proponen diversas causas que han podido contribuir a los recientes avances hacia la posverdad: la radicalización del conflicto social, la expansión del principio igualitario democrático, la revolución tecnológica digital o el impulso neoliberal al individualismo desentendido y a la invasión de la racionalidad instrumental en el mundo de la vida

Isabel Wences (coord.), La corrupción. Lecturas desde el pensamiento político contemporáneo

Este artículo reseña: Isabel Wences (coord.), La corrupción. Lecturas desde el pensamiento político contemporáneo. (2022) Comares Editorial, Granada, 216 pp

Political representation and democracy. Contributions from the Theory of Representation in the last ten years

En esta nota de investigación se presenta cómo ha sido conceptualizada la relación entre democracia y representación por un grupo de autores que han destacado por sus aportaciones a la Teoría de la Representación Política en los últimos diez años. De esta forma se descubre un doble movimiento hacia el ensanchamiento del concepto de representación. Por un lado, se afirma que la democracia, incluso en sus versiones más participativas, deliberativas o incluso directas requiere de la representación política sin que ello suponga una necesaria pérdida de democraticidad. Por otro, se le resta al concepto las exigencias normativas consideradas intrínsecas hasta ahora por la mayoría de autores para acomodar situaciones tanto democráticas como no democráticas. Por último, exploraré las condiciones que estos autores consideran necesarias para poder hablar de representación democrática.This investigation note aims to present the relationship between democracy and representation according to the accounts of a group of authors who have become renown along the last ten years for their contributions to the Theory of Political Representation. A double movement of enlargement of the concept of representation can be observed: on the one hand, democracy is said to always require representation, even in its participatory/deliberative/direct versions, without any loss of democraticity in that respect. On the other, the normative elements considered intrinsic to the concept until now by most authors are left aside in order to accommodate both non-democratic and democratic situations. To conclude, I explore the conditions these authors consider necessary to achieve democratic representation.Depto. de Historia, Teorías y Geografías PolíticasFac. de Ciencias Políticas y SociologíaTRUEpu

All static spherically symmetric anisotropic solutions for general relativistic polytropes

In this work, we develop an algorithm to construct all static spherically symmetric anisotropic solutions for general relativistic polytropes. To this end, we follow the strategy presented by K. Lake in Phys. Rev. D67 (2003) 104015 to obtain all static spherically symmetric perfect fluid solutions and then extended by L. Herrera el al., Phys. Rev. D77 (2008) 027502 to the interesting case of locally anisotropic fluids. The formalism here developed requires the knowledge of only one function to generate all possible solutions. To illustrate the method, we obtain formal expressions for the generating functions of known polytopic solutions. Additionally, we obtain the generating function for both the conformally flat and class 1 polytropes.P. B. is funded by the Beatriz Galindo contract BEAGAL 18/00207 (Spain)

Áreas prioritarias de conservación en la cuenca del río Segura utilizando los coleópteros acuáticos como indicadores

Con este trabajo se pretende identificar las áreas prioritarias de conservación en la Cuenca del Río Segura, utilizando los coleópteros acuáticos como herramienta. Se ha empleado el índice denominado Interés de Conservación (IC) (Millán 1991), que atiende a criterios de riqueza y rareza de especies, y es una modificación del índice Rarity Quality Factor (Eyre & Rushton, 1989). Este índice se ha aplicado a la comunidad de Adephaga acuáticos y al total de coleópteros acuáticos, tanto por estaciones (248 y 377) como por cuadrículas UTM de 10 x 10 Km. (116 cuadrículas, aproximadamente el 50% de la superficie total). En función de los valores del IC se han clasificado las estaciones y cuadrículas según su interés de conservación y se han identificado las áreas prioritarias de conservación para la Cuenca del Río Segura. Por último, se ha elaborado una cartografía superponiendo las áreas prioritarias y los Espacios Naturales Protegidos, para determinar el grado de solapamiento existente y detectar vacíos en conservación. Los resultados más destacables son: 1.- Se ha registrado un total de 230 especies de coleópteros acuáticos, aproximadamente el 36 % de la riqueza de la Península Ibérica, de las cuales 32 son endemismos ibéricos, 4 de ellos exclusivos para la Cuenca del Río Segura (Hydraena mecai, H. mandfredjaechi, Limnebius millani y Ochthebius albacetinus). 2.- Dos estaciones, Nacimiento del Río Madera y Chorros del Río Mundo, aparecen siempre dentro de las 10 más valoradas, por lo que merecen una especial atención cara a su conservación. 3. Los Adephaga acuáticos pueden reflejar condiciones ambientales similares al conjunto de los coleópteros acuáticos, constituyendo un buen indicador de biodiversidad. 4. La mayoría de las áreas con interés de conservación máximo se localizan en tramos de cabecera, en el noroeste de la cuenca, con predominio de hábitats tipo como arroyos de montaña. 5. La coincidencia entre las áreas prioritarias de conservación y los ENPs ("Espacios Naturales Protegidos") es de aproximadamente el 67 %, por lo tanto, existe un vacío que representa el 33 % de la superficie considerada como de interés de conservación máximo.This work tries to identify the areas with the highest interest for conservation in the Segura River basin using the aquatic coleopterans as a tool. The "Interés de Conservación" (Conservation Interest) index (IC) (Millán, 1991) was used, which regards to species richness and rarity. This index is a modification of the Rarity Quality Factor (Eyre & Rushton, 1989). This index has been applied to the community of aquatic Adephaga and to all aquatic coleopterans, both using sampled sites (248 and 377 for Adephaga and all Coleoptera respectively) and U.T.M 10 x 10 km squares (116 squares, about 50% of the total basin area). On the basis of the IC values we have classified the sampled localities and squares according to their conservation interest, and we have identified the priority areas for conservation in the Segura River Basin. Lastly, a map has been elaborated of the priority areas determined by this study and the protected areas to detect possible gaps in conservation. The most important results are: 1. A total of 230 species of aquatic Coleoptera have been recorded, about 36% of the total richness of the Iberian Peninsula. 32 of them are Iberian endemics, and 4 are endemics exclusive of the Segura River Basin (Hydraena mecai, H. mandfredjaechi, Limnebius millani and Ochthebius albacetinus). Two sampled localities, Nacimiento del Río Madera and Chorros del Río Mundo, always appear among the 10 highest scores. These places need more attention for better conservation. 3. The aquatic Adephaga were indicators of similar environmental conditions than the total community of aquatic Coleoptera, being a good indicator of total biodiversity. 4. Most of the places with the highest conservation interest are located in the source area of the rivers, in the northwest of the Segura Basin, with mountain streams as a dominant habitat type. 5. The overlapping between high-priority areas for conservation and Protected Natural Spaces("PNSs") was about 67%, revealing a gap that includes 33% of the area classified as of highest conservational interest in this work