An experimental study to assess resistance and resilience strategies of freshwater diatoms to cope with drying in Mediterranean temporary rivers
Temporary rivers are aquatic ecosystems that alternate periods of water flow with dry periods. Diatoms are a group of unicellular microalgae with a high colonizing ability, but little is known about their responses to drying. We carried out different resist- ance and resilience experiments to evalua...
| Autores: | , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Oviedo (UNIOVI) |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/224256 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/224256 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Algues d'aigua dolça Ecologia fluvial Freshwater algae Stream ecology |
| Sumario: | Temporary rivers are aquatic ecosystems that alternate periods of water flow with dry periods. Diatoms are a group of unicellular microalgae with a high colonizing ability, but little is known about their responses to drying. We carried out different resist- ance and resilience experiments to evaluate temporal and spatial dispersal capacity of diatoms during the dry period. The resistance was tested experimen- tally by rehydrating dried biofilms and sediments from temporary rivers, whereas resilience was tested by installing artificial mesocosms along a dry river section. Disconnected pools were also sampled to evaluate their propagule emission capacity. In turn, dogs from the area were sampled to test potential zoochory dispersal capacity. In the resistance experi- ment, we found living diatoms in all the rehydrated sediments but not in biofilms. Diatoms with mobility traits, high ecological plasticity, and resistance spores presented high, along with typical soil diatoms. In the resilience experiment, all mesocosms hosted liv- ing diatoms, which were low-profile, pioneering, and small species. Diatoms found in the mesocosms were also common in the disconnected pools, underscoring the potential role of the latter as a propagule emission zone. Dogs’ paws also had living diatoms, which evi- dences that wild fauna could potentially act as passive diatom vectors. |
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