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CONACAN

Conservación de la biodiversidad acuática en los Parques Nacionales de las Islas Canarias en un contexto de estrés hídrico y especies invasoras

Freshwater biodiversity is disappearing at an accelerated rate as a result of human activities. This situation is especially alarming in regions of the planet where water scarcity derived from human demand and climate change pose a risk to a large number of species. This can even lead to the loss of species that have not yet been described. In this context, protected areas play a fundamental role as reservoirs of biodiversity, which needs to be properly studied to guarantee its preservation. This project focuses on the aquatic biodiversity of three National Parks of the Canary Islands archipelago (Teide, Garajonay and Caldera de Taburiente), which is especially interesting for three reasons: 1) it is poorly described due to the lack of inventories and studies scientists; 2) it includes a large number of endemisms; and 3) it presents a great vulnerability to water scarcity. The objectives of the project are to:
1) Hydrologically characterize the main surface water bodies;
2) Generate basic information on the taxonomic and genetic diversity of the communities of aquatic insects and diatoms;
3) Evaluate the current status of aquatic invasive species;
4) Determine the vulnerability of the species to climate change; and
5) Identify priority areas for the conservation of biodiversity and for the management of invasive species in a context of water stress and climate change.
Among other things, the CONACAN project will serve to design a sampling network for aquatic biodiversity within the parks studied, to train park personnel in its study and conservation, and to propose conservation
measures for biodiversity and the management of invasive species.

Start Date: 13/04/2022 – End Date: 12/04/2026

Project Leader: Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles Iglesias

Researchers: Raúl Acosta Rivas , Julie Crabot

Support: Nieves López-Rodríguez

Funding: National Project

https://conacuana.es/

LIFE RESQUE ALPYR

Restoration of aquatic ecosystems of protected areas from the Alps and Pyrenees

LIFE RESQUE ALPYR aims at recovering mountain aquatic habitats improving conservation of several target habitats/species in four Nature 2000 sites from the alpine biogeographical regions of the Pyrenees (NE Spain) and the Alps (NW Italy).
In the Alps and the Pyrenees, specific aquatic and water-related species and habitats (lakes, bogs, mires and meadows) of mountain areas have an ‘unfavourable/inadequate’ conservation status or a decreasing status trend. This is because they have been subjected to long-standing and significant anthropogenic alterations, such as the proliferation of invasive fish species, overgrazing and trampling by livestock. More recently, mires afforestation and land abandonment have emerged as additional conservation issues in mountain areas.

LIFE programme (LIFE20 NAT/ES/000369)
Coordinator: Ventura Oller, Marc (CEAB-CSIC)

Start Date: 01/01/2022 – End Date: 31/12/2026

Researchers: Joan Grimalt Obrador , Raimon Martínez Prats , Pilar Fernández Ramón , Barend L. van Drooge

Funding: European Project

CoPerMix

European training network on control prediction and learning in mixing processes

The CoPeRMix network brings together a collection of experts at the European scale from academia and industry, who have all adopted new angles of attack to the problem of mixing according to their needs and fields of application, in order to foster the emergence of a unified viewpoint, through intensive collaboration between different schools of thought and methods. This effort builds up on existing collaborations between several participants, and lectures or courses delivered by some of us in various university curricula in their own institution, and abroad. More precisely, this training network is the emanation of the “Mixing Days” organized by the consortium on a yearly basis (Marseille in 2016, Rennes in 2017, Barcelona in 2018 and Brussels in 2019), which have been the opportunity to conceive and share a new methodology: the lamellar description of mixing.
It consists in viewing a mixture as a set of elongated lamellae and sheets and understanding how they are stretched and dispersed by the stirring flow. This first step provides the necessary information to address the stirring/molecular diffusion coupling, leading to the complete statistical description of the mixing process i.e. the full concentration distribution. This disruptive vision has prompted new numerical (Diffusive Strip Method) and experimental methods. They offer an unprecedented opportunity of accurately describe Stirring protocols which is the ground to understanding and model- ling Mixing and its Impact in a diversity of fields. This lamellar description of mixing provides a consistent and invertible theoretical framework giving us also the opportunity to Learn from mixed scalar fields.

Very promising outcomes are expected as the CoPerMix programme unites leading academic and industrial partners with a broad expertise in the fundamentals and applications of mixing in a very wide range of fields.

Start Date: 01/01/2021 – End Date: 31/12/2025

Project Leader: Marco Dentz , Juan José Hidalgo González

Support: Francesco Leone

Funding: European Project

https://www.copermix-itn.eu/