Flood impact on the Spanish Mediterranean coast since 1960 based on the prevailing synoptic patterns.

In a changing climate and in social context, tools and databases with high spatiotemporal resolution are needed for increasing the knowledge on the relationship between meteorological events and flood impacts; hence, analysis of high-resolution spatiotemporal databases with detailed information on the frequency, intensity, and impact of floods is necessary. However, the methodological nature of flood databases hinders relating specific flood events to the weather events that cause them; hence, methodologies for classifying flood cases according to the synoptic patterns that generate them are also necessary. Knowing which synoptic patterns are likely to generate risk situations allows for a probabilistic approach with high spatial resolution regarding the timing of occurrence, affected area, and expected damage from floods. To achieve these objectives, we use the SMC-Flood Database, a high-resolution spatiotemporal flood database covering the 1960-2015 period for all municipalities along the Spanish Mediterranean coast. To relate floods with the synoptic conditions that generated them, we used a multivariate analysis method on the corrected daily anomalies of the surface pressure fields, 850 hPa temperature, and 500 hPa geopotential height, all of which were obtained from the 20th Century Reanalysis Project V2. Results show that 12 atmospheric synoptic patterns can statistically explain the 3608 flood cases that occurred in the study area between 1960 and 2015. These flood cases were classified into 847 atmospherically induced flood events. These results reduce the uncertainty during decision making because of the classification of potential risk situations. The Mediterranean Basin is a region where floods have serious socioeconomic impacts; hence, this work helps improving prevention measures and providing information for policymakers, mainly regarding land use planning and early warning systems.

Effect of organophosphorus pesticides in juveniles of Litopenaeus vannamei: alteration of glycogen, triglycerides, and proteins.

The presence of pesticides has recently been reported in shrimp farms adjacent to agricultural areas on the east coast of the Gulf of California. This study assessed the possible effect of organophosphorus pesticides in the coastal environment of Sinaloa, México, using the white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei as a bioindicator since their presence, abundance or behavior indicate some process or state of the system in which they live. Sublethal bioassays were performed on shrimps in intermolt state using commercial brands of organophosphorus pesticides, chlorpyrifos (0.0015 mg l-1), diazinon (0.0120 mg l-1), methamidophos (1.207 mg l-1), azinphos-methyl (0.0101 mg l-1), and methyl parathion (0.0075 mg l-1) were tested. Results showed reductions in glycogen, triglycerides, and total protein concentrations in shrimp muscle, except for the diazinon treatments, in which an increase in triglyceride level was detected. The observed alterations in the three cellular components were probably due to the metabolic compensation mechanism of the shrimp in reaction to the stress produced by organophosphorus pesticides, which act as endocrine disruptors. The establishment of continuous environmental monitoring programs of the coastal zone of Northwestern Mexico is strongly recommended.

Feeding and filtration rates of zooplankton (rotifers and cladocerans) fed toxic cyanobacterium (Microcystis aeruginosa).

Microcystis aeruginosa is generally dominant in many Mexican freshwater ecosystems interacting with zooplankton species. Hence, feeding and filtration rates were quantified for three cladoceran (Daphnia pulex, Moina micrura and Ceriodaphnia dubia) and three rotifer species (Brachionus calyciflorus, Brachionus rubens and Plationus patulus) using sonicated M. aeruginosa alone or mixed with Scenedesmus acutus in different proportions (25, 50 and 75%, based on cell density), offering a combined initial density of 100,000 cells·ml(-1). All the three cladoceran species ingested M. aeruginosa (100-300 cells ind(-1) min(-1)) when fed exclusively with cyanobacterium. When green alga offered as exclusive diet, the number of cells ingested by the tested cladocerans varied from 80 to 400 cells ind(-1) min(-1). Compared to cladocerans, rotifers in general consumed much lower quantity (< 200 cells ind(-1) min(-1)) of M. aeruginosa and S. acutus. The filtration rate for Daphnia pulex was inversely related to the proportion of green alga in the diet. For other tested cladocerans, no such clear trend was evident. In mixed treatments containing M. aeruginosa, the filtration rate of Daphnia was highest (about 220 µl ind(-1) min(-1)) when the medium contained 75% of S. acutus. Among the rotifer species, P. patulus filtered highest volume (100 µl ind(-1) min(-1) from mixed diets containing higher proportions (50 or 75%) of M. aeruginosa. Thus, there were species-specific differences in the filtration and feeding rates of zooplankton when offered mixed diets of green algae and toxic cyanobacteria. These probably explain the coexistence of different zooplankton species in Microcystis-dominant waterbodies.