Although Mediterranean wetlands were recognized as biodiversity hotspots, most of them are nowadays threatened by human activities that have led to habitat loss and degradation. A total of 36 wetlands were monitored to assess species richness of branchiopods and copepods by using accumulation curves and non-parametric estimators. Three different types of wetlands were identified: i) temporary freshwaters-subsaline-hyposaline (TFSH); ii) permanent freshwaters-subsaline-hyposaline (PFSH); and iii) mesosaline-hypersaline (MH) wetlands (including temporary and permanent ones). A total of 60 species were recorded; they belong to seven different orders. A large number (37%) of rare species (present in only one wetland) were found while only 11% of the total species were common (i.e., present in more than 20% of wetlands). Species richness was related to wetland typology, with the largest number of species observed in TFSH, followed by MH and by PFSH wetlands. We have found that rare species are mainly present in temporary wetlands, the most vulnerable to hydrological changes; hence, these types of wetlands represent unique sites deserving conservation.Key words: Biodiversity, conservation, Mediterranean wetlands, non-parametric estimators, zooplankton. METHODS Study wetlandsIn the present study, we selected a total of 36 endorheic wetlands (Fig. 1) widely differing in their limnological characteristics (Tab. 1). The term endorheic reflects the closed nature (no outlet) of the drainage systems of wetlands (Dantín, 1929;1940;Allan et al., 1995). In particular the studied wetlands differ in altitude (265 to 1582 m asl) and in morphological characteristics: maximum area ranging from 0.2 to 46 ha and maximum depth from 10 to 456 cm (Ortega et al., 2003. All these wetlands are located in the Alto Guadalquivir, a representative region of the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain), with a Mediterranean continental climate, a Mediterranean type of climate with continental tendencies (Capel Molina, 1981;Díaz de la Guardia et al., 2003). The three main morphologic and geologic units that exist in Andalusia are present in the study area: Sierra Morena siliceous mountains at the north, the Guadalquivir depression with olitostromics deposits and Triassic rocks in the centre and Baetic calcareous mountains in the south and east (Vera, 1994). The valley of the Guadalquivir River represents the most important geographical entity of this district, being a large proportion of this area which is characterized by a semiarid climate with a mean annual precipitation around 400 mm, although aridity decreases from the Guadalquivir valley to mountain areas located in the north, south and east of this valley (AEMET, 2011). SamplingAccordingly to the high inter-annual variability that characterized Mediterranean wetlands, zooplankton samples (branchiopods and copepods) were collected seasonally during a multi-year sampling (1998-2002 and 2010, representing a great range of weather conditions that affect Mediterranean wetlands) to obtain c...

Habitat fragmentation and alteration have been described as the major factors relating to the decline observed in several amphibian species. In Spain, these processes are mainly associated with the large agricultural land area, the widespread use of toxic substances, and the agricultural practices used. All these aggressions affect wetlands and their watersheds, which are essential aquatic systems for many amphibian species. In an effort to discover where conservation and specific action plans could be more necessary, this study relates the amphibian richness in 28 representative Mediterranean wetlands to their characteristics and the activities carried out on their watershed. The required information considers diverse wetland variables. Our results show that watershed habitat heterogeneity is significantly positively correlated with amphibian richness, while the percentage of the watershed area devoted to olive cultivation is negatively correlated with it. The results allow us to classify wetlands according to their importance for amphibian conservation. Our results also show that 80% of the studied wetlands need specific action plans. Especially, more sustainable cultivation methods are required considering drastic changes in current agricultural practices. Finally, our data provides a baseline to understand future alterations due to agricultural practices.

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Key-words: sediment, trophic state, wetlands, bioproduction numberEutrophication is one of the major problems affecting water quality of inland waters. Therefore trophic state evaluation is essential for the conservation, the management and the application of possible future restoration measures. The main aim of this work was to assess the effect of different land uses in the drainage basins of the Mediterranean wetlands on the bioproduction number (BPN), an indicator of the wetland trophic state. For this, we selected seven wetlands with different areal extension of agricultural land in their catchment area. The data obtained from BPN were compared with those obtained from the trophic state index (TSI). The results showed that there is a discrepancy between TSI TP , TSI Chl a and BPN values in our wetlands, and that the application of the BPN for estimating trophic state in Mediterranean wetlands has clear limitations when the organic matter content in surface sediments is low. This occurs in wetlands with a great proportion of drainage area covered by intensive agricultural uses, which causes high soil losses by accelerated erosion. As a conclusion, not only high organic matter contents, as it has been stated in previous literature, but also low organic matter contents limit the validity of BPN.