Limnology in Mexico

Abstract

The document herewith deals with the geography, geology, and climate of the Mexican territory as the basis to further explain the development of Limnology as a science in this country. An early knowledge started with the Aztecs, with evidence of practical solutions for a life within a lake. After the conquest of the American territories by the Spaniards, the exploration of the new territories provided the main source of information relative to natural resources. In 1938, the Mexican government established the Estación Limnológica de Pátzcuaro and the pioneer studies appeared under the name of Spanish scientists not only here but also at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the Instituto Politécnico Nacional. During the 1970s, the participation of Mexican limnologists began and the attempt to build-up a conceptual framework in its own for lakes, reservoirs, and rivers. This article outlines the main limnological characteristics of Mexican water bodies, highlights the peculiarities of a transitional zone between the tropics and subtropics, and describes the government structure for management and administration. A fast development in this area of knowledge got underway with the creation of the Asociación Mexicana de Limnología in 1997 and the collaboration with international counterparts.

Population growth potential of rotifers from a high altitude eutrophic waterbody, Madín reservoir (State of Mexico, Mexico): The importance of seasonal sampling

“…For example, in high altitude regions of central Mexico, water temperature ranges from <10 to >24°C (Alcocer and Bernal-Brooks, 2010). In Site 1, we observed near neutral pH (6.9), but it was as high as 10 in other stations.…”

“…However, almost all of them are based on large (e.g., lake Chapala) and historically (Lake Xochimilco), culturally (e.g., lake Paztcuaro) or for drinking water (e.g., Valle de Bravo) important waterbodies (De la Lanza and García, 2002). These studies form a basis for further research, but do not necessarily become a typical representation of small but perennial waterbodies (Alcocer and Bernal-Brooks, 2010). Here, we studied the monthly variations of rotifers from the Madín Reservoir during the period 2016-2017.…”

Stage Monitoring in Turbid Reservoirs with an Inclined Terrestrial Near-Infrared Lidar

“…This is roughly equivalent to a Secchi depth smaller than ≈ 0.5 m and to a suspended sediment concentration (SSC) over ≈ 100 g/m 3 (e.g., [17]). In this respect, the present study suggests that the proposed technique can be applied to less (but still very) turbid water (Secchi depth up to ≈ 1.0 m), in which case it could be applied to reservoirs having the following characteristics: dam embankments or lakes surrounded by erodible soils (e.g., [18,19]), shallow lakes exposed to wind (e.g., [20,21]), hypereutrophic or brown-water eutrophic lakes (e.g., [22,23]) and wastewater reservoirs. At least 10% of the reservoirs and lakes over the world are very to extremely turbid (Secchi depth < 1.0 m) [23].…”

Ostrácodos no-marinos de lagos en el altiplano este-centro de México

“…The dry climate in the region (425 to 656mm mean annual precipitation) is a product of the orographic barrier of the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Cofre de Perote-Citlatépetl volcanic chain . Maar lakes in the Axalapascos region are of special interest for limnologists and biologists (Ramírez-García, & Vázquez-Gutiérrez, 1989;Alcocer, & Bernal-Brooks, 2010), because they have a high level of endemism (Barluenga, Stölting, Salzburger, Muschick, & Meyer, 2006;Alcántara-Rodríguez, Ciros-Pérez, Ortega-Mayagoitia, Serrania-Soto, & Piedra-Ibarra, 2012). These lakes are also important, because of their potential use as high resolution paleoclimatic records (Caballero et al, 2003;Juárez, 2005).…”