The Physical Framework and Historic Human Influences in the Ebro River

Romaní, Anna M.; Sabater, Sergi; Muñoz, Isabel

doi:10.1007/698_2010_66

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…The climatic differences determine discharge regime (Romaní et al, 2011) and they vary from a pluvio-oceanic regime in the Cantabrian and western Pyrenees tributaries changing to a pluvionival regime eastward in the Pyrenees, whereas the tributaries from the south show a pluvionival regime in the western Iberian System and a pluvial Mediterranean with continental influences eastwards. The longest rivers with higher discharges are those coming from the Pyrenees (e.g.…”

Section: Regional Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

River channel adjustment of several river reaches on Ebro basin

Besne

Ibisate

2015

Quaternary International

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Section: Regional Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

River channel adjustment of several river reaches on Ebro basin

Besne

Ibisate

2015

Quaternary International

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“…The water biogeochemical characteristics are highly influenced by anthropogenic activities. The main effects are those due to water discharge regulation (i.e., the construction of large reservoirs) and agriculture (determining increases in nitrate concentration) (Romaní et al, 2010). The intense use of water throughout the basin (Boithias et al, 2014) puts the Ebro River under strong pressure particularly in the most downstream sections during dry annual periods, when irrigation is widespread.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The association of the trends with sampling points affected by large loads of synthetic fertilizer (decreasing trend) and manure (increasing trend) indicates that nitrate trends were possibly promoted by the application of agricultural practices that, in the last 3 decades, can be associated with a more rational fertilizer application (Lassaletta et al, 2012). Also, the implementation of sewage treatment schemes in the basin can be partly invoked to justify this decrease (Romaní et al, 2010). The dominant role of nitrate concentration trends in the more upstream locations of the basin (mostly included in Cluster 3) suggest that the impact of human activities upstream sampling points were higher in headwater and small streams, and that these water courses and corresponding sub-basins were the most vulnerable to increasing nitrate trends.…”

Section: Nutrient Trends and Local Management Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection and attribution of global change effects on river nutrient dynamics in a large Mediterranean basin

2015

Self Cite

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Attributing changes in river water quality to specific factors is challenging because multiple factors act at different temporal and spatial scales, and it often requires examining long-term series of continuous data. Data consistency is sometimes hindered by the lack of observations of relevant water quality variables and the low and uneven sampling frequency that characterizes many water quality monitoring schemes. Nitrate and dissolved phosphate concentration time series from 50 sampling stations across a large Mediterranean river basin were analyzed to disentangle the role of hydrology, land-use practices, and global climatic phenomena on the observed nutrient patterns, with the final aim of understanding how the different aspects of global change affected nutrient dynamics in the basin. Dynamic factor analysis (DFA) provided the methodological framework to extract underlying common patterns in nutrient time series with missing observations. Using complementary methods such as frequency and trend analyses, we sought to further characterize the common patterns and identify the drivers behind their variability across time and space. Seasonal and other cyclic patterns were identified as well as trends of increase or decrease of nutrient concentration in particular areas of the basin. Overall, the impact of global change, which includes both climate change and anthropogenic impacts, on the dynamics of nitrate concentration across the study basin was found to be a multifaceted process including regional and global factors, such as climatic oscillations and agricultural irrigation practices, whereas impacts on phosphate concentration seemed to depend more on local impacts, such as urban and industrial activities, and less on large-scale factors.Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.

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“…The average annual precipitation in the 1920-2002 period was 622 mm, varying from over 950 mm in the west-central Pyrenees to less than 500 mm in the arid interior (Romaní et al, 2010) (2001-2005 average) into the Ebro delta as a seventh-order river, after 910 km of main channel (Fig. 1a).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many examples of the particular features of Mediterranean ecosystems exist in the scientific literature within different domains, e.g. plant physiology (González-Fernández et al, 2010), N biogeochemistry (Breiner et al, 2007), limnological and watershed processes (Álvarez-Cobelas et al, 2005;Barceló and Sabater, 2010), impacts of agricultural practices (Zalidis et al, 2002) or N deposition effects (Ochoa-Hueso et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatialized N budgets in a large agricultural Mediterranean watershed: high loading and low transfer

et al. 2012

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Abstract. Despite the particular management practices and climate characteristics of the Mediterranean regions, the literature dealing with N budgets in large catchments subjected to Mediterranean conditions is scarce. The present study aims to deepen our knowledge on the N cycle within the Ebro River Basin (NE Spain) by means of two different approaches: (1) calculating a global N budget in the Ebro River Basin and (2) calculating a series of detailed regional budgets at higher geographical resolution. N inputs and outputs were spatialized by creating a map based on the most detailed information available. Fluvial and atmospheric N export was estimated together with N retention. The Ebro River Basin annually receives a relatively high amount of new N (5118 kg N km −2 y −1 ), mostly in the form of synthetic fertilizers (50 %). Although it is a highly productive catchment, the net N input as food and feed import is also high (33 %). Only 8 % of this N is finally exported to the delta zone. Several territorial units characterized by different predominant uses (rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture and pastures) have differentiated N dynamics. However, due to the high density of irrigation channels and reservoirs that characterize Mediterranean catchments, N retention is very high in all of them (median value, 91 %). These results indicate that problems of eutrophication due to N delivery in the coastal area may not be too severe but that high N retention values may instead lead to problems within the catchment, such as pollution of aquifers and rivers, as well as high atmospheric emissions. The most promising management measures are those devoted to reducing agricultural surpluses through a better balanced N fertilization.

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The Physical Framework and Historic Human Influences in the Ebro River

Cited by 15 publications

References 57 publications

River channel adjustment of several river reaches on Ebro basin

River channel adjustment of several river reaches on Ebro basin

Detection and attribution of global change effects on river nutrient dynamics in a large Mediterranean basin

Spatialized N budgets in a large agricultural Mediterranean watershed: high loading and low transfer

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