Angela Taboada

Craticula scientiacivica Moyón & S. Blanco, sp. nov ., is a new diatom species discovered during the CiDIA-micro citizen science project at the University of León, Spain, which evaluates the environmental impact of biodegradable packaging on periphytic diatom communities. This initiative involved secondary school students and teachers in sampling experimental aquaria inoculated with natural benthic algae from Laguna Sentiz (León, Spain), revealing the novel taxon in a control treatment under alkaline conditions (pH 9, low nutrients). Valves are linear-lanceolate, panduriform, with concave margins and protracted rostrate apices, measuring 32.0–35.7 μm long and 3.9–6.3 μm wide. Striae are uniseriate, 18–19 in 10 μm, and weakly radiate, with circular central areolae (37–46 in 10 μm) transitioning to elliptical forms apically. The raphe is filiform, with expanded, unilaterally deflected proximal endings and terminal hooks extending onto the mantle. Teratological forms were found in 26% of individuals, featuring deformed outlines, misaligned raphe, and aberrant copulae, possibly linked to culture conditions despite the absence of chemical stressors. Morphologically, C. scientiacivica aligns with Craticula (Stauroneidaceae) via its shallow mantle, apically elongated external foramina, and deflected central raphe endings, but its unique panduriform shape and dimensions distinguish it from congeners. Molecular data are pending, but its occurrence in a single experimental tank suggests aerial propagule dispersal. This discovery underscores the role of citizen science in uncovering hidden biodiversity, bridging education and taxonomy in diatom research.

Esta Tesis Doctoral fue desarrollada en el Grupo de Investigación de Ecología Aplicada y Teledetección (GEAT) de la Universidad de León, centrado en el estudio de los incendios forestales y sus efectos sobre los ecosistemas; en concreto en cómo los incendios forestales y la gestión post-incendio afectan a los ecosistemas mediterráneos dominados por Pinus pinaster. El objetivo de esta Tesis fue evaluar cómo los incendios recurrentes y la gestión post-incendio afectan la capacidad de estos pinares para proporcionar servicios ecosistémicos a medio y largo plazo. Se analizó especialmente el servicio de producción micológica de especies comestibles de valor comercial, junto con servicios de regulación y soporte (descomposición de hojarasca y el reciclado de nutrientes) considerando el papel del legado biológico de la madera remanente. El estudio se realizó en la Sierra del Teleno (León, España), en tres zonas afectadas por incendios severos en 1998, 2005 y 2012, con y sin tratamientos post-incendio.

We aimed to analyze the relationship between fire regime attributes and the post-fire greenness recovery of fire-prone pine ecosystems over the short (2-year) and medium (5-year) term after a large wildfire, using both a single and a combined fire regime attribute approach. We characterized the spatial (fire size), temporal (number of fires, fire recurrence, and return interval), and magnitude (burn severity of the last fire) fire regime attributes throughout a 40-year period with a long-time series of Landsat imagery and ancillary data. The burn severity of the last fire was measured by the dNBR (difference of the Normalized Burn Ratio) spectral index, and classified according to the ground reference values of the CBI (Composite Burn Index). Post-fire greenness recovery was obtained through the difference of the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) between pre- and post-fire Landsat scenes. The relationship between fire regime attributes (single attributes: fire recurrence, fire return interval, and burn severity; combined attributes: fire recurrence-burn severity and fire return interval-burn severity) and post-fire greenness recovery was evaluated using linear models. The results indicated that all the single and combined attributes significantly affected greenness recovery. The single attribute approach showed that high recurrence, short return interval and low severity situations had the highest vegetation greenness recovery. The combined attribute approach allowed us to identify a wider variety of post-fire greenness recovery situations than the single attribute one. Over the short term, high recurrence as well as short return interval scenarios showed the best post-fire greenness recovery independently of burn severity, while over the medium term, high recurrence combined with low severity was the most recovered scenario. This novel combined attribute approach (temporal plus magnitude) could be of great value to forest managers in the development of post-fire restoration strategies to promote vegetation recovery in fire-prone pine ecosystems in the Mediterranean Basin under complex fire regime scenarios.