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Root-surface phosphatase activities were measured in natural and semi-natural shrublands across an European climatic gradient of temperature and rainfall including Wales (WL), Denmark (DK), Netherlands (NL), Hungary (HU), Italy (IT) and Spain (SP). In each site a warming experiment was conducted since 1999 or 2001 by means of passive night-time warming using reflective curtains that covered the vegetation at night. The treatments increased yearly average soil temperatures around 0.8 o C in most of sites. Root-surface phosphatase activity values ranged between 56 mg PNP g -1 h -1 in IT and 3.5 mg PNP g -1 h -1 in HU. Warming had no effect on root-surface phosphatase acti vity across the sites and only in Hungary a slight increase was detected. Plants at Mediterranean sites (IT, SP) showed a higher root-surface phosphatase activity than plants at temperate sites (WL, NL, DK). We suggest it might be an adaptation of plant species evolved under Mediterranean climate that allows them a) to compensate in wet period for the decrease in phosphatase activity, and thus P uptake, during drought periods, and/or b) to benefit from soluble organic P flushes following the frequent drying-rewetting episodes experienced by soils in Mediterranean ecosystems This research was funded by EU under the VULCAN project (Contract EVK2-CT-2000-00094). We also thank partial funding by Spanish Government grants REN2003-04871/GLO and CGL2004- 01402/BOS, Catalan government grant SGR2005-00312, the EC Integrated FP6 ALARM (GOCE-CT-2003-506675) Project, and a Fundación BBVA 2004 grant. Marc Estiarte acknowledges support from “Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia” (Ramón y Cajal contract) 5 páginas, 1 figura, 1 tabla. Peer reviewed

The North Atlantic eddy-driven jet (EDJ) is an essential component of the Euro-Atlantic atmospheric circulation. It has been typically described in terms of latitude and intensity but this is not enough to fully characterize its variability and complex EDJ configurations. Here, we present a set of daily parameters of the EDJ based on low-tropospheric zonal wind data for the 1948–2020 period. They describe the intensity, sharpness, location, edges, tilt and other zonal asymmetries of the EDJ, therefore dissecting its structure beyond the latitudinal regimes. This allows for assessments of specific EDJ aspects and a multi-parametric treatment of EDJ configurations in a manageable way. Overall, variations in EDJ parameters reflect distinctive patterns of eddy forcing and wave breaking, with anticyclonic eddies playing a major role in shaping the EDJ structure. A multimodal behavior of the EDJ is only detected in latitude, which largely influences the longitudinal position of the EDJ. Other aspects of the EDJ are less constrained by the latitude and display a variety of configurations. Four multi-parametric states (northern, central, tilted and split EDJs) provide a satisfactory description of recurrent patterns of the EDJ. They participate in meridional migrations of the EDJ, but yield less dramatic transitions than viewed from the latitudinal perspective. Finally, the EDJ parameters help to better understand the EDJ influence on European climate. In many regions, latitude and intensity contain limited information on near-surface anomalies, and their signals can be masked by the additional effect of other EDJ parameters.

Simulation processes have been carried out to assess the mass and energy balances of the pyrolysis process in an auger reactor pilot plant. Forest woodchips were fed into the reactor with 6.2% of moisture content. Previous experiments showed that the highest bio-oil yield (59%) was achieved at 773 K and applying solid residence times longer than 2 minutes. These conditions were modelled using Aspen HYSYS simulation software and results showed that the process was not thermally autonomous. In order to scaling up the pilot plant and convert it into a mobile plant, a novel design was conceived to process 1500 kg/h of biomass (30% moisture content). It incorporates a drying unit and a char combustor. Simulation results showed that 12% of the char should be burnt to maintain positive the energy balance. The process is energy-independent when moisture content is lower than 20%. Further sensitivity analyses were performed studying different moisture contents, the efficiency of the drying stage and using air as carrier gas instead of nitrogen. This novel design will produce bio-oil as an energy vector with reduced transport costs since it will be able to process biomass from remote locations, which will contribute to sustainable forest management. Proceedings of the 18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 3-7 May 2010, Lyon, France, pp. 1047-1051

The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, Vol. 18 No. 3 (2011): Special Issue: Agriculture and Climate Change This article does not have an abstract.

This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry MINECO and the European Regional Development Fund under the projects PRI-PIBAR-2011-1 and ENE2013-48816-C5-5-R, and the Government of Aragon (DGA) and the European Social Fund (DGA-ESF-T66 Grupo Consolidado). Work presented at the meeting IBERNAM-CMC2. November 20-21, 2014, Naturgas Energía, Bilbao, Spain Peer reviewed

[EN] It is recognized that the most important impacts of climate change on society involve weather related disasters, in particular floods and droughts (IPCC, 2001). In this study, the relationships climate-floods are analysed through the study of instrumental, palaeoflood and documentary flood series. In Atlantic basins, the generation, duration and magnitude of floods are very much associated with changes in winter rainfall. Palaeoflood and documentary flood records show greater frequency of ordinary and extraordinary events during the initial and final phases of cold periods such as the Little Ice Age (AD 1550-1850) and the cold and wet phase around 2,650 years ago (van Geel et al., 1998). In the instrumental period (1910 to the present), Atlantic rivers underwent a decline in the frequency of extraordinary floods, although the magnitude of the most catastrophic floods has remained the same, despite the flood control effect of reservoirs. This upward trend of hydrological variability is expected to continue in the forthcoming decades if we take into account the intensification of the positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In Mediterranean basins, past flood series indicate that extreme floods occur during periods of high irregularity of both seasonal and annual rainfall. In recent periods (the seventies and eighties) an increase has been observed in intense rainfall episodes, some of which have caused extraordinary floods. These recent floods reached maximum discharges above those recorded in gauging stations in the first half of the 20th Century (prior to the construction of reservoirs). In this sense, existing data indicate that the temperature rise could increase the irregularity of the flood and drought regime and cause the generation of flash floods in Mediterranean basins and inland of the Iberian Peninsula. Este trabajo se presentó el 3 de mayo de 2005 en Santander dentro de las jornadas sobre “Cambio Climático y Riesgos Asociados”, organizadas por el Prof. Antonio Cendrero (Universidad de Cantabria) y el Prof. Mateo Gutiérrez Elorza (Universidad de Zaragoza) por parte de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, y el patrocinio de la Obra Social de Caja Cantabria y el Ateneo de Santander. El autor agradece la invitación y la financiación recibida para participar en dichas jornadas. El presente trabajo se ha beneficiado de la financiación del proyecto Europeo WADE “FloodWater recharge of alluvial Aquifers in Dryland Environments – WADE (contract no. GOCE-CT-2003-506680), y de los proyectos CICYT, PALEOREC “Infiltración en lechos fluviales y recarga de acuíferos relacionadas con avenidas y paleocrecidas en ríos efímeros” (Proyecto CGL2005-01977/HID) y PALEOCAP “Incorporación de datos de paleocrecidas e inundaciones históricas al cálculo de la avenida de diseño de presas” (Proyecto REN2001-1633/RIES). La presentación y el texto se ha basado en el informe realizado por Benito et al. (2005) en el capítulo “Riesgo de crecidas fluviales (12.1) del informe “Evaluación preliminar de los impactos en España por efecto del Cambio Climático” publicadas por el Ministerio de Medio Ambiente (Moreno, 2005). [ES] En este trabajo se analiza la relación clima-crecidas a partir del estudio de series instrumentales, paleocrecidas y de crecidas documentales. Los registros de paleocrecidas y de crecidas documentales muestran una mayor frecuencia de crecidas durante los estadios iniciales y finales de periodos fríos como la Pequeña Edad del Hielo (1550- 1850 AD) o la pulsación de carácter frío y húmedo ocurrida hace 2650 años. En el periodo instrumental (1910 hasta la actualidad), los ríos atlánticos han experimentado una disminución de la frecuencia de las crecidas ordinarias, aunque la magnitud de las crecidas catastróficas se han mantenido e incluso aumentado a pesar del efecto laminador de los embalses. En las cuencas mediterráneas las series de crecidas del pasado indican que las avenidas extremas se han producido durante periodos de elevada irregularidad de la precipitación tanto estacional como anual. En periodos recientes, los datos existentes apuntan a que el incremento de la temperatura puede aumentar la irregularidad del régimen de crecidas y sequías y promover la generación de crecidas relámpago en las cuencas mediterráneas y del interior de la Península Ibérica. Peer reviewed

Photoprotection is a crucial ability that allows plants to live under stressful environments. Plants develop structural and chemical mechanisms of photoprotection to preserve their photosystems from light excess. We studied the photo-protective strategy and its physiological consequences in tara (Caesalpinia spinosa), a legume tree endemic of South America, showing the adaptative trait of closing leaflets under stressful conditions. Tara has a significant ecological and economic value thriving in many different ecosystems from semiarid shrub-lands to agricultural areas and dry or fog forests. Resumen de la comunicación presentada en el congreso que se cita- Cartel del congreso y resumen Asociación Española de Ecología Terrestre (AEET) - Sociedade Portuguesa de Ecologia (SPECO) Peer reviewed

The small pelagic fish (SPF, i.e. Scomber colias, Trachurus spp, Sardina pilchardus and Sardinella spp) in the Canary Islands archipelago (Spain) are mainly targeted by artisanal purse-seiners, whose monitoring is included in the EU Data Collection Framework. The waters in the archipelago (located in the coastal transition zone of the Canary Current Eastern Boundary Upwelling System) are monitored since the late nineties by a hydrographic section (RAPROCAN) designed to study the temporal variability of the eastern subtropical gyre. Official fish landings, reported by the Government since 2007, are annually analyzed to assess the stock status of the SPF in the Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF) context. In this study we analyze the relationship between the SPF abundance assumed from official landings and the oceanographic parameters. Using the sea temperature in the 200-800 m layer, we obtained a statistically significant correlation with the SPF landings (ρ-Pearson=0.454, p<0.03) when we considered one-year time-lag. This layer is less affected by atmosphere variations and probably influence on the success of the SPF spawning and recruitment processes. In fact, recruitment to the fishery (i.e. individuals attain legal catchable sizes) approximately occurs for one-year-old individuals, and explaining the one-year time-lag. Keeping the monitoring systems is crucial to understand, foreseen and anticipate potential variations in the fishery resources and to aim the sustainable exploitation of the SPF populations, even more challenging in the current Climate Change scenario. BAses de Datos y Estadística de las pesquerías Artesanales de Canarias: Evaluación, Interacciones ambientales y Modelización de los Stocks Estudio y observación de la variabilidad climática en el Atlántico Centrooriental, giro subtropical. Radial profunda de Canarias INTEMARES: Impactos de actividades pesqueras en LICs RN2000 INTEMARES_A4 PACA-BADE RAPROCAN FEMP