Conservation and Management of Isolated Pools in Temporary Rivers
Temporary rivers are characterized by shifting habitats between flowing, isolated pools, and dry phases. Despite the fact that temporary rivers are currently receiving increasing attention by researchers and managers, the isolated pools phase has been largely disregarded. However, isolated pools in temporary rivers are transitional habitats of major ecological relevance as they support aquatic ecosystems during no-flow periods, and can act as refugees for maintaining local and regional freshwater biodiversity. Pool characteristics such as surface water permanence and size, presence of predators, local physicochemical conditions, time since disconnection from the river flow, or distance to other freshwater habitats challenge a comprehensive understanding of the ecology of these habitats, and challenge ecological quality assessments and conservation practices in temporary rivers. In this paper, we aim at providing a characterization of isolated pools from a hydrological, geomorphological, physicochemical, biogeochemical, and biological point of view as a framework to better conceptualize, conserve, and manage these habitats ; This paper was supported by the by the MECODISPER project (CTM2017-89295-P) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO)—Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the TRivers-P project (ACA210/18/00022) funded by the Catalan Water Agency, and the RHYSOTTO project (PID2019-106583RB-I00) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. N.B. and D.v.S. are Serra Húnter Fellows. N.C. was supported by the French research program Make Our Planet Great Again (MOPGA). D.v.S. was supported by the project PURIFY (ACRP10-PURIFY-KR17AC0K13643) funded by the Austrian Government. The FEHM (Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management) research group is funded by the "Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca" (AGAUR) at the "Generalitat de Catalunya" (2017SGR1643). ; Peer reviewed