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- Freshwater large branchiopods in Portugal: an update of their distributionPublication . Machado, Margarida; Cancela Da Fonseca, Luís; Cristo, MargaridaThis study is based largely on 20 years of field and laboratory work, with surveys conducted by the authors and some other researchers. During this period several studies dealing with freshwater large branchiopods (FLB) were carried out, resulting in scientific publications and project reports. The distribution of FLB in Portugal was presented in 2 international scientific meetings, but apart from a first paper by Vianna-Fernandes in 1951 and an update done by ourselves in 1999 concerning the southwest Portugal, no other information has been published. Therefore, this work intends to bring up to date the known distribution of this faunal group in freshwater temporary systems. This is pertinent because of the recent revision of the taxon Triops cancriformis on the basis of genetic analyses. The Portuguese populations were assigned either to the Portuguese endemism T. vicentinus, or to T. baeticus, the more widely spread Iberian species, both belonging to the T. mauritanicus complex. Furthermore, a new species, Tanymastigites lusitanica was found and described in Portugal. More recently, a male free (or, at least, a strongly female-biased) metapopulation of T cancriformis was discovered in a rice field in the central region of Portugal. Here we present an updated status of FLB species of Portuguese temporary lentic systems and their distribution, plotted on a UTM (10 x 10 km) grid. A total of 505 sites (temporary ponds or assemblages of closely located, not individual temporary pools) have been surveyed (455 by us). In 241 of these (47.7%) at least one species of FLB was found on at least one occasion. Of the 505 sites, only 87 are located north of the Tagus River and of these, at least one species was found in only 17 (19.5%). South of the Tagus River (Alentejo and Algarve), 53.6% of the sites were inhabited by at least one species. This list comprises 7 anostracans, 2 spinicaudatans and 4 notostracans, including 3 species endemic to the Iberian Peninsula and another 3 to Portugal.
- Defining the importance of landscape metrics for large branchiopod biodiversity and conservation: the case of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic IslandsPublication . Sala, Jordi; Gascon, Stephanie; Cunillera-Montcusi, David; Alonso, Miguel; Amat, Francisco; Cancela Da Fonseca, Luís; Cristo, M.; Florencio, Margarita; Garcia-de-Lomas, Juan; Machado, Margarida; Rosa Miracle, Maria; Miro, Alexandre; Luis Perez-Bote, Jose; Lluis Pretus, Joan; Prunier, Florent; Ripoll, Javier; Rueda, Juan; Sahuquillo, Maria; Serrano, Laura; Ventura, Marc; Verdiell-Cubedo, David; Boix, DaniThe deficiency in the distributional data of invertebrate taxa is one of the major impediments acting on the bias towards the low awareness of its conservation status. The present study sets a basic framework to understand the large branchiopods distribution in the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands. Since the extensive surveys performed in the late 1980s, no more studies existed updating the information for the whole studied area. The present study fills the gap, gathering together all available information on large branchiopods distribution since 1995, and analysing the effect of human population density and several landscape characteristics on their distribution, taking into consideration different spatial scales (100 m, 1 km and 10 km). In overall, 28 large branchiopod taxa (17 anostracans, 7 notostracans and 4 spinicaudatans) are known to occur in the area. Approximately 30% of the sites hosted multiple species, with a maximum of 6 species. Significant positive co-occurring species pairs were found clustered together, forming 4 different associations of large branchiopod species. In general, species clustered in the same group showed similar responses to analysed landscape characteristics, usually showing a better fit at higher spatial scales.