Urban effluents affect the invasive bivalve Limnoperna fortunei (Dunker 1857) fitness in a large Pampasic river (Río Negro, Uruguay).

Invasive alien species (IAS) exert a negative impact on native ecosystems and on various human activities. Limnoperna fortunei (Dunker 1857), a sessile mytilid introduced from Asia in the Río de la Plata, demonstrates a high dispersal capacity, growing over other organisms and artificial structures. Understanding its behavior is crucial for developing appropriate control and mitigating its detrimental effects.

Ecological integrity assessment of streams in the light of natural ecoregions and anthropic land use.

Reference conditions for river bioassessment should be established inside ecoregions. Our objectives were (1) to implement a bioassessment methodology for Uruguayan prairie streams regarding ecoregions and land use and (2) to assess the ecological integrity of streams of the Río Negro basin in Uruguay. Due to logistical constraints, sampling was divided into two collection trips: one including the upper basin in fall 2015 and the other including the lower basin in spring 2016.

Predicting cyanobacterial biovolume from water temperature and conductivity using a Bayesian compound Poisson-Gamma model.

Eutrophication and climate change scenarios engender the need to develop good predictive models for harmful cyanobacterial blooms (CyanoHABs). Nevertheless, modeling cyanobacterial biomass is a challenging task due to strongly skewed distributions that include many absences as well as extreme values (dense blooms). Most modeling approaches alter the natural distribution of the data by splitting them into zeros (absences) and positive values, assuming that different processes underlie these two components.

Agriculture and elevation are the main factors for Pampasic stream habitat and water quality.

Streams of the Pampasic plain in Southeastern South America are ecosystems affected by both water pollution and habitat alteration mainly due to agricultural activity. Water quality is influenced by the quality of habitats and both depend on land use and watershed morphology. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between the variables of four factors: (1) the morphology of the watershed, (2) land use in the watershed, (3) river habitat, and (4) water quality of wadeable streams in Uruguay, as well as to determine the most representative variables to quantify such factors.