At first glance, a river without water appears to be a lifeless ecosystem: the riverbed is dry and only a few isolated pools remain. However, beneath the stones, among the sediments or in these pools that retain water, there is intense biological activity. Understanding this hidden biodiversity in dry rivers and disconnected pools is the aim of DRY-Guadalmed, a project that seeks to transform the way in which the ecological status of Mediterranean temporary rivers is assessed during the dry season.
The project is funded by the State Research Agency (AEI) through the 2021 Knowledge Generation Projects call and is co-funded by the European Union. It is led by researchers Núria Bonada, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) at the University of Barcelona; Núria Cid, from the Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA-La Ràpita); and María del Mar Sánchez-Montoya, from the Complutense University of Madrid.
DRY-Guadalmed will develop new tools to assess the ecological status of Mediterranean temporary rivers and improve their water management, in a context of climate change and increasingly frequent droughts. The ultimate goal is to transfer all this knowledge to public authorities so that they can incorporate new assessment methodologies into their water resource management.
A dry river is still a living ecosystem
"A dry river is not a dead river." With this powerful statement, Professor Núria Bonada sums up the central idea behind a project that challenges a widely held perception, both among the general public and, historically, within environmental assessment systems.
