Saúl Blanco | University of León - Universidad de León (original) (raw)

Books by Saúl Blanco

High-resolution images of phytoplankton cells such as diatoms or desmids, which are useful for mo... more High-resolution images of phytoplankton cells such as diatoms or desmids, which are useful for monitoring water quality, can now be provided by digital microscopes, facilitating the automated analysis and identification of specimens. Conventional approaches are based on optical microscopy; however, manual image analysis is impractical due to the huge diversity of this group of microalgae and its great morphological plasticity. As such, there is a need for automated recognition techniques for diagnostic tools (e.g. environmental monitoring networks, early warning systems) to improve the management of water resources and decision-making processes. Describing the entire workflow of a bioindicator system, from capture, analysis and identification to the determination of quality indices, this book provides insights into the current state-of-the-art in automatic identification systems in microscopy.

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Las diatomeas son un grupo de algas microsc{\'{o}}picas extremadamente diversificado que viven en... more Las diatomeas son un grupo de algas microsc{\'{o}}picas extremadamente diversificado que viven en los ecosistemas acu{\'{a}}ticos de todo el mundo, a pesar de lo cual los estudios sobre estos organismos en la regi{\'{o}}n del Estrecho son escasos. Esta monograf{\'{i}}a presenta el primer estudio sistem{\'{a}}tico sobre las diatomeas de Ceuta, describiendo m{\'{a}}s de 250 especies encontradas durante muestreos efectuados en ambientes tanto dulceacu{\'{i}}colas como costeros. Adem{\'{a}}s de su inter{\'{e}}s taxon{\'{o}}mico y biogeogr{\'{a}}fico, las diatomeas ceut{\'{i}}es se revelan como unos excelentes bioindicadores de la calidad del agua en los ecosistemas que habitan.

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This catalogue aims to compile the information available on continental (recent and fossil) diato... more This catalogue aims to compile the information available on continental
(recent and fossil) diatoms in Portugal, including the Archipelagos of
Madeira and Azores, since the early beginnings of the diatom studies in
Portugal at the middle of the XIXth century until 2010.
The diatom taxa are presented following an updated taxonomy;
nevertheless, in order to provide a historical overview, the nomenclatural
synonyms found in the literature from Portugal are also included. For the
1381 taxa the following information is presented: basionym, nomenclatural
synonyms, citations (with the precise indication of the sampling sites),
frequent taxonomical synonyms and a distribution map.

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The authors present a taxonomic study of benthic diatoms collected from coastal rocks in seve... more The authors present a taxonomic study of benthic diatoms collected from coastal rocks in seven northern Mediterranean sites (Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey) in spring of 2010. An iconographic catalogue of high-quality SEM and light microscopic images, plus detailed taxonomic, nomenclatural and bibliographic information, are provided as a practical reference for further taxonomic and floristic studies on 91 plates. 120 representative diatom taxa, among them several poorly known species, selected from 23 samples, are described in terms of their abundance. The authors provide detailed information on the type material of each diatom species, a list of synonyms, a comparison of morphometric data provided in the literature (in tables) and a series of iconographic SEM-images which illustrate the taxon’s morphological variability, plus an exhaustive list of references. Nomenclature, taxonomy and systematic position of the described taxa are updated. Eight taxa are described as new to science and another seven are nomenclaturally recombined. Eight taxa are new records for the Mediterranean Sea and for five taxa Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images are presented for the first time.

An exhaustive reference list and indices of taxa conclude this volume and make it a valuable source of information for biologists working on benthic diatoms in general, not only of the Mediterranean region.

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En esta obra se recogen los 200 taxones de diatomeas (pertenecientes a 60 géneros distintos) más ... more En esta obra se recogen los 200 taxones de diatomeas (pertenecientes a 60 géneros distintos) más importantes de las identificadas en más de 600 muestras de epiliton fluvial recogidas durante campañas de muestreo efectuadas entre 2003 y 2007 en la parte española de la cuenca, dentro de los programas de seguimiento del estado de las masas de agua superficiales de la Confederación Hidrográfica del Duero. Esta selección atiende a un doble criterio, que valora la importancia de cada taxón dentro del inventario general de la cuenca, de forma que se han considerado las especies más abundantes y/o más ampliamente distribuidas en la zona de estudio; así como, por su interés florístico o biogeográfico, se incluyen algunos taxones adicionales (especies exóticas, poco conocidas o que representan novedades para la Península). Para cada especie se ofrece la siguiente información: una descripción morfológica y autoecológica (parte II), un mapa de distribución en la cuenca del Duero (parte III) y una serie de fotografías en microscopía óptica de campo claro donde se ilustra la variabilidad morfológica de cada taxón, reunidas en 36 láminas (parte II).

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This thesis is based on the following papers: • Blanco S, Bécares E, Fernández-Aláez M 2008. Effi... more This thesis is based on the following papers: • Blanco S, Bécares E, Fernández-Aláez M 2008. Efficiency of top-down control depends on nutrient concentration in a shallow lake: a mesocosm study. Mar Freshwat Res 59: 922-930. • Blanco S, Romo S, Villena MJ, 2004. Experimental study on the diet of mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) under different ecological conditions in a shallow lake. Int Rev Hydrobiol 89: 250-262. • Blanco S, Romo S, Villena MJ, Martínez S 2003. Fish communities and food web interactions in some shallow Mediterranean lakes. Hydrobiologia 506: 473-480 • Blanco S, Romo R 2006. Ictiofauna del Lago de la Albufera de Valencia: evolución histórica y situación actual. Bol R Soc Esp Hist Nat Secc Biol 101: 45-56 • Blanco S, Romo S, Fernández-Aláez M, Bécares E 2007. Response of epiphytic algae to nutrient loading and fish density in a shallow lake: a mesocosm experiment. Hydrobiologia 600: 65-76

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Para facilitar y homogeneizar el tratamiento y la interpretación de la información generada en la... more Para facilitar y homogeneizar el tratamiento y la interpretación de la información generada en las redes de control biológico se presenta una colección de fichas descriptivas de los organismos fitobentónicos que incluyen: nombre científico, común, sinónimo, propiedades, descripción, ecología, ruta taxonómica e índices y métricas, foto o ilustración incluyendo la propiedad y el autor. Esta guía ha sido elaborada por la Dirección General del Agua y forma parte de una colección de cinco tomos.

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"The Duero River Basin, with an area of 97290 km2 and more than 40000 km of streams, is the large... more "The Duero River Basin, with an area of 97290 km2 and more than 40000 km of streams, is the largest one in the Iberian Peninsula, and lies mainly under Mediterranean continentalized bioclimate. Aquatic ecosystems are endorheic and main watercourses are regulated and highly anthropized. As in every lotic environment, benthic algae play a key role in the structure and functioning of its ecosystems and, within this group, diatoms represent the most abundant and diversified component. Their biological features make them excellent water quality indicators, and this has promoted their study at international level. As a result of the implementation of the Water Framework Directive of the European Union, ecological status biomonitoring networks have been established in all Iberian basins, based on the use, among others, of diatom indices, which has led to the need of more detailed taxonomic and ecological studies on these organisms. Despite their relevancy, such works are still scarce in Spain. In the Duero Basin, up to date more than 500 diatom species have been recorded, a high floristic richness that contrasts with analogue regions, this being related to the large diversity of environmental conditions included within this zone.
The aim of the present work is to elaborate a practical identification guide in accordance with the needs of technicians and biologists evaluating water biological quality in the Duero Basin. This book gathers the 200 main diatom taxa in terms of abundance and occurrence, selected from more than 600 samples of river epilithon collected during annual surveys carried out between 2003 and 2007 in the Spanish part of the basin. Certain taxa that could not be identified to specific level are also presented. For every diatom species, the following information is provided: a mor-phometric and autoecological description, a selection of illustrated bibliographic references and an iconographic series illustrating the taxon’s morphological variability, with a total of 3110 photographs in light and scanning electron microscopy gathered into 109 plates. The nomenclature, taxonomy and systematic position of taxa follow the most recent phycological literature. 116 species new to the Duero Basin and 34 species new to the Iberian Peninsula are presented."

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Papers by Saúl Blanco

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Construction and Building Materials

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Nova Hedwigia, Jan 3, 2018

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Boletín de la Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural

An Encyonema population collected in the Zambeze River near the Victoria Falls, Namibia, is here ... more An Encyonema population collected in the Zambeze River near the Victoria Falls, Namibia, is here described and illustrated in detail with the aid of LM and SEM microscopy. This taxon had already been presented in the literature under the name E. volkii, the reasons leading to treat this species as a new, independent taxon are here discussed. Encyonema ratpanati sp. nov. can be easily distinguished from E. volkii by its more linear outline (length-to-width ratio up to 4.3 vs. up to 3.5 in E. volkii), its lower degree of dorsiventrality, lack of rostrate apices throughout the whole diminution series, wider axial area and denser areolation (>26 lineolae per 10 µm and not 20–22 as in E. volkii) Se describe una población de Encyonema recogida en el río Zambeze, cerca de las cataratas Victoria, Namibia, y se ilustra en detalle con la ayuda de microscopía óptica y electrónica. Este taxón ya había sido presentado en la literatura bajo el nombre de E. volkii, se discuten aquí las razones ...

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Water

The time required for diatom assemblages to integrate the abiotic variables of the aquatic enviro... more The time required for diatom assemblages to integrate the abiotic variables of the aquatic environment has been subject of discussion for many years, with contrasting opinions as shown by field observations and experiments. Numerous diatom-based water quality indices are being used in the bioassessment of freshwaters; one of the most widely used (Specific Polluosensitivity Index or SPI) is compared in this study with water quality status as measured by the Water Quality Index (WQI) obtained from limnological parameters measured at 37 fluvial stations belonging to the Duero Basin (NW Spain). The correlation existing between both metrics was determined using different time lags between water and diatom sample collection. Results show that the correlation coefficient increases as the time gap decreases, but is maximal when comparing WQI scores measured one month before diatom sampling. We thus confirm the initial hypothesis that diatom indices actually indicate past (1 month ago) and n...

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Construction and Building Materials

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Nova Hedwigia, Jan 3, 2018

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Boletín de la Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural

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Water

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Phytotaxa, Jul 12, 2022

Gomphosphenia minima sp. nov. is a new freshwater diatom described from central Portugal, found ... more Gomphosphenia minima sp. nov. is a new freshwater diatom described from central Portugal, found in samples from a mountain stream. The species is described here based on light and scanning electron microscopy. This taxon is compared with other Gomphosphenia taxa such as G. fontinalis, G. lingulatiformis and G. tackei. Gomphosphenia minima sp. nov. is characterized by clavate to linear-lanceolate valves with rounded apices and a wide axial area not clearly separated from the central area. This taxon can be confused with G. fontinalis in terms of length and the shape of the central and axial area but they can be easily differentiated because the new species is narrower and the stria density is lower. The new species was found in low abundance in February 2012 and the stream had low electric conductivity levels, neutral pH values, low water temperature and low nutrient content.

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Diatom Research, Jul 20, 2023

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Fottea, Mar 31, 2018

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Phycologia, 2011

ABSTRACT Fragilaria construens var. subsalina is a common diatom found in a wide variety of aquat... more ABSTRACT Fragilaria construens var. subsalina is a common diatom found in a wide variety of aquatic systems worldwide. It was described by Hustedt (1925) from brackish waters in Oldesloe, Germany; a lectotype specimen was established by Simonsen (1987). We analysed the ultrastructure of specimens from the lectotype material by means of light (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and show that this taxon should be placed at the species level within the genus Pseudostaurosira (as Pseudostaurosira subsalina). A similar but distinct taxon from the United States, found in waters with low electrolyte content, is proposed as a new species of Pseudostaurosira, namely Pseudostaurosira americana sp. nov. We also describe a second new species from Spain (Pseudostaurosira alvareziae sp. nov.), found in waters with moderate conductivity, which was misidentified as P. subsalina in the past. A morphometric analysis of the valve shape supports the morphological separation between the three species. The present study clarifies the taxonomy, ecology and systematic position of these three taxa and provides a comparison with other, similar taxa.

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Phytotaxa, Feb 5, 2021

During the investigations of the diatom flora of Lake Qinghai, China (see Liu et al. 2020 for det... more During the investigations of the diatom flora of Lake Qinghai, China (see Liu et al. 2020 for details), specimens of an undescribed species of Pinnularia Ehrenberg (1843: 45) were encountered, which are hereby illustrated and described.

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Guía de las especies Exóticas e Invasoras de los Ríos, Lagos y Estuarios de la Península Ibérica., 2020

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Handbook of Algal Science, Technology and Medicine, 2020

Cyanobacteria, an abundant source of natural products as biomedical compounds have emerged as a n... more Cyanobacteria, an abundant source of natural products as biomedical compounds have emerged as a novel resource for the progression of synthetic analogs. Due to the rise of antibiotic resistance, there is a need for new medications and cyanobacteria-derived compounds with promising antimicrobial, immunosuppressant, anti-carcinoma, antiviral and protease inhibition activity are a potent option for new therapeutics. Current research is focused on the exploitation of cyanobacteria for the production of bioactive metabolites. Screening of cyanobacteria for pharmaceutically active compounds has received increasing attention; overall, there is a promising outlook that cyanobacterial secondary metabolites will become alternatives for the development of new and more effective medications.

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Handbook of Algal Science, Technology and Medicine, 2020

Today, agro-industry is a key economic sector worldwide with a large associated generation of was... more Today, agro-industry is a key economic sector worldwide with a large associated generation of wastewaters. These wastewaters entail a hazard to the environment and a waste of valuable organic matter and nutrients. The use of microalgae to support an efficient and low cost treatment of agro-industrial wastewaters along with a sustainable resource recovery has attracted an increasing attention over the past decades. This book chapter will critically discuss the fundamentals of algal-bacterial symbiosis and photobioreactor design in the context of wastewater treatment. The current challenges in microalgae harvesting and biomass valorization in the form of feedstock for the production of biofertilizers, fish feed, and biogas will be also presented along with a critical evaluation of the sustainability of the process. Finally, the future trends in the field of photosynthetic treatment of agro-industrial wastewater will be outlined.

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Modern Trends in Diatom Identification: Fundamentals and Applications, 2020

Correct identification of diatom taxa is indispensable for diatom-based water quality studies, as... more Correct identification of diatom taxa is indispensable for diatom-based water quality studies, as well as for biotechnological applications. Biological applications of taxonomy include the identification of taxa from particular specimens. In this regard, identification keys, that use a predetermined set of characters to identify a given individual, are not commonly employed by diatom specialists due to the extreme biological diversity found in this group of microalgae. This chapter reviews previous attempts of using taxonomic keys for diatom identification, highlighting the pros and cons of the use of this and similar methods. The main morphological features found in common freshwater diatom genera are briefly presented, together with an account of the historical development of technologies used for species description.

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Modern Trends in Diatom Identification: Fundamentals and Applications, 2020

This chapter introduces the antecedents, motivation, and necessity of the use of automatic identi... more This chapter introduces the antecedents, motivation, and necessity of the use of automatic identification methods in diatom taxonomy. Expert biologists have a repetitive and laborious identification mission. The principal taxonomic features used to describe and classify diatoms relate to the morphology and texture of frustule. Classical taxonomic diagnosis is carried out by means of identification keys or by visual comparison with respect to standard preparations or reference iconographies. Automatic diatom identification remains an open challenge because, for instance, many diatoms that have been known by the same species for decades have subsequently been split into different species, while on the other hand the emergence of new species is continuous. The very promising results of the new deep learning techniques together with the development of new optical devices in microscopy allow to predict a significant advance in the field.

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Modern Trends in Diatom Identification: Fundamentals and Applications, 2020

Diatom identification must consider the large variability in both morphological and morphometric ... more Diatom identification must consider the large variability in both morphological and morphometric features, characteristic of this group of microorganisms. This chapter describes variations in shape/size observed in diatom populations either as a consequence of their particular asexual reproductive cycle or induced by environmental conditions. Concerning this latter, teratological diatoms are commonly associated with a variety of environmental stressors, particularly the presence of micropollutants in the aquatic ecosystem, such as heavy metals. We evidence an overestimation of water quality conditions caused by overriding deformed individuals in diatom-based biomonitoring studies. It can be shown that normal and aberrant forms of the same taxon differ in autecological preferences. Finally, we advise on a critical issue in the description of diatom specimens, that is, the sample size on which morphometric ranges should be provided. The section concludes with some recommendations in this regard.

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Modern Trends in Diatom Identification: Fundamentals and Applications, 2020

Diatom metrics methods are becoming important tools for the assessment of environmental condition... more Diatom metrics methods are becoming important tools for the assessment of environmental conditions in aquatic systems. Diatoms have several advantages as bioindicators: their ubiquitous distribution across world aquatic environments, their ability to integrate multiple water quality features, and the relatively simple and standardized sampling and preparation methods. To date, several diatom indices have been developed, most of which are general pollution indices, especially indicative of eutrophication and organic pollution. This chapter reviews the literature concerning diatom-based analyses for biomonitoring purposes, with a first overview on available methods (microscopy-based, automatic identification, and DNA barcoding), and an account on bioassessment tools using phytobenthos in EU countries, with a special focus on the Spanish experience.

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