Néstor Pérez-Méndez

Important notice for editors, authors, and reviewers! 🚨

On 2 October, we will be migrating our hosting services to @pkp.sfu.ca (PKP) and updating to OJS version 3. The journal's website and editorial platform will be down on that date. We'll share more details in this thread.

brown rice in storage

‘subtle impacts of climate change mitigation strategies on malfunctioning of prey–predator dynamics across ecosystems’

OR
>rice farming agro-ecosystems seek to save water
>which results in fewer wetland-ecosystem semi-aquatic inverts
>so jumping spiders jump less ofter

#farmland #ecology 🧪

Water-saving strategies in rice farming entail cascading effects in prey–predator interactions across ecosystem boundaries 🌾🌏

Highlights need to account for potential trophic cascading effects when designing climate change mitigation strategies in agriculture 💭🧪

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Water‐saving strategies in rice farming entail cascading effects in prey–predator interactions across ecosystem boundaries These results show that introducing multiple drainage periods in rice fields (i.e. AWD) indirectly hampers terrestrial spider reproduction through limiting the emergence of potential preys from the a...

🌾🕷️📝Very excited to share our last article published in @jappliedecology.bsky.social where we evaluate the cascading effects of water-saving irrigation on predator-prey interactions across the aquatic and terrestrial interface in rice agroecosystems besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

As part of our HERBESREG project funded by Generalitat de Catalunya we keep sampling our experimental rice fields to assess how different water management practices shape weed communities and impact rice yield.

Gracias artista! 😉

¡Muchísimas gracias Carlos!

Water‐saving strategies in rice farming entail cascading effects in prey–predator interactions across ecosystem boundaries These results show that introducing multiple drainage periods in rice fields (i.e. AWD) indirectly hampers terrestrial spider reproduction through limiting the emergence of potential preys from the a...

🌾🕷️📝Very excited to share our last article published in @jappliedecology.bsky.social where we evaluate the cascading effects of water-saving irrigation on predator-prey interactions across the aquatic and terrestrial interface in rice agroecosystems besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Odio más los highlights!

🕷️🌾🦟 Our last article has been accepted in @jappliedecology.bsky.social and this guy here is our protagonist. More info soon! 📝

Some guys in our experimental rice fields #WATERSCAPE

🚨 In case you missed the thread I publish a few weeks ago: Our paper on reconciling climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation in rice farming can be freely downloaded in AGEE. Have a look!!! 🌾🌍

Qué ganas de escucharla!

🕷️🌾 Looking forward to arrive Pontevedra to join @sibecol-aeet-25.bsky.social I'll talk Monday evening (19:15) in session TSB.8 about cascading effects of water-saving strategies in rice farming across the freshwater-terrestrial interface. Be there to know more!
#SIBECOLAEET2025 #Ecology

Estás gozando!!!

This article results from the collaboration and effort of an amazing group of people, and incredibly led by Sebastian Echeverría-Progulakis. Thanks you all!

We call for integrative water management policies that look beyond emissions alone. CC-mitigation should also consider biodiversity. Otherwise, we risk solving one problem by creating others.

#CarbonTunnelVision #RiceFarming #Agroecology #GHG #Biodiversity #SustainableAg

Our results highlight that a carbon-only lens overlooks ecological complexity. Thus long-term sustainability requires approaches that account for multiple goals simultaneously (i.e., climate, biodiversity, and food security must be addressed together)

Stay tunned if you want to know how these changes in freshwater biological communities translate in terms of multifuncionality provisioning (carbon sequestration potential, nutrient cycling, weed an pest control, food provisioning, etc). Next chapter of Seba's thesis.

Our results show a marked trade-off between climate and biodiversity outcomes associated to water-saving strategies in rice farming. In other words: AWD maximizes climate gains but worsens biodiversity. MSD offers a more balanced path, helping at minimizing the tradeoffs.

BUT.... Abundance of larvae of aquatic bugs, dragonflies and damselflies, and specially tadpoles was remarkably reduced in AWD managed plots when compared to permanent flooded plots. Intermediate values were found for MSD-managed plots. Species diversity also declined at both AWD and MSD plots.

As expected methane emissions dropped sharply under water-saving irrigation.
– AWD reduced methane by 92.5%
– MSD by 67.3%
when compared to continuous flooding. This confirms strong mitigation potential associated to the drainage periods, which inhibits methanogenesis.

Specifically, we evaluated 3 irrigation practices that represents a gradient of water use:
* Traditional continuous flooding (CONV) – no drying periods during the growing season
* Mid-Season Drainage (MSD) – 1 drying period
* Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) – Multiple drying periods

In this study we performed a field-scale experiment in the Ebro Delta Experimental Research Station to evaluate potential trade-offs of mitigation strategies in terms of methane emissions and biodiversity outcomes (diversity/abundance of tadpoles, fishes & aquatic macroinvertebrates)

However, the potential negative impacts of these mitigation strategies on freshwater biodiversity associated to rice fields (e.g., amphibians, fishes, or aquatic macroinvertebrates) have been completely ignored until now. Foto: Antonio Camacho Lorenzo

Flooded rice farming is a major source of methane, but also an important complementary habitat to natural wetlands. To reduce the contribution of rice farming to climate change (CC hereafter), different water-saving irrigation practices are being promoted globally; even considered in carbon markets

Environmental policies quite often suffers from carbon tunnel vision—a narrow focus on reducing GHG emissions, but neglecting potential side effects on other agrienvironmental issues (e.g. biodiversity loss). Our new study highlights why this is a pervasive oversimplification in rice agroecosystems

Water-saving irrigation can mitigate climate change but entails negative side effects on biodiversity in rice paddy fields Tackling climate change while enhancing biodiversity without compromising production is a main goal in agricultural management. In rice farming, water…

📢 📝 Climate change mitigation strategies in rice farming reduces methane emissions but have profound negative effects on freshwater biodiversity. The new paper of the Sebastian Echeverría-Progulakis thesis if finally out in AGEE.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧵⬇️

We are specially interested in biological control of the rice water weevil (Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus), a recently introduced species in the Ebro Delta, which spend most of the day swimming in the water layer but climb to rice leaves for feeding.

🦆🐸🐟🌾 Our #WATERSCAPE project funded by the @ageinves.bsky.social includes an exclosure experiment to assess the relative contribution of aquatic (fishes & amphibians) vs. terrestrial vertebrates (birds & bats) on provisioning of multiple ecosystem services/disservices on rice farming. Here we go!