Publications
Email me if you are interested and have no access to the papers. For a complete list of publications, see my Full CV
Paleoecological perspective of resilience
I’m interested in studying critical transitions and non-linear ecosystem responses that are rarely captured in monitoring data, among other reasons, because environmental responses tend to be slow and lagged. I ask: What insights do abrupt transitions in the palaeoenvironmental record provide about the critical stressors and ecosystem response that give rise to the current state of socio-ecological systems?
Benito. X., Benito, B., Schneider, T., Velez, M.I., Salgado, J., Giosan, L., Nascimiento, M. Human practices behind the aquatic and terrestrial ecological decoupling to climate change in the tropical Andes. 2022. Science of the Total Environment. Link.
Benito. X., Luethje, M., Schneider, T., Fritz, S.C., Baker, P., Pedersen, E., Gauzere, P., Nascimiento, M., Bush, M., Ruhi, A. Ecological resilience in tropical Andean lakes: a paleolimnological perspective. 2022. Limnology & Oceanography. Link.
Nascimento, M., Mosblech, N.A., Raczka, M.F., Baskin, S., Manrique, K.E., Wilger, J., Giosan, L., Benito, X. & Bush, M.B. The adoption of agropastoralism and increased ENSO frequency in the Andes. 2020. Quaternary Science Reviews 243, 106471. Link.
Long-term metacommunity dynamics
The densification of water bodies (lentic and lotic systems) across the landscape has been used variously in limnology, but there is no an unified framework based on the ecological and geographical drivers beyond monitoring observations. I’m interested in bridging the gap between physical geography and limnology by investigating aquatic microbial metacommunities (local communities potentially connected by dispersal) and the sinergestic effects of limnological and landscape change at varied temporal and spatial scales.
Ibáñez, C., Caiola, N., Barquín, J., Belmar, O., Benito, X., Casals, F., Fennessy, S., Hughes, J., Palmer, M., Peñuelas, J., Romero, E., Sardans, J., & Williams, M. (2023). Ecosystem-level effects of re-oligotrophication and N:P imbalances in rivers and estuaries on a global scale. Global Change Biology 29 (5): 1248-1266. Link
Benito, X., Vilmi, A., Feitl, M., Carrevedo M.L., Lindholn, M. & Fritz, S.C. Spatial and temporal ecological uniqueness of Andean diatom communities are correlated with climate, geo-diversity and long-term limnological change. 2020. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Link.
Benito, X., Feitl, M., Fritz, S.C., Mosquera, P.V., Schneider, T., Hampel, H., Quevedo, L. & Steinitz-Kannan, M. Identifying temporal and spatial patterns of diatom community change in the tropical Andes over the last c. 150 years. 2019. Journal of Biogeography 43: 1889-1900 Link.
Ecological indicators across the aquatic continuum
Freshwaters make disproportionate constributions to biochemical cycles and biodiversity, while coastal wetlands and deltas provide more ecosystem services than any other terrestrial biome for the same unit area. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, I combine traditional ecological and palaeoecological approaches to study past, present and future Mediterranean coastal wetland ecosystems and tropical freshwaters.
Luethje, M., Benito, X., Schneider, T., Mosquera, P. V., Baker, P., & Fritz, S. C. (2023). Paleolimnological responses of Ecuadorian páramo lakes to local and regional stressors over the last two millennia. Journal of Paleolimnology. Link.
Ibàñez, C., Alcaraz, C., Caiola, N., Prado, P., Trobajo, R., Benito, X., Reyes, E., Day., J.W. & Syvitski, J.P.M. Basin-scale land use impacts on world deltas: human vs natural forcings. 2019. Global Planetary Change 173: 24-32 Link.
Cearreta, A., Benito, X., Trobajo, R., Ibáñez, C. & Giosan, L. 2016. Holocene palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Ebro Delta (Western Mediterranean Sea): an early formation based on the benthic foraminiferal record. The Holocene 26(9): 1438–1456 Link.
Benito, X., Cearreta, A., Trobajo, R. & Ibáñez, C. 2016. Benthic foraminifera as indicators of habitat in a Mediterranean delta: implications for ecological and palaeoenvironmental studies. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 180: 97–113 Link.
Diatom ecology and biogeography
I study diatoms at different levels of biological organization to investigate long-term ecosystem variability and biogeographic patterns. At species level, I’m interested in how local and regional environmental factors dictate single-species distributions. At community level, I study assembly mechanisms (niche- and dispersal-based processes) to anticipate ecosystem response to environmental changes.
Benito. X., Luethje, M., Carrevedo M.L., Velez, M.I., Escobar, J., Tapia, P. Steinitz-Kannan, M. & Fritz, S.C. Tropical South American Diatom Database: a tool for studying the macroecology of microorganisms. Diatom Research. Link.
Benito, X., Fritz, S.C., Steinitz-Kannan, M. Velez, M.I. & McGlue, M.M. 2018. Lake regionalization and diatom metacommunity structuring in tropical South America. Ecology and Evolution 8(6): 7865-7878. Link
Benito, X., Fritz, S.C., Steinitz-Kannan, M., Tapia, P.M., Kelly, M.A & Lowell, T.V. 2018. Geo-climatic factors drive diatom community responses in tropical South American freshwaters. Journal of Ecology 106: 1660–1672. Link
Carballeira, R., Trobajo, R., Leira, M., Benito, X., Sato, S. & Mann, D.G. 2017. A combined morphological and molecular approach to Nitzschia varelae sp. nov. with discussion of symmetry in Bacillariaceae. European Journal of Phycology 52: 342–359 Link
Raising awareness about gender gaps in academia (Gender and Science group of the Iberian Association of Limnology)
Mendoza-Lera, C., Anton-Pardo, M., Bartrons, M., Benito, X., Bernal, S., Bohorquez Bedoya, E., Cañedo-Argüelles, M., Catalán, N., Freixa, A., Bartrons, M., Bernal, S., Genua-Olmedo, A., Pastor, A., Poblador, S., Lupon, A., Sanchez-Montoya, M., León-Palmero, E., Fernandez, I., Zufiaurre, A., Rodríguez-Lozano, P. 2023. «My Teaching Is Not Gender Biased, Is It?» Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin. Link.
Catalán, N., Anton-Pardo, M., Freixa, A., Rodríguez-Lozano, P., Bartrons, M., Bernal, S., Genua-Olmedo, A., Mendoza-Lera, C., Onandía, G., Benito, X., Sánchez-Montoya, M. M., Cañedo-Argüelles Iglesias, M., Pastor, A., & Lupon, A. (2022). Women in limnology: From a historical perspective to a present-day evaluation. WIREs Water, e1616. Link.