From: To: Subject: Rivers-List: In regards to Mediterranean rivers Date: 04 September 2000 10:16 I have read the message about Mediterranean rivers and the city of Cartagena (southeast Spain). I am from this town, Cartagena. What he calls a river is really what we call a RAMBLA, a temporal riverbed where water runs only after some storms (usually in september-october, or early spring). The channel was constructed to protect the city in the big storms. Most of the time of the year we play football in the river bed, we have BBQs on it, big celebrations, etc...that is the way we live there by the RAMBLAS. In Spain many reserchers write about these semi-arid mediterranean systems. I can give some little ideas: - One of the best teams researching about desertification and semi-arid conditions in my province and Spain is the one leaded by Francisco Lopez Bermudez y Carmelo Conesa García, University of Murcia, Departamento de Geografia (www.um.es) - M.R.Vidal-Abarca & M.L.Suarez are two researchers dedicated to similar topics, more focused on fauna (invertebrates, fish, ...). You can find references from them in the international journal LIMNETICA. I have just come from a work trip in California and Oregon, and I can really tell you that the landscape in California is pretty similar to many provinces in Spain. Good luck. Francisco Martinez Capel fmcapel@montes.upm.es Lab. Hidrobiologia E.T.S.Ingenieros de Montes (Forestry Engineer) Avda. Ramiro de Maeztu s/n MADRID 28040 SPAIN