Temporary rivers in the Iberian Peninsula: historical notes and some thoughts

The author reviews, with a personal vision, the beginnings of the studies of temporary (or intermittent) rivers in Spain in the 20th century starting from the first contributions of Margalef and reaching the beginning of the 21st century. The studies began in the 1970s, especially in the Mediterranean arc and in the Ecology departments that were beginning to work on the subject at that time, such as Murcia (semi-arid rivers or ramblas) or Barcelona and Granada (Mediterranean rivers). The courses organized by Margalef at the IAMZ ( Instituto Agron & oacute;mico Mediterr & aacute;neo de Zaragoza) and the importance they had in the training of limnologists in Spain are highlighted, as well as the fact that they were a contact vehicle for Spanish researchers with the most relevant limnologist in those years. Margalef's 1983 books and the one he edited derived from the IAMZ courses in 1994, offer a good overview of limnology in Spain, where rivers do not play a prominent role nor the temporal ones. The birth of the Spanish Association of Limnology and its congresses were a good breeding ground for studies of Limnology in Spain and of rivers. The first works on temporary rivers were published first in the Proceedings of their congresses and later in the Limnetica journal. The Guadalmed project and some synthesis works between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, mark the end of this "historic" phase. The importance of these studies for water management and their relationship with the WFD (Water Framework Directive) are also examined, and the collaboration between the Administration and ecologists in the production of protocols that have been very useful for understanding temporary rivers and their inclusion as one river type to be included in the river to be managed in the context of the WFD.