Preface: Shallow lakes from the Central Plains of Argentina

This special issue of Hydrobiologia is devoted to the shallow lakes of the Central Plains of Argentina. The contributors were invited to submit papers dealing with different ecological topics including physical features, climatic and geological characteristics of the region, as well as studies focusing on aquatic communities (fish, zooplankton, phytoplankton and microbial components). Most shallow lakes referred to in the present issue are included in an ongoing collaborative effort, the Argentine network for the assessment and monitoring aquatic systems (PAMPA), which is financed by the CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas) of Argentina. Lakes were selected across a pronounced climatic gradient within the Pampean plain, encompassing five hydrological systems. Five PAMPA lakes are equipped with automated buoys for continuous monitoring of their main limnological and weather variables. In addition, all selected lakes are sampled monthly for limnological variables and aquatic communities. Lakes are increasingly regarded as sentinels of global climate change due to their responsiveness to environmental modifications and their capacity to integrate the variability of the associated watershed (Adrian et al., 2009). Under the current scenarios of global change due to different stressors derived from natural conditions and human activities, the main objective of the PAMPA project is to anticipate the responses of Pampean shallow lakes to forcing variables such as: climate change, land use change and other anthropic impacts. PAMPA is conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers and students with complementary backgrounds and skills. Interdisciplinary research is becoming increasingly important as the complexity of the ecological problems facing humanity increases (e.g. Goring et al., 2014), and collaborative research teams are particularly necessary in macrosystem ecology, studying broad spatial and temporal scales, and incorporating multiple disciplines and perspectives (e.g. Cheruvelil et al., 2014). The present issue includes 16 articles. The first one (Diovisalvi et al., 2015a) provides a general Guest editors: I. Izaguirre, L. A. Miranda, G. M. E. Perillo, M. C. Piccolo & H. E. Zagarese / Shallow Lakes from the Central Plains of Argentina