The Limnological Observatory of the Pyrenees (LOOP) is a joint initiative between the University of Barcelona (UB), the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), the Blanes Centre for Advanced Studies (CEAB-CSIC), and the Institute for Environmental Diagnosis and Water Studies (IDAEA-CSIC), investigating how mountain freshwaters in the Pyrenees respond to global environmental change and its impacts on hydrological, ecological, and biogeochemical processes.
LOOP operates a scientific observational facility in the Central Pyrenees, near the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. The infrastructure includes a field station and several instrumented experimental catchments equipped with automatic weather stations, discharge gauges, and groundwater piezometers. In lakes, rivers, and groundwater sites, multi-sensor platforms enable continuous high-resolution monitoring of physical and biogeochemical properties. In addition, a network of sampling stations is visited regularly to collect chemical and biological samples at frequencies ranging from biweekly to seasonal. Currently, the sampling network encompasses eight streams, fourteen lakes, and two atmospheric deposition collectors for water chemistry, as well as four streams and one lake for biological monitoring.
The most detailed limnological monitoring is carried out at Lake Redon, where the water column is sampled monthly at several depths for chemical and biological determinations. A small cabin with a lab, dormitory, and kitchen was set at the shore of the lake to facilitate the fieldwork and in situ experimentation. In addition to site-based monitoring, we conduct synoptic surveys across the entire Pyrenean range at decadal intervals. This work aims to compile long-term data series of surface waters as indicators of the ecological and biogeochemical processes occurring in Pyrenean catchments and their responses to global environmental change. We also run short-term research projects (between 1 and 5 years) that benefit from the framework of data, methods, and facilities provided by the monitoring. These projects include palaeolimnological studies that extend our data series many years into the past. Together, these activities constitute our long-term ecological research programme