The project “Centinela: evaluation of the effects of global change on high mountain river ecosystems” has the mission of characterizing and evaluating the effects that climate change generates on the river ecosystems of the Picos de Europa National Park (PNPE). To this end, a web application is being developed that allows the integration, in real time, of the information received from a novel monitoring system, generating a complete database that will be able to determine how variability in environmental conditions is reflected in invertebrate communities. This application will also serve as a tool that will facilitate decision-making for PNPE managers in the face of the effects generated by global change, in addition to serving as an early warning system.

The actions that the University of Cantabria will carry out within the framework of this project are summarized as follows:
1. The installation and maintenance of two ground stations to monitor atmospheric conditions and take continuous images of the river environment.
2. The maintenance of the five gauging facilities installed in 2012 in the PNPE river network under the framework of the RECORAM project and the installation of two new stations.
3. A field sampling, and the subsequent processing of the samples in the laboratory to characterize the invertebrate communities at 13 points of the PNPE river network and its immediate surroundings.
4. The updating of the web portal to incorporate the new information generated in CENTINELA and the dissemination of the results of the project on the website and through other information channels.