Abstract
In this overview (introductory article to a special issue including 14 papers), we consider all main types of natural and artificial inland freshwater habitas (fwh). For each type, we identify the main biodiversity patterns and ecological features, human impacts on the system and environmental issues, and discuss ways to use this information to improve stewardship. Examples of selected key biodiversity/ecological features (habitat type): narrow endemics, sensitive (groundwater and GDEs); crenobionts, LIHRes (springs); unidirectional flow, nutrient spiraling (streams); naturally turbid, floodplains, large-bodied species (large rivers); depth-variation in benthic communities (lakes); endemism and diversity (ancient lakes); threatened, sensitive species (oxbow lakes, SWE); diverse, reduced littoral (reservoirs); cold-adapted species (Boreal and Arctic fwh); endemism, depauperate (Antarctic fwh); flood pulse, intermittent wetlands, biggest river basins (tropical fwh); variable hydrologic regime—periods of drying, flash floods (arid-climate fwh). Selected impacts: eutrophication and other pollution, hydrologic modifications, overexploitation, habitat destruction, invasive species, salinization. Climate change is a threat multiplier, and it is important to quantify resistance, resilience, and recovery to assess the strategic role of the different types of freshwater ecosystems and their value for biodiversity conservation. Effective conservation solutions are dependent on an understanding of connectivity between different freshwater ecosystems (including related terrestrial, coastal and marine systems).
Highlights
Global climate change threatens all ecosystems on Earth and the species they support, and the services and resources they provide to humans [1]
We aim at addressing the multiplicity of still and running freshwater environments, from headwaters down to large rivers and lakes: groundwater and dependent ecosystems, springs and spring-fed streams [40,41,42,43,44,45], headwaters [46,47], glacial streams [48], streams, large rivers, ancient and large lakes, high-mountain lakes, oxbow lakes, reservoirs, urban freshwater habitats [49], mires [50], small wetland ecosystems [51], Boreal and Arctic fwh, Antarctic fwh, Mediterranean fwh, tropical fwh [52], arid-climate fwh (Table 1; the ecosystem types addressed and flagship organisms are illustrated in Figures 1 and 2)
Climate change is predicted to alter flow regimes of many rivers and may disrupt these connections, with severe ecological and societal impacts. The extents of these impacts, from a simple compositional shift in benthic and hyporheic assemblages [86] to more severe consequences on food web structure and ecosystem processes [86], have been mainly investigated in naturally intermittent streams from arid or semiarid regions, and little is known about the ecological effects of surface/subsurface flow alterations in perennial temperate rivers and streams [87]. These studies highlight the role of climate change in freshwater biodiversity loss and changes in assemblage structure in surface water (SW) bodies; the effects generated in GW ecosystems and how they are reflected in Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs) are almost completely unknown
Summary
Global climate change threatens all ecosystems on Earth and the species they support, and the services and resources they provide to humans [1]. We aim at addressing the multiplicity of still and running freshwater environments, from headwaters down to large rivers and lakes (papers published in the VSI are cited in the following): groundwater and dependent ecosystems, springs and spring-fed streams [40,41,42,43,44,45], headwaters [46,47], glacial streams [48], streams, large rivers, ancient and large lakes, high-mountain lakes, oxbow lakes, reservoirs, urban freshwater habitats (fwh) [49], mires [50], small wetland ecosystems [51], Boreal and Arctic fwh, Antarctic fwh, Mediterranean fwh, tropical fwh [52], arid-climate fwh (Table 1; the ecosystem types addressed and flagship organisms are illustrated in Figures 1 and 2). Example flagship organisms of the main different types of freshwater ecosystems considered in the present paper: (Y) The populations of the cyprinid fish Barbus haasi, endemic from the Iberian Peninsula, are declining in Mediterranean streams and rivers (p.c.: N.C.). Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA). (AJ) Aphanius dispar, well adapted to arid environments (p.c.: Friedhelm Krupp, Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt a.M., Germany)
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