Freshwater Ecosystem Services Research Articles

Land conservation can mitigate freshwater ecosystem services degradation due to climate change in a semiarid catchment: The case of the Portneuf River catchment, Idaho, USA

There is increasing evidence of environmental change impacts on freshwater ecosystem services especially through land use and climate change. However, little is known about how land conservation could help mitigate adverse water-sustainability impacts. In this paper, we utilized the InVEST tool and the Residual Trends method to assess the joint effects and relative contributions of climate change and land conservation on freshwater ecosystem services in the Portneuf River catchment in Idaho, USA. We developed five hypothesized scenarios regarding gain and loss in the enrollment of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the largest agricultural land-retirement program in the U.S., plus riparian buffer and assessed their interactions with climate change. Results suggest that the realized water yield in the Portneuf River catchment would possibly be 56% less due to climate change and 24% less due to the decline of CRP enrollment. On the contrary, if CRP enrollment is promoted by ~30% and riparian buffer protection is implemented, the water supply reduction in the year 2050 could be changed from 56% to 26%, the total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) export would be reduced by 10% and 11%, and the total suspended sediment (TSS) reduced by 17%. This study suggests that increasing implementation of the CRP would likely preserve key freshwater ecosystem services and assist proactive mitigation, especially for semiarid regions vulnerable to changing climate conditions.

Interactions between freshwater ecosystem services and land cover changes in southern Bangladesh: A perspective from short-term (seasonal) and long-term (1973–2014) scale

We aimed to assess the long-term (1973–2014) and short-term (pre- and post-monsoon) quantities, values and changes of freshwater ecosystem services (FES) in the wetland areas of Southern Bangladesh using land cover change as a proxy indicator. Bangladesh is a sub-tropical country that receives >80% of its annual rainfall during the monsoon and post-monsoon periods, between the months of June and November. Therefore, it could be hypothesized that the monsoon and post-monsoon rainfalls significantly contribute to altering the local land cover, and consequently change the FES. Our multi-stage methodology, among others, included; (i) participatory FES identification (ii) long-term and seasonal land cover analysis using Remote Sensing and GIS, and (iii) assessing FES quantities and values using an expert-developed FES Matrix. The results identified 14 major FES; seven provisioning, six regulating and one cultural service. The results showed that over the last 40 years, significant land cover transformations occurred in the study area e.g. increase of agricultural land, rural vegetation with settlement (RVS) in exchange of wetlands, along with significant seasonal variations include increase of wetland in the post-monsoon seasons and agricultural land in the pre-monsoon seasons. Such changes contributed to the decrease of total long-term FES quantities and economic values including a significant reduction of regulating and provisioning services. Post-monsoon seasons experienced increased quantities of regulating services (e.g. soil fertility, water purification and biodiversity), mainly as a result of additional rainfall, although its overall quantities considerably decreased over the long-term. The results of the study highlighted the importance of prudent land management policies at rural scales for better ecosystem services and conservation.

Assessment of freshwater ecosystem services in the Beas River Basin, Himalayas region, India

Abstract. River systems provide a diverse range of ecosystem services, examples include: flood regulation (regulating), fish (provisioning), nutrient cycling (supporting) and recreation (cultural). Developing water resources through the construction of dams (hydropower or irrigation) can enhance the delivery of provisioning ecosystem services. However, these hydrologic alterations result in reductions in less tangible regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services. This study seeks to understand how multiple impoundments, abstractions and transfers within the upper Beas River Basin, Western Himalayas, India, are affecting the delivery of supporting ecosystem services. Whilst approaches for assessing supporting ecosystem services are under development, the immediate aim of this paper is to set out a framework for their quantification, using the macroinvertebrate index Lotic-Invertebrate Index for Flow Evaluation (LIFE). LIFE is a weighted measure of the flow velocity preferences of the macroinvertebrate community. Flow records from multiple gauging stations within the basin were used to investigate flow variability at seasonal, inter-annual and decadal time scales. The findings show that both mean monthly and seasonal cumulative flows have decreased over time in the Beas River Basin. A positive hydroecological relationship between LIFE and flow was also identified, indicative of macroinvertebrate response to seasonal changes in the flow regime. For example, high LIFE scores (7.7–9.3) in the winter and summer seasons indicate an abundance of macroinvertebrates with a preference for high flows; this represents a high potential for instream supporting ecosystem services delivery. However, further analysis is required to understand these hydroecological interactions in the study basin and the impact on instream supporting ecosystem services delivery.

Freshwater Ecosystem Services in Mining Regions: Modelling Options for Policy Development Support

The ecosystem services (ES) approach offers an integrated perspective of social-ecological systems, suitable for holistic assessments of mining impacts. Yet for ES models to be policy-relevant, methodological consensus in mining contexts is needed. We review articles assessing ES in mining areas focusing on freshwater components and policy support potential. Twenty-six articles were analysed concerning (i) methodological complexity (data types, number of parameters, processes and ecosystem–human integration level) and (ii) potential applicability for policy development (communication of uncertainties, scenario simulation, stakeholder participation and management recommendations). Articles illustrate mining impacts on ES through valuation exercises mostly. However, the lack of ground- and surface-water measurements, as well as insufficient representation of the connectivity among soil, water and humans, leave room for improvements. Inclusion of mining-specific environmental stressors models, increasing resolution of topographies, determination of baseline ES patterns and inclusion of multi-stakeholder perspectives are advantageous for policy support. We argue that achieving more holistic assessments exhorts practitioners to aim for high social-ecological connectivity using mechanistic models where possible and using inductive methods only where necessary. Due to data constraints, cause–effect networks might be the most feasible and best solution. Thus, a policy-oriented framework is proposed, in which data science is directed to environmental modelling for analysis of mining impacts on water ES.

Streams of data from drops of water: 21st century molecular microbial ecology

Microorganisms are ubiquitous and represent a taxonomically and functionally diverse component of freshwater environments of significant ecological importance. The bacteria, archaea, and microbial eukarya in freshwater systems support a range of ecosystem processes and functions, including mediating all major biogeochemical cycles, and therefore regulate the flow of multiple ecosystem services. Yet relative to conspicuous higher taxa, microbial ecology remains poorly understood. As the anthropocene progresses, the demand for freshwater–ecosystem services is both increasing with growing human population density, and by association, increasingly threatened from multiple and often interacting stressors, such as climate change, eutrophication, and chemical pollution. Thus, it is imperative to understand the ecology of microorganisms and their functional role in freshwater ecosystems if we are to manage the future of these environments effectively. To do this, researchers have developed a vast array of molecular tools that can illuminate the diversity, composition, and activity of microbial communities. Within this primer, we discuss the history of molecular approaches in microbial ecology, and highlight the scope of questions that these methods enable researchers to address. Using some recent case studies, we describe some exemplar research into the microbial ecology of freshwater systems, and emphasize how molecular methods can provide novel ecological insights. Finally, we detail some promising developments within this research field, and how these might shape the future research landscape of freshwater microbial ecology.This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Methods Water and Life > Nature of Freshwater Ecosystems

Challenges in Using Hydrology and Water Quality Models for Assessing Freshwater Ecosystem Services: A Review

Freshwater ecosystems contribute to many ecosystem services, many of which are being threatened by human activities such as land use change, river morphological changes, and climate change. Many disciplines have studied the processes underlying freshwater ecosystem functions, ranging from hydrology to ecology, including water quality, and a panoply of models are available to simulate their behaviour. This understanding is useful for the prediction of ecosystem services, but the model outputs must go beyond the production of time-series of biophysical variables, and must facilitate the beneficial use of the information it contains about the ecosystem services it describes. This article analyses the literature of ad hoc approaches that aim at quantifying one or more freshwater ecosystem services. It identifies the strategies adopted to use disciplinary-specific models for the prediction of the services. This review identifies that hydrological, water quality, and ecological models form a valuable knowledge base to predict changes in ecosystem conditions, but challenges remain to make proper and fruitful use of these models. In particular, considerations of temporal and spatial scales could be given more attention in order to provide better justifications for the choice of a particular model over another, including the uncertainty in their predictions.

The Great Lapse: Climate Change, Water Resources and Economic Risks in the Great Lakes

The striking vastness of the world’s largest surface freshwater resource, the Laurentian Great Lakes, has generated the fallacy that they are not highly vulnerable to climate change. This fallacy has created a great lapse in our research and understanding of the effects of climate change on the Great Lakes, which are approaching critical environmental thresholds and jeopardizing ecosystem services. This article takes the novel approach of correcting the disconnect between the perception of vastness and the reality of vulnerability to climate change in the Great Lakes, and takes an additional novel step to link the water risks with the economic risks. The primary purpose is to demonstrate the interdependence of the freshwater ecosystem services affected by climate change with the economies that are highly dependent on those freshwater services in the Great Lakes region. Although many believe that environmental science or ethical arguments should be sufficient to warrant action on climate change, evidence shows that policy-makers are not compelled to generate advances unless there are strong economic components. This article highlights the leading edge of climate science for the Great Lakes, having conducted 32 in depth interviews with experts in microbiology, ecology, and limnology, among others, but it also adds substantively to previous work by providing economic evidence of water risks in the agricultural sector and energy sector, which constitute over $6 trillion in value and jobs that are specifically dependent on lakes waters. The article concludes by articulating three specific conclusions: the economic viability of the agricultural sector and the energy sector are jeopardized by loss of federal funding for climate change adaptation in the water sector; the existing policies such as between sectors such as the Farm Bill and Energy Future Bill are mal-aligned and should be aligned with the water sector; and negative environmental externalities including factors that exacerbate climate change should be incorporated into the true cost of water so we can more accurately conduct ecosystem valuation and, thus, address the true economic and environmental cost of climate change on the Great Lakes and our greatest water resources. This paper has not previously been published.

Uncoupling indicators of water quality due to the invasive zooplankter, Bythotrephes longimanus

AbstractCultural eutrophication of lakes due to excess loading of nutrients is a global problem affecting the provisioning of freshwater ecosystem services. Lake water quality is often described by trophic state indicators such as water clarity or concentrations of nutrients, chlorophyll, and cyanobacteria toxins. While these indicators are widely assumed to covary, capturing the same basic aspects of water quality, they can be uncoupled by changes in lake food webs. Outbreak of the invasive predatory zooplankton, Bythotrephes longimanus, in Lakes Mendota and Monona, Wisconsin (U.S.A.) in 2009 led to a decline in the herbivore, Daphnia pulicaria, and in turn, water clarity. We use 20‐yr datasets for Lakes Mendota and Monona to evaluate interactions among nutrients, zooplankton, and phytoplankton that resulted in this trophic cascade. After invasion, diatoms increased in both lakes resulting in reduced water clarity, whereas cyanobacteria did not change in either lake. Multivariate time series analysis revealed that D. pulicaria grazing controlled edible diatoms in both lakes. Cyanobacteria biomass was positively associated with both D. pulicaria and summer nutrient concentrations. These results further clarify the limitations of top‐down control in eutrophic lakes: grazing by zooplankton can control edible phytoplankton taxa, but largely inedible cyanobacteria may be more limited by nutrient concentrations. Accordingly, despite declining clarity in Lake Mendota, the number of beach closures due to cyanobacteria blooms declined following Bythotrephes invasion. Our study reveals how these two indicators of water quality—water clarity and cyanobacteria blooms—can become uncoupled during a food web shift.

Going green? Ex-post valuation of a multipurpose water infrastructure in Northern Italy

A contingent valuation approach is used to estimate how households value different multipurpose infrastructures (conventional or green) for managing flood risk and water pollution. As a case study we consider the Gorla Maggiore water park located in the Lombardy Region, in Northern Italy. The park is a neo-ecosystem including an infrastructure to treat waste water and store excess rain water, built in 2011 on the shore of the Olona River in an area previously used for poplar plantation. This park is the first one of this type built in Italy. A novel aspect of our research is that it not only considers the values people hold for different water ecosystem services (pollution removal, recreative use, wildlife support, flood risk reduction), but also their preferences for how those outcomes are achieved (through conventional or green infrastructures). The results indicate that the type of infrastructure delivering the ecosystem services does have an impact on individuals’ preferences for freshwater ecosystem services. Households are willing to pay from 6.3 to 7.1euros per year for a green infrastructure (compared to a conventional one), with a premium up to 16.5euros for a surrounding made of a park. By considering the type of infrastructure within the choice model, we gain a richer understanding of the relationship between social welfare and freshwater ecosystem services.

Evaluating regional water security through a freshwater ecosystem service flow model: A case study in Beijing-Tianjian-Hebei region, China

Freshwater ecosystem service is essential to human’s survival and development. Many studies have documented the spatial differences in the supply and demand of ecosystem services and proposed the concept of ecosystem services flows. However, few studies characterize freshwater ecosystem service flow quantitatively. Therefore, our paper aims to quantify the effects of freshwater ecosystem service flow on downstream areas. We developed a freshwater ecosystem service flow model and applied it in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region, China, for the year of 2000, 2005, and 2010. We assessed the regional water security with an improved freshwater security index by integrating freshwater service provision, consumption and flow; and found that most areas of the BTH region (69.2%) were affected by upstream freshwater flows. The areas achieving water security in the region also expanded to 66.9%, 66.1%, and 71.3%, which were 6.4%, 6.8% and 5.7% increments compared to no-flow situation, in 2000, 2005 and 2010, respectively. Setting quota for human water consumption is suggested to further improve water security. These results highlight the need to fully understand the connections between distant freshwater ecosystem service provision and local freshwater ecosystem service consumption. This approach may also help managers to choose more sustainable strategies for critical freshwater resource management across different regions.

Freshwater ecosystems could become the biggest losers of the Paris Agreement.

Securing access to energy for a growing population under the international commitment of reduction of greenhouse emissions requires increasing the contribution of renewable sources to the global share. Hydropower energy, which accounts for >80% of green energy, is experiencing a boom fostered by international investment mainly in developing countries. This boom could be further accelerated by the recent climate agreement reached in Paris. Despite its flexibility, hydropower production entails social, economic and ecological risks that need to be carefully considered before investing in the development of potentially thousands of planned hydropower projects worldwide. This is especially relevant given the weak or nonexistent legislation that regulates hydropower project approval and construction in many countries. I highlight the need for adequate policy to provide the Paris Agreement with new financial and planning mechanisms to avoid further and irreversible damage to freshwater ecosystem services and biodiversity.

Property rights, institutional regime shifts and the provision of freshwater ecosystem services on the Pongola River floodplain, South Africa

This paper proposes a property rights perspective to interpret institutional regime shifts in the provision of freshwater ecosystem services. Institutional regime shifts are conceived as persistent changes in the structure and function of a system. Property rights are viewed as an important component of institutional regimes. The paper draws on a case study of flow regulation on the Pongolo Floodplain in South Africa to illustrate the central role of property rights in mediating institutional regime shifts. The case study illustrates that there are many combinations of property rights that underpin institutional regime shifts in the provision of freshwater ecosystem services. It provides useful insights into the consequences of failing to recognize, establish and enforce bundles of rights. A major thrust of the case study is that the nature and context of property rights are important in determining the long-term provision of these services. By examining the configurations of property rights that have governed the Pongola River floodplain over the years, the paper demonstrates the importance of explicitly defining and categorizing the range of rights.

Methodological and empirical considerations when assessing freshwater ecosystem service provision in a developing city context: Making the best of what we have

This study contributes to both the methodological and empirical literature by developing an integrative approach to assessing temporal and spatial change in riparian ecosystem service delivery by drawing on available and diverse data sets. These data sets act as multiple lines of evidence in supporting comparisons between data sets to test the validity of developed methods and the application of such methods. In order to synthesise these data as well as to determine the fluctuations in riparian ecosystem service provision a scoring system was developed. Methodologically, the scoring system proved informative across the majority of ecosystem services categories, showing close to 80% similarity in outcomes when comparing the scoring method to trends in long-term water quality measurements. Other benefits of the scoring system included its design simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and applicability and replicability across various urban settings. Empirically, the data sets used support the findings of the ecosystem services scoring exercise and suggests that fluctuations in ecosystem service delivery through time and across the river reaches are linked to land-use change and other human activities. Findings suggest that as water leaves an urban protected area and travels across transformed and impacted landscapes, the results are poor water quality and diminished ability of rivers to yield ecosystem services the further the river flows into the urban setting. Urbanisation and changes in land-uses in developing city contexts is therefore shown to affect potential ecosystem services benefits, necessitating increasing management interventions.

수요 및 공급측면에서 평가한 하천 생태계서비스의 경제적 가치

수요 및 공급측면에서 평가한 하천 생태계서비스의 경제적 가치

Spatio-temporal variation of water supply in Guizhou Province, China

Water supply is an important freshwater ecosystem service provided by ecosystems. Water shortages resulting from spatio-temporal heterogeneity of climate condition or human activities present serious problems in the Guizhou Province of southwest China. This study aimed to analyze the spatio-temporal changes of water supply service using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model, explore how climate and land-use changes impact water supply provision, and discuss the impact of parameters associated with climate and land-use in the InVEST model on water supply in the region. We used data and the model to forecast trends for the year 2030 and found that water supply has been declining in the region at the watershed scale since 1990. Climate and land-use change played important roles in affecting the water supply. Water supply was overwhelmingly driven by the reference evapotranspiration and annual average precipitation, while the plant evapotranspiration coefficients for each land-use type had a relatively small effect. The method for sensitivity analysis developed in this study allowed exploration of the relative importance of parameters in the InVEST water yield model. The Grain-for-Green project, afforestation, and urban expansion control should be accelerated in this region to protect the water supply.

Prioritising ecosystem services in Chinese rural and urban communities

Identifying ecosystem services that are important to society can help decision-makers to prioritize specific services for protection. However, ecosystem services may be valued differently by different sections of society. This study sets out an approach for assessing the use and prioritization of freshwater ecosystem services by people in rural and urban areas in China. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 30 rural and 30 urban respondents in the same region of Shandong province. Respondents were asked about how they used their local river and to prioritize ecosystem services provided by the river. In addition, respondents were asked to state whether they would be prepared to pay to protect their local river. The rural community used more ecosystem services and prioritized them more highly than the urban community; probably because they interacted with them more frequently. The results of this study raise the question of whether there should be different ecosystem services protection goals for rural and urban regions, as well as highlighting potential trade-offs between ecosystem services prioritized by different sections of society.

Hydroclimatic and water quality trends across three Mediterranean river basins

Water resources are under pressure from multiple anthropogenic stressors such as changing climate, agriculture and water abstraction. This holds, in particular, for the Mediterranean region, where substantial changes in climate are expected throughout the 21st century. Nonetheless, little attention has been paid to linkages between long-term trends in climate, streamflow and water quality in Mediterranean river basins. In the present study, we perform a comparative analysis of recent trends in hydroclimatic parameters and nitrate pollution in three climatologically different Mediterranean watersheds (i.e., the Adige, Ebro and Sava River Basins). Mann-Kendall trend analyses of annual mean temperature, precipitation and streamflow (period 1971 to 2010) and monthly nitrate concentrations, mass fluxes and flow-adjusted concentrations (period 1996 to 2012) were performed in these river basins. Temperature is shown to have increased the most in the Ebro followed by the Sava, whereas minor increases are observed in the Adige. Precipitation presents, overall, a negative trend in the Ebro and a positive trend in both the Adige and Sava. These climatic trends thus suggest the highest risk of increasing water scarcity for the Ebro and the lowest risk for the Adige. This is confirmed by trend analyses of streamflow time series, which indicate a severe decline in streamflow for the Ebro and a substantial decline in the Sava, as opposed to the Adige showing no prevailing trend. Concerning surface water quality, nitrate pollution appears to have decreased in all study basins. Overall, these findings emphasize progressive reduction of water resources availability in river basins characterized by continental climate (i.e., Ebro and Sava). This study thus underlines the need for adapted river management in the Mediterranean region, particularly considering strong feedbacks between hydroclimatic trends, freshwater ecosystem services and water resources availability for agriculture, water supply and hydropower generation.

Fine sediment as environmental stressor affecting freshwater mussel behavior and ecosystem services

Fine sediment pollution is considered a major stressor for aquatic ecosystems and their biodiversity. In particular, fine sediments have been suggested to play a crucial role in the declines of freshwater mussels which are considered keystone fauna of streams and rivers. Whereas the effects of deposited fine sediments on recruitment failure are well known, effects of suspended fine sediments on adult mussel behavior are less studied. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of fine sediment exposure on freshwater mussel behavior and on mussel-dependent ecosystem services. Unio pictorum mussels were used to test three behavioral endpoints: Hall activity, transition frequency and relative water clearance rate. Mussels were exposed to fine sediments of different particle size classes (<45μm, 45–63μm, 63–125μm) and different concentration (0–10gL−1) of the smallest particle size class. Hall sensor technology and turbidity measurements were used to detect mussel behavior in presence of suspended sediments. Results revealed that mussels improve clearance of suspended particles out of the water column by 35%, independent of particle size class and concentration. Transition frequency was determined an unsuitable behavioral endpoint for non-soluble substances. Contrary to previous studies, we could demonstrate that fine sediments do not interfere with filtration by mussels and that mussels have a great influence on water purification, providing a valuable ecosystem service.

Global change impacts on river ecosystems: A high-resolution watershed study of Ebro river metabolism

Global change is transforming freshwater ecosystems, mainly through changes in basin flow dynamics. This study assessed how the combination of climate change and human management of river flow impacts metabolism of the Ebro River (the largest river basin in Spain, 86,100km2), assessed as gross primary production—GPP—and ecosystem respiration—ER.In order to investigate the influence of global change on freshwater ecosystems, an analysis of trends and frequencies from 25 sampling sites of the Ebro river basin was conducted. For this purpose, we examined the effect of anthropogenic flow control on river metabolism with a Granger causality study; simultaneously, took into account the effects of climate change, a period of extraordinary drought (largest in past 140years).We identified periods of sudden flow changes resulting from both human management and global climate effects. From 1998 to 2012, the Ebro River basin was trending toward a more autotrophic condition indicated by P/R ratio. Particularly, the results show that floods that occurred after long periods of low flows had a dramatic impact on the respiration (i.e., mineralization) capacity of the river.This approach allowed for a detailed characterization of the relationships between river metabolism and drought impacts at the watershed level. These findings may allow for a better understanding of the ecological impacts provoked by flow management, thus contributing to maintain the health of freshwater communities and ecosystem services that rely on their integrity.

Protected areas and freshwater provisioning: a global assessment of freshwater provision, threats and management strategies to support human water security

Abstract Protected areas, although often terrestrially focused and less frequently designed to protect freshwater resources, can be extremely important for conserving freshwater biodiversity and supporting human water security necessary for people to survive and thrive. This study measured the quantity of water that is being provided by protected areas to areas downstream, and how threatened protected areas are in terms of their water provision. Building on a Freshwater Provision Index, the numbers of people who live downstream from these protected areas around the world were then assessed. The same process was applied to areas where there are no protected areas. Protected areas deliver 20% of the global total of approximately 40 000 km3 year−1 of continental runoff. More than one‐quarter of water provisions supplied by the world's protected areas are exposed to low levels of threat and less than 10% are exposed to high levels of threat; this is compared with higher levels of threat for provisions from non‐protected areas, where nearly one quarter of the provisions are exposed to high threat and only 10% are exposed to low threat. Nearly two‐thirds of the global population is living downstream of the world's protected areas as potential users of freshwater provisions supplied by these areas. Despite the overall large volume of low‐threat water supplied by protected areas, globally 80% of the downstream human community users receive water from upstream protected areas under high threat, and no continent has less than 59% of its downstream users receiving water from upstream protected areas under high threat. Globally, increased attention to reduce the threats to fresh water in areas under protection, as well as designation and management of additional areas, are needed to safeguard freshwater flows, and support biodiversity conservation and the provision of freshwater ecosystem services. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.