Result 1 - 10 of total 124
Conservation letters, 12(5):e12662
2019
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Document type | Article |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.
2018
Abstract: Freshwater ecosystems are essential to peoples' economic, cultural, and social well‐being, yet are still among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Consequently, a plethora of recent regulations and policies seek to halt the loss of restore or ... ...
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Freshwater ecosystems are essential to peoples' economic, cultural, and social well‐being, yet are still among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Consequently, a plethora of recent regulations and policies seek to halt the loss of restore or safeguard freshwaters, their biodiversity, and the ecosystem services they provide. Ecosystem‐based management (EBM), an approach that considers human society as an integral part of ecosystems, is increasingly being promoted to help meet this challenge. EBM involves an overarching regulatory framework and local solutions with trade‐offs and compromises—factors that not only make decision processes complex but also provide the means for combining top–down regulation with bottom‐up priorities into collaborative management strategies. Although stakeholder participation is encouraged in most modern freshwater management, community values are often largely neglected. Here, we introduce a well‐known participatory decision support framework based on multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) to operationalize EBM and promote community‐inclusive decision making in freshwater management. We explain the different steps that this approach comprises, which lead to the prioritization of a management strategy in a collaborative way. We also show how cultural values that inherently embed strong links between the environment and people can be used together with typical ecological and socio‐economic values. We illustrate the MCDA‐based EBM‐approach for New Zealand, one of the few countries in which regional freshwater management is mandated to uphold environmental quality standards, while safeguarding local community values and ecosystem services. Finally, we discuss some of the challenges, which are increasingly emerging as a result of mandated community collaboration in environmental management. |
| Keywords | MCDA ; Māori ; New Zealand ; collaborative ; community buy‐in ; bottom‐up ; indigenous values ; multicriteria decision analysis ; top‐down |
| Language | English |
| Document type | Article |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.
Ecological engineering, 127:404-416
2018
Abstract: Freshwater species are adapted to and depend on various discharge conditions, such as 32 indicators of hydrologic alteration (IHA). Knowing how these indicators will be altered under climate change is essential for predicting species response and to ... ...
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Freshwater species are adapted to and depend on various discharge conditions, such as 32 indicators of hydrologic alteration (IHA). Knowing how these indicators will be altered under climate change is essential for predicting species response and to develop mitigation concepts. The simulation of IHA under climate change is subject to considerable uncertainties which should be considered to obtain credible and robust predictions. Therefore, we investigated the major uncertainties inherent in climate change data and processing: general circulation model (GCM) and regional climate model (RCM) choice, representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenario, bias correction (BC) method, all within three mesoscale catchments in the European ecoregions: Central Plains, Central Highlands, and Alpine. Highest uncertainties were caused by the GCM and RCM choice, followed by the type of BC and the RCP. For the prediction, we reduced these uncertainties tailored to the ideal depiction of the IHA in each ecoregion. Together with a significance test, this enabled a robust depiction of the change in IHA for two future time periods. We found diverging changes within the ecoregions, caused by the complex interaction between precipitation, temperature and the governing catchment hydrological processes. The results provide an important basis for further impact research, especially for ecological freshwater studies. |
| Keywords | Climate change ; EURO-CORDEX ; Hydrological indicators ; Indicators of hydrologic alteration (IHA) ; Prediction ; Uncertainty |
| Language | English |
| Document type | Article |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.
Ecology and evolution, 8(6):3393-409
2018
Abstract: Global change has the potential to affect river flow conditions which are fundamental determinants of physical habitats. Predictions of the effects of flow alterations on aquatic biota have mostly been assessed based on species ecological traits (e.g., ... ...
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Global change has the potential to affect river flow conditions which are fundamental determinants of physical habitats. Predictions of the effects of flow alterations on aquatic biota have mostly been assessed based on species ecological traits (e.g., current preferences), which are difficult to link to quantitative discharge data. Alternatively, we used empirically derived predictive relationships for species’ response to flow to assess the effect of flow alterations due to climate change in two contrasting central European river catchments. Predictive relationships were set up for 294 individual species based on (1) abundance data from 223 sampling sites in the Kinzig lower‐mountainous catchment and 67 sites in the Treene lowland catchment, and (2) flow conditions at these sites described by five flow metrics quantifying the duration, frequency, magnitude, timing and rate of flow events using present‐day gauging data. Species’ abundances were predicted for three periods: (1) baseline (1998–2017), (2) horizon 2050 (2046–2065) and (3) horizon 2090 (2080–2099) based on these empirical relationships and using high‐resolution modeled discharge data for the present and future climate conditions. We compared the differences in predicted abundances among periods for individual species at each site, where the percent change served as a proxy to assess the potential species responses to flow alterations. Climate change was predicted to most strongly affect the low‐flow conditions, leading to decreased abundances of species up to −42%. Finally combining the response of all species over all metrics indicated increasing overall species assemblage responses in 98% of the studied river reaches in both projected horizons and were significantly larger in the lower‐mountainous Kinzig compared to the lowland Treene catchment. Such quantitative analyses of freshwater taxa responses to flow alterations provide valuable tools for predicting potential climate‐change impacts on species abundances and can be applied to any stressor, species, or region. |
| Keywords | community responses ; global-change effects ; flow changes ; flow preferences ; indicators of hydrologic alterations ; species abundances ; species responses |
| Language | English |
| Document type | Article |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.
Ecological indicators, 108:105618
2019
Abstract: Freshwater ecosystems in high-mountain regions are subject to emerging threats such as global warming and expanding human activities. Stream diatoms and macroinvertebrates form an essential component of freshwater ecosystems in high-mountain regions. ... ...
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Freshwater ecosystems in high-mountain regions are subject to emerging threats such as global warming and expanding human activities. Stream diatoms and macroinvertebrates form an essential component of freshwater ecosystems in high-mountain regions. Although these organisms are sensitive to environmental changes, knowledge regarding their elevational diversity patterns remains limited. Opposite aspects (e.g., north vs south; west vs east) usually receive different amounts of solar radiation and precipitation, leading to distinct in-stream characteristics such as discharge, flow regime, and water temperature. Despite the suggested strong influence of aspect on biodiversity patterns in mountains, its effect on stream diatoms and macroinvertebrates has been largely overlooked. The aims of our study were to 1) investigate whether macroinvertebrate and diatom taxon richness follows the same pattern along an elevational gradient; 2) test the effect of aspect on the elevational diversity (i.e., taxon richness and assemblage dissimilarity) patterns of macroinvertebrate and diatom assemblages; and 3) examine the relative importance of elevation, aspect, and the local environment (e.g., in-stream physicochemical variables) in shaping macroinvertebrate and diatom assemblages. We investigated macroinvertebrate and diatom assemblages in six nearly parallel streams (three streams on the east aspect and three on the west) in the Hengduan Mountains region. We found that the taxon richness of both macroinvertebrates and diatoms showed a monotonic increase with elevation (1623–2905 m a.s.l.) when aspect was not accounted for. When aspect was taken into consideration, macroinvertebrate taxon richness still showed a monotonically increasing elevational pattern on both the east and west aspects, but with significantly different model slopes, while a monotonical pattern for diatoms only remained on the west aspect. In addition, taxon richness of macroinvertebrates may also follow a potential unimodal pattern. The distance-decay relationships followed the same patterns as taxon richness, suggesting that the influence of aspect on diatom and macroinvertebrate assemblages was not negligible. Our results suggested that the diversity of both diatoms and macroinvertebrates was jointly determined by elevation, aspect and local environment. Compared to macroinvertebrates, the diatom assemblages were more strongly influenced by the local environment. To gain a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms driving elevational patterns of stream biodiversity in high-mountain regions, comparative studies that involve multiple organisms, streams, and mountains across a large elevational range are needed. |
| Keywords | Altitude ; Distance-decay relationship ; Hengduan Mountains ; High mountain stream ; Species richness ; Topography |
| Language | English |
| Document type | Article |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.
Scientific data, 5:180224
2018
Abstract: Hydrological variables are among the most influential when analyzing or modeling stream ecosystems. However, available hydrological data are often limited in their spatiotemporal scale and resolution for use in ecological applications such as predictive ... ...
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Hydrological variables are among the most influential when analyzing or modeling stream ecosystems. However, available hydrological data are often limited in their spatiotemporal scale and resolution for use in ecological applications such as predictive modeling of species distributions. To overcome this limitation, a regression model was applied to a 1 km gridded stream network of Germany to obtain estimated daily stream flow data (m3 s−1) spanning 64 years (1950–2013). The data are used as input to calculate hydrological indices characterizing stream flow regimes. Both temporal and spatial validations were performed. In addition, GLMs using both the calculated and observed hydrological indices were compared, suggesting that the predicted flow data are adequate for use in predictive ecological models. Accordingly, we provide estimated stream flow as well as a set of 53 hydrological metrics at 1 km grid for the stream network of Germany. In addition, we provide an R script where the presented methodology is implemented, that uses globally available data and can be directly applied to any other geographical region. |
| Keywords | Ecological modelling ; Freshwater ecology ; Hydrology |
| Language | English |
| Document type | Article |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.
forschungsbasierte Handlungsempfehlungen für eine nachhaltige Gewässerpolitik
(IGB Policy Brief)
2021
Abstract: Binnengewässer wie z.B. Flüsse und Seen gehören in Deutschland zu den am stärksten genutzten und bedrohten Ökosystemen. Der menschengemachte Klimawandel mit zunehmenden Wetterextremen wie Dürren und Überflutungen verschärft die Situation zusätzlich. Der ... ...
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei |
|---|---|
| Author's details | Herausgeber: Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB) im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. ; verantwortliche Autor*innen Jörn Geßner, Hans-Peter Grossart, Sonja Jähnig, Jonathan Jeschke, Martin Pusch, Christian Wolter ; Redaktion: Johannes Graupner |
| Series title | IGB Policy Brief |
| Abstract | Binnengewässer wie z.B. Flüsse und Seen gehören in Deutschland zu den am stärksten genutzten und bedrohten Ökosystemen. Der menschengemachte Klimawandel mit zunehmenden Wetterextremen wie Dürren und Überflutungen verschärft die Situation zusätzlich. Der rasante Rückgang der aquatischen Vielfalt gefährdet aber nicht nur Pflanzen und Tiere, sondern auch die menschlichen Lebensgrundlagen. Darauf weist das Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB) hin, Deutschlands größtes Forschungszentrum für Binnengewässer. Anlässlich der Bundestagswahl 2021 empfehlen die Wissenschaftler*innen der Politik daher, in der neuen Legislaturperiode dringend Maßnahmen gegen den massiven Rückgang der aquatischen Biodiversität zu ergreifen und damit auch die vielen wichtigen Ökosystemleistungen der Binnengewässer für den Menschen abzusichern, z.B. genügend und sauberes Trinkwasser, natürlicher Hochwasserschutz, Schadstoffrückhalt und Erholungsräume. Da unser Leben und unsere Gesellschaft vom Wasser abhängen, sollte die Gewässerpolitik als ressortübergreifend notwendige Vorsorgepolitik zur Zukunftssicherung mit großem Synergiepotenzial verstanden werden. Die Bundespolitik sollte hier eine stärker gestaltende Rolle einnehmen, die Länder und Kommunen unterstützen und auch international die gewässerbezogene Biodiversitätspolitik vorantreiben. Politik und Verwaltung müssten zudem dringend dem großen Umsetzungsdefizit der europäischen Umweltgesetzgebung in Deutschland (z.B. Wasserrahmenrichtlinie und Flora-Fauna-Habitatrichtline) begegnen. In der nächsten Legislaturperiode können dafür bedeutende Weichenstellungen getroffen werden. Daher formulieren die IGB-Forscher*innen sieben Handlungsempfehlungen für eine nachhaltige Gewässerpolitik. |
| Subject code | 333 ; 551 |
| Language | German |
| Size | 1 Online-Ressource (10 Seiten), Illustrationen |
| Publisher | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB) im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V |
| Publishing place | Berlin |
| Publishing country | Germany |
| Document type | Book ; Online |
| Note | Mit Ausnahme von Fotos und Abbildungen ist der Inhalt dieses Dokuments lizenziert unter einer Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 Germany (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ; Open Access |
| HBZ-ID | HT021068185 |
| DOI | 10.4126/FRL01-006429158 |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.
Diversity & distributions, 25(5):758–769
2019
Abstract: AIM: Systematic conservation planning is vital for allocating protected areas given the spatial distribution of conservation features, such as species. Due to incomplete species inventories, species distribution models (SDMs) are often used for ... ...
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei |
|---|---|
| Abstract | AIM: Systematic conservation planning is vital for allocating protected areas given the spatial distribution of conservation features, such as species. Due to incomplete species inventories, species distribution models (SDMs) are often used for predicting species’ habitat suitability and species’ probability of occurrence. Currently, SDMs mostly ignore spatial dependencies in species and predictor data. Here, we provide a comparative evaluation of how accounting for spatial dependencies, that is, autocorrelation, affects the delineation of optimized protected areas. LOCATION: Southeast Australia, Southeast U.S. Continental Shelf, Danube River Basin. METHODS: We employ Bayesian spatially explicit and non‐spatial SDMs for terrestrial, marine and freshwater species, using realm‐specific planning unit shapes (grid, hexagon and subcatchment, respectively). We then apply the software gurobi to optimize conservation plans based on species targets derived from spatial and non‐spatial SDMs (10%–50% each to analyse sensitivity), and compare the delineation of the plans. RESULTS: Across realms and irrespective of the planning unit shape, spatially explicit SDMs (a) produce on average more accurate predictions in terms of AUC, TSS, sensitivity and specificity, along with a higher species detection probability. All spatial optimizations meet the species conservation targets. Spatial conservation plans that use predictions from spatially explicit SDMs (b) are spatially substantially different compared to those that use non‐spatial SDM predictions, but (c) encompass a similar amount of planning units. The overlap in the selection of planning units is smallest for conservation plans based on the lowest targets and vice versa. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: Species distribution models are core tools in conservation planning. Not surprisingly, accounting for the spatial characteristics in SDMs has drastic impacts on the delineation of optimized conservation plans. We therefore encourage practitioners to consider spatial dependencies in conservation features to improve the spatial representation of future protected areas. |
| Keywords | Bayesian hierarchical modelling ; GUROBI ; connectivity ; integer linear programming ; spatial unit ; spatial autocorrelation |
| Language | English |
| Document type | Article |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.
Water, 9(4):188
2017
Abstract: Given the scientific consensus that climate change is impacting biodiversity, estimates of future climate change effects on stream communities and assessments of potential biases are necessary. Here, we propose a simple technique to approximate changes ... ...
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Given the scientific consensus that climate change is impacting biodiversity, estimates of future climate change effects on stream communities and assessments of potential biases are necessary. Here, we propose a simple technique to approximate changes in invertebrate and fish biomonitoring results. Taxa lists for 60 (invertebrate) and 52 (fish) sites were each modified by 10 multipliers as stepwise 5% or 10% changes in abundances to simulate potential climate-change severity, reflecting increasing climate change effects. These 10 multipliers were based on the stream zonation preference for invertebrates and the Fish Region Index (FRI) values for fish, both reflecting the longitudinal gradient present in river ecosystems. The original and modified taxa lists were analyzed using the standard assessment software for the particular group, followed by analysis of key biomonitoring metrics. For invertebrates, our simulations affected small good quality streams more often negatively while large poor mountain streams showed a tendency to improve. Forty percent of the invertebrate data sites showed a change in the final ecological assessment class when using the multipliers, with the poor quality sites changing more often. For fish, metric changes were variable, but the FRI ratio showed mostly positive responses, i.e., a shift in FRI towards downstream communities. The results are discussed as an example that facilitates the interpretation of potential climate-change effects with varying severity. Further, we discuss the simplified approach and implications for assessment from climate change induced range shifts. |
| Keywords | climate change ; benthic invertebrates ; fish ; fish regions ; stream zonation ; water framework directive (WFD) |
| Language | English |
| Document type | Article |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.
Ecological indicators, 79:163-72
2017
Abstract: Current knowledge regarding the flow preferences of benthic stream invertebrates is mostly based on qualitative data or expert knowledge and literature analysis. These established flow preferences are difficult to use in predictions of the effects of ... ...
| Institution | Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Current knowledge regarding the flow preferences of benthic stream invertebrates is mostly based on qualitative data or expert knowledge and literature analysis. These established flow preferences are difficult to use in predictions of the effects of global change on aquatic biota. To complement the existing categories, we performed a large-scale analysis on the distribution of stream invertebrates at stream monitoring sites in order to determine their responses to various hydrological conditions. We used 325 invertebrate surveys from environmental agencies at 238 sites paired to 217 gauges across Germany covering a broad range of hydrological conditions. Based on these data, we modelled the respective probabilities of occurrences for 120 benthic invertebrate taxa within this hydrological range using hierarchical logistic regression models. Our analyses revealed that more than one-third of the taxa (18–40%) can be considered as ubiquitous and having a broad hydrological tolerance. Furthermore, 22–41% of the taxa responded to specific ranges of flow conditions with detectable optima. “Duration high flow event” represented the flow parameter that correlated best with the abundance of individual taxa, followed by “rate of change average event”, with 41 and 38% of the taxa showing a peak in their probability of occurrence at specific ranges of these metrics, respectively. The habitat suitability for these taxa may be potentially affected by global change-induced hydrological changes. Quantified hydrological traits of individual taxa might therefore support stream management and enable the prediction of taxa responses to flow alteration. The hydrological traits of stream benthic invertebrates may be used in forecasting studies in central Europe, and the methods used in this study are suitable for application in other regions with different flow regimes. |
| Keywords | Benthic invertebrates ; Global change ; Ecological tolerance ; Hydrology ; Hydrological metrics ; Hydrological extremes ; Hydrological traits |
| Language | English |
| Document type | Article |
| Database | Repository for Life Sciences |
Your chosen title can be delivered directly to ZB MED Cologne location if you are registered as a user at ZB MED Cologne.