The impact of river regulation on the biodiversity intactness of floodplain wetlands

TY - JOUR

T1 - The impact of river regulation on the biodiversity intactness of floodplain wetlands

AU - Kuiper, J.J.

AU - Janse, J.H.

AU - Teurlincx, S.

AU - Verhoeven, J.T.A.

AU - Alkemade, R.

N1 - Reporting year: 2014 5708, AqE Data archiving: no data; property of PBL

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Alteration of natural flow regime is considered a major threat to biodiversity in river floodplain ecosystems. Measurements of quantitative relationships between flow regime change and biodiversity are, however, incomplete and inconclusive. This hampers the assessment of human impact on riverine floodplain wetlands in global biodiversity evaluations. We systematically reviewed the scientific literature and extracted information from existing data sets for a meta-analysis to unravel a general quantitative understanding of the ecological consequences of altered flow regimes. From 28 studies we retrieved both ecological and hydrological data. Relative mean abundance of original species (mean species abundance, MSA) and relative species richness were used as effect size measures of biodiversity intactness. The meta-analysis showed that alteration of a natural flow regime reduces the MSA by more than 50 % on average, and species richness by more than 25 %. Impact on species richness and abundance tends to be related to the degree of hydrological alteration. These results can be used in strategic quantitative assessments by incorporating the relationships into global models on environmental change and biodiversity such as GLOBIO-aquatic.

AB - Alteration of natural flow regime is considered a major threat to biodiversity in river floodplain ecosystems. Measurements of quantitative relationships between flow regime change and biodiversity are, however, incomplete and inconclusive. This hampers the assessment of human impact on riverine floodplain wetlands in global biodiversity evaluations. We systematically reviewed the scientific literature and extracted information from existing data sets for a meta-analysis to unravel a general quantitative understanding of the ecological consequences of altered flow regimes. From 28 studies we retrieved both ecological and hydrological data. Relative mean abundance of original species (mean species abundance, MSA) and relative species richness were used as effect size measures of biodiversity intactness. The meta-analysis showed that alteration of a natural flow regime reduces the MSA by more than 50 % on average, and species richness by more than 25 %. Impact on species richness and abundance tends to be related to the degree of hydrological alteration. These results can be used in strategic quantitative assessments by incorporating the relationships into global models on environmental change and biodiversity such as GLOBIO-aquatic.

KW - national

U2 - 10.1007/s11273-014-9360-8

DO - 10.1007/s11273-014-9360-8

M3 - Article

SN - 0923-4861

VL - 22

SP - 647

EP - 658

JO - Wetlands Ecology and Management

JF - Wetlands Ecology and Management

IS - 6

ER -