Over 200,000 kilometers of free-flowing river habitat in Europe is altered due to impoundments

Parasiewicz, Piotr; Belka, Kamila; Łapińska, Małgorzata; Ławniczak, Karol; Prus, Paweł; Adamczyk, Mikołaj; Buras, Paweł; Szlakowski, Jacek; Kaczkowski, Zbigniew; Krauze, Kinga; O’Keeffe, Joanna; Suska, Katarzyna; Ligięza, Janusz; Melcher, Andreas; O’Hanley, Jesse; Birnie-Gauvin, Kim; Aarestrup, Kim; Jones, Peter E.; Jones, Joshua; Garcia de Leaniz, Carlos; Tummers, Jeroen S.; Consuegra, Sofia; Kemp, Paul; Schwedhelm, Hannah; Popek, Zbigniew; Segura, Gilles; Vallesi, Sergio; Zalewski, Maciej; Wiśniewolski, Wiesław

Abstract

European rivers are disconnected by more than one million man-made barriers that physically limit aquatic species migration and contribute to modification of freshwater habitats. Here, a Conceptual Habitat Alteration Model for Ponding is developed to aid in evaluating the effects of impoundments on fish habitats. Fish communities present in rivers with low human impact and their broad environmental settings enable classification of European rivers into 15 macrohabitat types. These classifications, together with the estimated fish sensitivity to alteration of their habitat are used for assessing the impacts of six main barrier types (dams, weirs, sluices, culverts, fords, and ramps). Our results indicate that over 200,000 km or 10% of previously free-flowing river habitat has been altered due to impoundments. Although they appear less frequently, dams, weirs and sluices cause much more habitat alteration than the other types. Their impact is regionally diverse, which is a function of barrier height, type and density, as well as biogeographical location. This work allows us to foresee what potential environmental gain or loss can be expected with planned barrier management actions in rivers, and to prioritize management actions.

Citation

Parasiewicz, P., Belka, K., Łapińska, M., Ławniczak, K., Prus, P., Adamczyk, M., …Wiśniewolski, W. (2023). Over 200,000 kilometers of free-flowing river habitat in Europe is altered due to impoundments. Nature Communications, 14(1), Article 6289. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40922-6

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 3, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Oct 9, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Oct 16, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 16, 2023
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 6289
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40922-6
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1797644