Environmental water quantity projections under market-driven and sustainability-driven future scenarios in the Narew basin, Poland

The aim of this article is to assess the impact of four scenarios combining possible changes in climate, atmospheric carbon dioxide, land use and water use by 2050, on the specific set of ecologically relevant flow regime indicators that define environmental flow requirements in a semi-natural river basin in Poland. This aim is presented through a modelling case study using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Indicators show both positive and negative responses to future changes. Warm projections from the IPSL-CM4 global climate model combined with sustainable land- and water-use projections (SuE) produce the most negative changes, while warm and wet projections from the MIROC3.2 model combined with market-driven projections (EcF) gave the most positive changes. Climate change overshadows land- and water-use change in terms of the magnitude of projected flow alterations. The future of environmental water quantity is brighter under the market-driven rather than the sustainability-driven scenario, which shows that sustainability for terrestrial ecosystems (e.g. more forests and grasslands) can be at variance with sustainability for riverine and riparian ecosystems (requiring sufficient amount and proper timing of river flows)

Responses of fish and invertebrates to floods and droughts in Europe

Floods and droughts, two opposite natural components of streamflow regimes, are known to regulate population size and species diversity. Quantifiable measures of these disturbances and their subsequent ecological responses are needed to synthesize the knowledge on flow–ecosystem relationships. This study for the first time combines the systematic review approach used to collect evidence on the ecological responses to floods and droughts in Europe with the statistical methods used to quantify the extreme events severity. Out of 854 publications identified in literature search, 54 papers were retained after screening and eligibility checks, providing in total 82 case studies with unique extreme event—ecological response associations for which data were extracted. In this way, a database with metadata of case studies that can be explored with respect to various factors was constructed. This study pinpointed the research gaps where little evidence could be synthesized, for example, drought event studies and fish studies. It was demonstrated that in many cases the studied metrics (abundance, density, richness, and diversity) showed statistically significant decreases after or during the event occurrence. The responses in invertebrate density and richness were in general more negative than the corresponding responses in fish. Biota resistance to floods was found to be lower than the resistance to droughts. The severity of extreme events was not found to be an important factor influencing ecological metrics, although this analysis was often hampered by insufficient number of case studies. Conceivably, other factors could mask any existing relationships between disturbance severity and biotic response

Responses of fish and invertebrates to floods and droughts in Europe

Floods and droughts, two opposite natural components of streamflow regimes, are known to regulate population size and species diversity. Quantifiable measures of these disturbances and their subsequent ecological responses are needed to synthesize the knowledge on flow–ecosystem relationships. This study for the first time combines the systematic review approach used to collect evidence on the ecological responses to floods and droughts in Europe with the statistical methods used to quantify the extreme events severity. Out of 854 publications identified in literature search, 54 papers were retained after screening and eligibility checks, providing in total 82 case studies with unique extreme event—ecological response associations for which data were extracted. In this way, a database with metadata of case studies that can be explored with respect to various factors was constructed. This study pinpointed the research gaps where little evidence could be synthesized, for example, drought event studies and fish studies. It was demonstrated that in many cases the studied metrics (abundance, density, richness, and diversity) showed statistically significant decreases after or during the event occurrence. The responses in invertebrate density and richness were in general more negative than the corresponding responses in fish. Biota resistance to floods was found to be lower than the resistance to droughts. The severity of extreme events was not found to be an important factor influencing ecological metrics, although this analysis was often hampered by insufficient number of case studies. Conceivably, other factors could mask any existing relationships between disturbance severity and biotic response

A multi-scale hierarchical framework for developing understanding of river behaviour to support river management

The work leading to this paper was funded through the European Union’s FP7 programme under Grant Agreement No. 282656 (REFORM). The framework methodology was developed within the context of Deliverable D2.1 of the REFORM programme, and all partners who contributed to the development of the four parts of this deliverable are included in the author list of this paper. More details on the REFORM framework can be obtained from part 1 of Deliverable D2.1 (Gurnell et al. 2014), which is downloadable from http://​www.​reformrivers.​eu/​results/​deliverables

Ochrona naturalnych mokradeł - przykłady konfliktów

Wetlands as one of the most valuable ecosystems are subjects of legal protection. Except ecological value they play important role in water management. Wetlands slow down the outflow of water from river basins and protect the water quality in the agricultural area. Therefore many artificial wetlands are constructed in some countries. The most valuable natural wetlands are protected as National Parks - the highest form of protection. Maintaining high degree of moisture of soil that is a condition that must be fulfilled to preserve the value of these areas can cause conflicts in using the adjacent areas. The paper presents an analysis of conflict situations that occurred in the Biebrza, Narew and Kampinos National Parks. Drainage of the excess water from the built-up area or from the areas used for agricultural purposes interferes with the natural flow regime in the protected areas. The analysis allowed identifying the possible compromise solutions.Konieczność ochrony terenów mokradłowych nie budzi wątpliwości. Są to zazwyczaj obszary o dużych walorach przyrodniczych, tworzące siedlisko o dużej różnorodności biologicznej. Zachowanie takich obszarów wynika nie tylko z ich dużych walorów przyrodniczych, ale są one bardzo ważnym czynnikiem, wpływającym na jakość i ilość zasobów wody. Powodując spowolnienie odpływu wody ze zlewni, ograniczają transport związków biogennych, a tym samym przyczyniają się do ochrony jakości wód powierzchniowych i podziemnych na terenach rolniczych. Zachowanie mokradeł, mimo powszechnej akceptacji stwarza wiele sytuacji konfliktowych. Zachowanie cennych walorów przyrodniczych wymaga utrzymania dużego uwilgotnienia gleb i wysokiego poziomu wód podziemnych. W przypadku, gdy chronione tereny lub przyległe do nich są użytkowane przez rolników lub znajdują się tam zabudowania, występuje wyraźny konflikt interesów. W artykule przedstawiono analizę konfliktów, które wystąpiły za granicą trzech parków narodowych: Kampinoskiego, Narwiańskiego i Biebrzańskiego. Opisano źródło tych konfliktów i ewentualne możliwości pogodzenia interesów przyrody z interesami gospodarczymi (użytkowanie łąk i pastwisk, zabudowa mieszkaniowa). Dotyczyły one głównie potrzeb i ograniczeń utrzymania rzek, poprzez okresowe usuwanie roślinności z koryta rzeki oraz jego odmulania. Zarastające koryta rzeki powodują podwyższenie poziomów wody w ciekach i zwiększenie uwilgotnienia gleby, co skutkuje niekorzystnymi warunkami wodnymi dla roślin uprawnych lub powoduje zalania dróg i terenów zabudowanych