Cross-continental evaluation of landscape-scale drivers and their impacts to fluvial fishes: Understanding frequency and severity to improve fish conservation in Europe and the United States

Fluvial fishes are threatened globally from intensive human landscape stressors degrading aquatic ecosystems. However, impacts vary regionally, as stressors and natural environmental factors differ between ecoregions and continents. To date, a comparison of fish responses to landscape stressors over continents is lacking, limiting understanding of consistency of impacts and hampering efficiencies in conserving fishes over large regions. This study addresses these shortcomings through a novel, integrative assessment of fluvial fishes throughout Europe and the conterminous United States. Using large-scale datasets, including information on fish assemblages from more than 30,000 locations on both continents, we identified threshold responses of fishes summarized by functional traits to landscape stressors including agriculture, pasture, urban area, road crossings, and human population density. After summarizing stressors by catchment unit (local and network) and constraining analyses by stream size (creeks vs. rivers), we analyzed stressor frequency (number of significant thresholds) and stressor severity (value of identified thresholds) within ecoregions across Europe and the United States. We document hundreds of responses of fish metrics to multi-scale stressors in ecoregions across two continents, providing rich findings to aid in understanding and comparing threats to fishes across the study regions. Collectively, we found that lithophilic species and, as expected, intolerant species are most sensitive to stressors in both continents, while migratory and rheophilic species are similarly strongly affected in the United States. Also, urban land use and human population density were most frequently associated with declines in fish assemblages, underscoring the pervasiveness of these stressors in both continents. This study offers an unprecedented comparison of landscape stressor effects on fluvial fishes in a consistent and comparable manner, supporting conservation of freshwater habitats in both continents and worldwide

Manual for the application of the new European Fish Index - EFI+. A fish-based method to assess the ecological status of European running waters in support of the Water Framework Directive.

This manual describes the new European Fish Index – EFI+ - and its application software. The EFI+ software and manual have been developed within the EFI+ project. The EFI+ project was funded by the European Commission (EC) under the 6th Framework Programme, “Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development”, Key Action 1: Sustainable Management and Quality of Water of the European Commission (Specific Targeted Research Project FP6-2005-SSP-5-A, Task 4: Ecological status assessment – filling the gaps). In the year 2000, the EC adopted a new legislation, the Water Framework Directive (WFD). This new legislation, now implemented in 27 EU member countries, aims for good ecological conditions in all surface waters. Fishes are, for the first time, part of a European-wide monitoring network designed to assess the ecological status of running waters. Between 2001 and 2004 the EC funded the FAME project developed, evaluated and implemented new standardised fish-based methods to assess the ecological status of running waters in Europe (FP5, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Management. Key Action 1: Sustainable Management and Quality of Water, EVK1-CT-2001-00094, http://fame.boku.ac.at).The main output of the FAME project was the European Fish Index (EFI), the first standardised fish-based assessment method applicable across a wide range of European rivers. The EFI employs a number of environmental descriptors to predict biological reference conditions and then quantifies the deviation of the fish community structure from these reference conditions on a statistical basis. The EFI was developed mainly based on data from Western and Northern Europe and was calibrated against estimates of human pressures and impacts. Although a wide range of river types was included in the development of the EFI, some river types, e.g. very large rivers, were underrepresented. The EFI has now been tested by European countries within their national monitoring programmes and has been evaluated for use for reporting under the WFD. During this evaluation process a number of limitations were observed in the performance of the index. Therefore, the overall objective of the EFI+ project was to overcome the existing limitations of the EFI by developing a new, more accurate and pan-European fish index. The scientific and technological objectives were to (1) evaluate the applicability of the existing EFI and make necessary improvements in Central-Eastern Europe and Mediterranean ecoregions; (2) extend the scope of the existing EFI to cover large rivers; (3) analyse relationships between hydromorphological pressures (including continuity disruption) and fish assemblages to increase the accuracy of the EFI; (4) adapt the existing software to the requirements of the EFI+ to allow calculation of the ecological status for running waters. This manual is divided in two parts. Part I introduces the concepts and methods on which the EFI+ is based. This section gives an overview of the development of the new European Fish Index and its achievements to fulfil the objectives of the Water Framework Directive in terms of using fishes as indicators for assessing the ecological status of running waters. Part II is the instruction manual to the web-based software. It details the fish assemblage and environmental data required and the process for obtaining scores and classification of the ecological status of a sampling site (or set of sampling sites) using the EFI+ online software

An assessment of the state of conservation planning in Europe

Expanding and managing current habitat and species protection measures is at the heart of the European biodiversity strategy. A structured approach to gain insights into such issues is systematic conservation planning, which utilizes techniques from decision theory to identify places and actions that contribute most effectively to policy objectives given a set of constraints. Yet culturally and historically determined European landscapes make the implementation of any conservation plans challenging, requiring an analysis of synergies and trade-offs before implementation. In this work, we review the scientific literature for evidence of previous conservation planning approaches, highlighting recent advances and success stories. We find that the conceptual characteristics of European conservation planning studies likely reduced their potential in contributing to better-informed decisions. We outline pathways towards improving the uptake of decision theory and multi-criteria conservation planning at various scales, particularly highlighting the need for (a) open data and intuitive tools, (b) the integration of biodiversity-focused conservation planning with multiple objectives, (c) accounting of dynamic ecological processes and functions, and (d) better facilitation of entry-points and codesign practices of conservation planning scenarios with stakeholders. By adopting & improving these practices, European conservation planning might become more actionable and adaptable towards implementable policy outcomes

Making waves. Bridging theory and practice towards multiple stressor management in freshwater ecosystems

Embargo until February 26, 2023Despite advances in conceptual understanding, single-stressor abatement approaches remain common in the management of fresh waters, even though they can produce unexpected ecological responses when multiple stressors interact. Here we identify limitations restricting the development of multiple-stressor management strategies and address these, bridging theory and practice, within a novel empirical framework. Those critical limitations include that (i) monitoring schemes fall short of accounting for theory on relationships between multiple-stressor interactions and ecological responses, (ii) current empirical modelling approaches neglect the prevalence and intensity of multiple-stressor interactions, and (iii) mechanisms of stressor interactions are often poorly understood. We offer practical recommendations for the use of empirical models and experiments to predict the effects of freshwater degradation in response to changes in multiple stressors, demonstrating this approach in a case study. Drawing on our framework, we offer practical recommendations to support the development of effective management strategies in three general multiple-stressor scenarios.acceptedVersio

People need freshwater biodiversity

Freshwater biodiversity, from fish to frogs and microbes to macrophytes, provides a vast array of services to people. Mounting concerns focus on the accelerating pace of biodiversity loss and declining ecological function within freshwater ecosystems that continue to threaten these natural benefits. Here, we catalog nine fundamental ecosystem services that the biotic components of indigenous freshwater biodiversity provide to people, organized into three categories: material (food; health and genetic resources; material goods), non-material (culture; education and science; recreation), and regulating (catchment integrity; climate regulation; water purification and nutrient cycling). If freshwater biodiversity is protected, conserved, and restored in an integrated manner, as well as more broadly appreciated by humanity, it will continue to contribute to human well-being and our sustainable future via this wide range of services and associated nature-based solutions to our sustainable future

Specific and multiple human pressures and their impacts on fish assemblages in European running waters

In der Gewässerökologie sind zwar Auswirkungen menschlicher Eingriffe auf Fließgewässer und deren Lebensgemeinschaften bekannt, die genauen Zusammenhänge wurden jedoch noch nie umfassend europaweit untersucht. Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht daher die Wirkung von menschlichen Eingriffen auf Fischartenvergesellschaftungen, die als biologische Indikatoren dienen. Basierend auf einem großflächigen Datensatz (9330 Probestellen in 14 europäischen Ländern) wurden verschiedene menschliche Eingriffe wie z.B. hydrologische und morphologische Belastungen, Wasserqualitätsprobleme und unterbrochene Durchgängigkeit sowie deren Kombinationen untersucht. Diese Eingriffsmuster wurden einer großen Anzahl von „Fisch-Metriks“, d.h. Variablen, welche die Fischartenvergesellschaftungen beschreiben, gegenübergestellt und Zusammenhänge statistisch getestet, um die Reaktion der Fischfauna auf verschiedene Eingriffsmuster aufzuzeigen. Weiters wurden die kumulativen Auswirkungen diverser Landnutzungsformen auf Fisch-Metriks in verschiedenen Flusstypen in Österreich untersucht. Die vorliegenden Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Degradierung der Europäischen Fließgewässer weit fortgeschritten ist. Wasserqualitätsprobleme als singuläre Belastungen kommen nicht sehr häufig vor, aber hydromorphologische Eingriffe bzw. eine Kombination beider Eingriffstypen. Darüber hinaus reagieren die analysierten Fisch-Metriks europaweit speziell auf Wasserqualitätsprobleme sowie hydromorphologische Belastungen in drei Fließgewässertypen sowie auf Mehrfacheingriffe in allen untersuchten Gewässertypen und unterstützen somit einen gewässertypspezifischen Ansatz. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit leisten einen wichtigen Beitrag, um die Auswirkungen menschlicher Eingriffe auf die Fischfauna auf europäischer Ebene aufzuzeigen. ^Darüber hinaus tragen sie zur Weiterentwicklung von Ursache-Wirkungsketten verschiedener Eingriffsarten bei, die als Basis für die Revitalisierung und Renaturierung von Fließgewässern dienen.Environmental conditions across whole landscapes impact instream habitats and biological communities. However, these linkages are often not well understood and have not been synthesized for European running waters. Investigators now recognize that human pressures and land-use patterns are a threat to function and ecological integrity of aquatic ecosystems, as they are impacting habitats, water quality, and the biota through complex pathways and on different spatial scales. This dissertation builds on the understanding of how human pressures affect running waters using fish assemblages as indicators. Based on a large European dataset, various human pressures as hydrological, morphological, water quality and connectivity pressures and their combinations were investigated, to find patterns and relationships across Europe. Moreover, pressures were compared with a large number of fish assemblage metrics to show the response of the fish fauna to pressures. In addition, the effect of land use composition on fish assemblages was investigated at the Austrian scale. The results show that the degradation of European rivers is widespread. Water quality degradation as a single pressure is not very common, but many sites are affected by hydromorphological pressures or a combination of pressures (water quality pressures interacting with hydromorphological pressures). Moreover, the analysed fish metrics responded specifically to water quality pressures and hydromorphological pressures in three river types and to multiple pressures in all river types. The fact that many metrics reacted exclusively within one river type supports the hypothesis of a type-specific approach. The current findings help to uncover processes and effects of human pressures on fish assemblages on the European scale. Moreover, they contribute to the further development of cause-effect pathways for selected river types, which is especially important for European river management and restoration.composed and submitted by Rafaela SchineggerZsfassung in dt. SpracheWien, Univ. für Bodenkultur, Diss., 2013OeBB(VLID)193053

Background data: Untangling the effects of multiple human stressors and their impacts on fish assemblages in European running waters

<p>This dataset presents some backkground data from the EFI+ database. Related work addresses human stressors and their impacts on fish assemblages at pan-European scale by analysing single and multiple stressors and their interactions. Based on an extensive dataset with 3105 fish sampling sites, patterns of stressors, their combination and nature of interactions, i.e. synergistic, antagonistic and additive were investigated. </p> <p>Data were derived within the EU-project "Improvement and Spatial extension of the European Fish Index (EFI+)". EFI+, an EU FP6 research project from 2007-2009 was designed to gain new knowledge and to further develop and improve new biological assessment methods to meet needs of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). </p> <p>Background data are available for boxplots and barplots shown in the related research article in STOTEN.</p

Background data: Hy:Con: A Strategic Tool For Balancing Hydropower Development And Conservation Needs

<p>Background data to the publication "Hy:Con: A Strategic Tool For Balancing Hydropower Development And Conservation Needs"</p