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More than one million barriers fragment Europe’s rivers
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Barbara Belletti,
Carlos Garcia De Leaniz ,
Joshua Jones,
Simone Bizzi,
Luca Borger ,
Gilles Segura,
Andrea Castelletti,
Wouter van de Bund,
Kim Aarestrup,
James Barry,
Kamila Belka,
Arjan Berkhuysen,
Kim Birnie-Gauvin,
Martina Bussettini,
Mauro Carolli,
Sofia Consuegra del Olmo ,
Eduardo Dopico,
Tim Feierfeil,
Sara Fernández,
Pao Fernandez Garrido,
Eva Garcia-Vazquez,
Sara Garrido,
Guillermo Giannico,
Peter Gough,
Niels Jepsen,
Peter E. Jones,
Paul Kemp,
Jim Kerr,
James King,
Małgorzata Łapińska,
Gloria Lázaro,
Martyn C. Lucas,
Lucio Marcello,
Patrick Martin,
Phillip McGinnity,
Jesse O’Hanley,
Rosa Olivo del Amo,
Piotr Parasiewicz,
Martin Pusch,
Gonzalo Rincon,
Cesar Rodriguez,
Joshua Royte,
Claus Till Schneider,
Jeroen S. Tummers,
Sergio Vallesi,
Andrew Vowles,
Eric Verspoor,
Herman Wanningen,
Karl M. Wantzen,
Laura Wildman,
Maciej Zalewski
Nature, Volume: 588, Issue: 7838, Pages: 436 - 441
Swansea University Authors:
Josh Jones , Carlos Garcia De Leaniz , Luca Borger , Sofia Consuegra del Olmo
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DOI (Published version): 10.1038/s41586-020-3005-2
Abstract
Rivers support some of Earth’s richest biodiversity and provide essential ecosystemservices to society, but they are often fragmented by barriers to free flow. In Europe,attempts to quantify river connectivity have been hampered by the absence of aharmonized barrier database. Here we show that there...
| Published in: | Nature |
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| ISSN: | 0028-0836 1476-4687 |
| Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55914 |
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| Abstract: |
Rivers support some of Earth’s richest biodiversity and provide essential ecosystemservices to society, but they are often fragmented by barriers to free flow. In Europe,attempts to quantify river connectivity have been hampered by the absence of aharmonized barrier database. Here we show that there are at least 1.2 million instreambarriers in 36 European countries (with a mean density of 0.74 barriers per kilometre),68 per cent of which are structures less than two metres in height that are oftenoverlooked. Standardized walkover surveys along 2,715 kilometres of stream lengthfor 147 rivers indicate that existing records underestimate barrier numbers by about61 per cent. The highest barrier densities occur in the heavily modified rivers ofcentral Europe and the lowest barrier densities occur in the most remote, sparselypopulated alpine areas. Across Europe, the main predictors of barrier density areagricultural pressure, density of river-road crossings, extent of surface water andelevation. Relatively unfragmented rivers are still found in the Balkans, the Balticstates and parts of Scandinavia and southern Europe, but these require urgentprotection from proposed dam developments. Our findings could inform theimplementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which aims to reconnect 25,000kilometres of Europe’s rivers by 2030, but achieving this will require a paradigm shiftin river restoration that recognizes the widespread impacts caused by small barriers. |
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| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
EU Horizon 2020 |
| Issue: |
7838 |
| Start Page: |
436 |
| End Page: |
441 |