Parasiewicz, Piotr, Belka, Kamila, Łapińska, Małgorzata, Lawniczak, Karol, Prus, Pawel, Adamczyk, Mikołaj, Buras, Pawel, Szlakowski, Jacek, Kaczkowski, Zbigniew, Krauze, Kinga, and others. (2023) Over 200,000 kilometers of free-flowing river habitat in Europe is altered due to impoundments. Nature Communications, 14 (1). Article Number 6289. ISSN 2041-1723. (doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40922-6) (KAR id:102542)
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| Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40922-6 |
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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.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| DOI/Identification number: | 10.1038/s41467-023-40922-6 |
| Projects: | Amber |
| Uncontrolled keywords: | river typology, macrohabitats, habitat alteration, dams, barrier management, river fragmentation, habitat use guilds, habitat models |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences |
| Divisions: | Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Analytics, Operations and Systems |
| Funders: | European Union (https://ror.org/019w4f821) |
| Depositing User: | Jesse O'Hanley |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Aug 2023 11:06 UTC |
| Last Modified: | 21 Mar 2024 11:27 UTC |
| Resource URI: | https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/102542 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) |
University of Kent Author Information
O'Hanley, J.R..
| Creator's ORCID: |
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3522-8585
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