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Effects of Hydrologic Alterations on the Ecological Quality of River Ecosystems

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Water Scarcity in the Mediterranean

Part of the book series: The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry ((HEC,volume 8))

Abstract

In most of the world’s watercourses, dramatic modifications have occurred as a consequence of intensive use by human societies. The simplification of the channel network and the alteration of water fluxes have an impact upon the capacity of fluvial systems to recover from disturbances, because of their irreversible consequences. However, human impacts on river hydrology, such as those that derive from regulating their flow or by affecting their channel geomorphology, affect the functional organisation of streams, as well as the ecosystem services that derive from them, and lead to the simplification and impoverishment of these ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

This review has been funded through projects of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (CGL2007-65549/BOS), the VIECO programme (009/RN08/011) of the Spanish Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Foundation project GLOBRIO, and by the EC project MODELKEY (Contract 511237-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona, Girona, Spain

    Sergi Sabater

  2. Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), 17003, Girona, Spain

    Sergi Sabater

  3. Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, IGB, Berlin, Germany

    Klement Tockner

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  1. Inst. d’Ecologia Aquàtica, Universitat de Girona, Campus Montivili, Girona, 17071, Spain

    Sergi Sabater

  2. Instituto Investigaciones Químicas y, Ambientales de Barcelona (IIQAB), CSIC Barcelona, Jordi Girona 18-26, Barcelona, 08034, Spain

    Damià Barceló

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Sabater, S., Tockner, K. (2009). Effects of Hydrologic Alterations on the Ecological Quality of River Ecosystems. In: Sabater, S., Barceló, D. (eds) Water Scarcity in the Mediterranean. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry(), vol 8. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2009_24

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