Climate Change and River Ecosystems: Protection and Adaptation Options |
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Authors: | Margaret A Palmer Dennis P Lettenmaier N LeRoy Poff Sandra L Postel Brian Richter Richard Warner |
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Institution: | (1) Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, P.O. Box 38, Solomons, MD 20688-0038, USA;(2) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, 202D Wilson Ceramic Lab, Box 352700, Seattle, WA 8195-2700, USA;(3) Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA;(4) Global Water Policy Project, 434 W. Highway 6, Los Lunas, NM 87031, USA;(5) The Nature Conservancy, 490 Westfield Road, Charlottesville, VA 22901, USA;(6) Chemonics International, 1717 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006, USA |
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Abstract: | Rivers provide a special suite of goods and services valued highly by the public that are inextricably linked to their flow
dynamics and the interaction of flow with the landscape. Yet most rivers are within watersheds that are stressed to some extent
by human activities including development, dams, or extractive uses. Climate change will add to and magnify risks that are
already present through its potential to alter rainfall, temperature, runoff patterns, and to disrupt biological communities
and sever ecological linkages. We provide an overview of the predicted impacts based on published studies to date, discuss
both reactive and proactive management responses, and outline six categories of management actions that will contribute substantially
to the protection of valuable river assets. To be effective, management must be place-based focusing on local watershed scales
that are most relevant to management scales. The first priority should be enhancing environmental monitoring of changes and
river responses coupled with the development of local scenario-building exercises that take land use and water use into account.
Protection of a greater number of rivers and riparian corridors is essential, as is conjunctive groundwater/surface water
management. This will require collaborations among multiple partners in the respective river basins and wise land use planning
to minimize additional development in watersheds with valued rivers. Ensuring environmental flows by purchasing or leasing
water rights and/or altering reservoir release patterns will be needed for many rivers. Implementing restoration projects
proactively can be used to protect existing resources so that expensive reactive restoration to repair damage associated with
a changing climate is minimized. Special attention should be given to diversifying and replicating habitats of special importance
and to monitoring populations at high risk or of special value so that management interventions can occur if the risks to
habitats or species increase significantly over time. |
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