Flow regulation by dams affects ecosystem metabolism in Mediterranean rivers

Freshwater Biology

Volumn 59, Issue 9, 2014, Pages 1816-1829

  Aristi, Ibon ^a   Arroita, Maite ^a   Larrañaga, Aitor ^a   Ponsatí, Lydia ^b   Sabater, Sergi ^b,c   von Schiller, Daniel ^b   Elosegi, Arturo ^a   Acuña, Vicenç ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY UPV EHU   (Spain)

^b CATALAN INSTITUTE FOR WATER RESEARCH ICRA   (Spain)

^c UNIVERSITY OF GIRONA   (Spain)

Author keywords

Dams; Ecosystem metabolism; Flow regulation; Mediterranean rivers; Organic carbon dynamics

Indexed keywords

EID: 84903998077     PISSN: 00465070     EISSN: 13652427     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/fwb.12385     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. Acuña V., Díez J.R., Flores L., Meleason M. & Elosegi A. (2013) Does it make economic sense to restore rivers for their ecosystem services? Journal of Applied Ecology, 50, 988-997.
2. Acuña V., Giorgi A., Muñoz I., Sabater F. & Sabater S. (2007) Meteorological and riparian influences on organic matter dynamics in a forested Mediterranean stream. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 26, 54-69.
3. Acuña V., Giorgi A., Muñoz I., Uehlinger U. & Sabater S. (2004) Flow extremes and benthic organic matter shape the metabolism of a headwater Mediterranean stream. Freshwater Biology, 49, 960-971.
4. Acuña V., Wolf A., Uehlinger U. & Tockner K. (2008) Temperature dependence of stream benthic respiration in an Alpine river network under global warming. Freshwater Biology, 53, 2076-2088.
5. Ahearn D.S., Sheibley R.W. & Dahlgren R.A. (2005) Effects of river regulation on water quality in the lower Mokelumne River, California. River Research and Applications, 21, 651-670.
6. Allan J.D. & Castillo M.M. (2007) Stream Ecology: Structure and Function of Running waters. Chapman & Hall, New York, NY.
7. Avakyan A.B. & Iakovleva V.B. (2006) Status of global reservoirs: the position in the late twentieth century. Lakes & Reservoirs: Research & Management, 3, 45-52.
8. Batalla R.J., Gómez C.M. & Kondolf G.M. (2004) Reservoir-induced hydrological changes in the Ebro River basin (NE Spain). Journal of Hydrology, 290, 117-136.
9. Battin T.J., Kaplan L.A., Findlay S., Hopkinson C.S., Martí E., Packman A.I. et al. (2008) Biophysical controls on organic carbon fluxes in fluvial networks. Nature Geoscience, 1, 95-100.
10. Becker V., Caputo L., Ordoñez J., Marcé R., Armengol J., Crossetti L.O. et al. (2010) Driving factors of the phytoplankton functional groups in a deep Mediterranean reservoir. Water Research, 44, 3345-3354.
11. Beguería S., López-Moreno J.I., Lorente A., Seeger M. & García-Ruiz J.M. (2003) Assessing the effect of climate oscillations and land-use changes on streamflow in the Central Spanish Pyrenees. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 32, 283-286.
12. Bergkamp G., McCartney M., Dugan P., McNeely J. & Acreman M. (2000) Dams, ecosystem functions and environmental restoration. Thematic Review II, 1, World Commission on Dams, Cape Town.
13. Bernal S., von Schiller D., Sabater F. & Martí E. (2013) Hydrological extremes modulate nutrient dynamics in Mediterranean climate streams across different spatial scales. Hydrobiologia, 719, 31-42.
14. Bernot M.J., Sobota D.J., Hall R.O., Mulholland P.J., Dodds W.K., Webster J.R. et al. (2010) Inter-regional comparison of land-use effects on stream metabolism. Freshwater Biology, 55, 1874-1890.
15. Beschta R.L. & Jackson W.L. (1979) The intrusion of fine sediments into a stable gravel bed. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 36, 204-210.
16. Biggs B.J.F. (1995) The contribution of flood disturbance, catchment geology and land use to the habitat template of periphyton in stream ecosystems. Freshwater Biology, 33, 419-438.
17. Bonada N. & Resh V.H. (2013) Mediterranean-climate streams and rivers: geographically separated but ecologically comparable freshwater systems. Hydrobiologia, 719, 1-29.
18. Bosch N.S. (2008) The influence of impoundments on riverine nutrient transport: an evaluation using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool. Journal of Hydrology, 355, 131-147.
19. Brandt S.A. (2000) Classification of geomorphological effects downstream of dams. Catena, 40, 375-401.
20. Brookshire E.N.J. & Dwire K.A. (2003) Controls on patterns of coarse organic particle retention in headwater streams. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 22, 17-34.
21. Bunn S.E., Davies P.M. & Mosisch T.D. (1999) Ecosystem measures of river health and their response to riparian and catchment degradation. Freshwater Biology, 41, 333-345.
22. Byren B.A. & Davies B.R. (1989) The effect of stream regulation on the physico-chemical properties of the Palmiet River, South Africa. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management, 3, 107-121.
23. Candela L., Tamoh K., Olivares G. & Gomez M. (2012) Modelling impacts of climate change on water resources in ungauged and data-scarce watersheds. Application to the Siurana catchment (NE Spain). Science of the Total Environment, 440, 253-260.
24. Cortes R.M.V., Ferreira M.T., Oliveira S.V. & Godinho F. (1998) Contrasting impact of small dams on the macroinvertebrates of two Iberian mountain rivers. Hydrobiologia, 389, 51-61.
25. Cross W.F., Baxter C.V., Donner K.C., Rosi-Marshall E.J., Kennedy T.A., Hall R.O. et al. (2011) Ecosystem ecology meets adaptive management: food web response to a controlled flood on the Colorado River, Glen Canyon. Ecological Applications, 21, 2016-2033.
26. Dewson Z.S., James A.B.W. & Death R.G. (2007) Stream ecosystem functioning under reduced flow conditions. Ecological Applications, 17, 1797-1808.
27. Doyle M.W., Stanley E.H., Orr C.H., Selle A.R., Sethi S.A. & Harbor J.M. (2005) Stream ecosystem response to small dam removal: lessons from the Heartland. Geomorphology, 71, 227-244.
28. Elosegi A. & Sabater S. (2013) Effects of hydromorphological impacts on river ecosystem functioning: a review and suggestions for assessing ecological impacts. Hydrobiologia, 712, 129-143.
29. Fisher S.G. (1983) Succession in streams. In: Stream Ecology: Application and Testing of General Ecological Theory (Eds J.R. Barnes & G.W. Minshall ), pp. 7-27. Plenum Press, New York, NY.
30. Garcia de Jalón D. (2003) The Spanish experience in determining minimum flow regimes in regulated streams. Canadian Water Resources Journal, 28, 185-198.
31. Gasith A. & Resh V.H. (1999) Streams in Mediterranean climate regions: abiotic influences and biotic responses to predictable seasonal events. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 30, 51-81.
32. Gücker B., Brauns M. & Pusch M.T. (2006) Effects of wastewater treatment plant discharge on ecosystem structure and function of lowland streams. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 25, 313-329.
33. Hannan H.H. (1979) Chemical modifications in reservoir-regulated stream. In: The Ecology of Regulated Streams (Eds J.V. Ward & J.A. Stanford ), pp. 75-94. Plenum press, New York.
34. Hill B.H., Hall R.K., Husby P., Herlihy A.T. & Dunne M. (2000) Interregional comparisons of sediment microbial respiration in streams. Freshwater Biology, 44, 213-222.
35. Hill W.R., Mulholland P.J. & Marzolf E.R. (2001) Stream ecosystem responses to forest leaf emergence in spring. Ecology, 82, 2306-2319.
36. Hornberger G.M. & Kelly M.G. (1975) Atmospheric reaeration in a river using productivity analysis. Journal of the Environmental Engineering Division, 101, 729-739.
37. Hubbard E.F., Kilpatrick F.A., Martens L.A. & Wilson J.R. Jr (1982) Measurement of time of travel and dispersion in streams by dye tracing. Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations of the US Geological Survey. USGS, Alexandia, VA. Chapter A9.
38. Izagirre O., Agirre U., Bermejo M., Pozo J. & Elosegi A. (2008) Environmental controls of whole-stream metabolism identified from continuous monitoring of Basque streams. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 27, 252-268.
39. Jansson R., Nilsson C. & Renöfält B. (2000) Fragmentation of riparian floras in rivers with multiple dams. Ecology, 81, 899-903.
40. Jeffrey S.W. & Humphrey G.F. (1975) New spectrophotometric equations for determining chlorophylls a, b, c1 and c2 in higher plants, algae and natural phytoplankton. Biochemie und Physiologie der Pflanzen 167, 191-194.
41. Keller E.A. & Swanson F.J. (1979) Effects of large organic material on channel form and fluvial processes. Earth Surface Processes, 4, 361-380.
42. Leopold L.B., Wolman M.G. & Miller J.D. (1964) Fluvial Processes in Geomorphology. WH Freeman, San Francisco, CA.
43. Lü Y., Liu S. & Fu B. (2012) Ecosystem service: from virtual reality to ground truth. Environmental Science & Technology, 46, 2492-2493.
44. Marcarelli A.M., Van Kirk R.W. & Baxter C.V. (2010) Predicting effects of hydrologic alteration and climate change on ecosystem metabolism in a western U.S. river. Ecological Applications, 20, 2081-2088.
45. Martínez A., Larrañaga A., Basaguren A., Pérez J., Mendoza-Lera C. & Pozo J. (2013) Stream regulation by small dams affects benthic macroinvertebrate communities: from structural changes to functional implications. Hydrobiologia, 711, 31-42.
46. McCutchan J.H. Jr, Lewis W.M. Jr & Saunders J.F. III (1998) Uncertainty in the estimation of stream metabolism from open-channel oxygen concentrations. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 17, 155-164.
47. Mendoza-Lera C., Larrañaga A., Pérez J., Descals E., Martínez A., Moya O. et al. (2010) Headwater reservoirs weaken terrestrial-aquatic linkage by slowing leaf-litter processing in downstream regulated reaches. River Research and Applications, 28, 13-22.
48. Meyer-Peter E. & Müller R. (1948) Formulas for bed-load transport. In: Proceedings of the International Association for Hydraulic Research, 2nd Meeting, Stockholm.
49. Morley S.A., Duda J.J., Coe H.J., Kloehn K.K. & McHenry M.L. (2008) Benthic invertebrates and periphyton in the Elwha River basin: current conditions and predicted response to dam removal. Northwest Science, 82, 179-196.
50. Mueller M., Pander J. & Geist J. (2011) The effects of weirs on structural stream habitat and biological communities. Journal of Applied Ecology, 48, 1450-1461.
51. Munn M.D. & Brusven M.A. (2004) The influence of Dworshak Dam on epilithic community metabolism in the Clearwater River, USA. Hydrobiologia, 513, 121-127.
52. Nakano S.-I. (1996) Bacterial response to extracellular dissolved organic carbon released from healthy and senescent Fragilaria crotonensis (Bacillariophyceae) in experimental systems. Hydrobiologia, 339, 47-55.
53. Newbold J.D., Mulholland P.J., Elwood J.W. & O'Neill R.V. (1982) Organic carbon spiralling in stream ecosystems. Oikos, 38, 266-272.
54. Nilsson C., Reidy C.A., Dynesius M. & Revenga C. (2005) Fragmentation and flow regulation of the world's large river systems. Science, 308, 405-408.
55. Nilsson C. & Svedmark M. (2002) Basic principles and ecological consequences of changing water regimes: riparian plant communities. Environmental Management, 30, 468-480.
56. Odum H.T. (1956) Primary productivity in flowing waters. Limnology and Oceanography, 1, 102-117.
57. Parker G., Klingeman P.C. & McLean D.G. (1982) Bedload and size distribution in paved gravel-bed streams. Journal of the Hydraulics Division, 108, 544-571.
58. Petts G.E. (1984) Mpounded Rivers. Perspectives for Ecological Management. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK, 326 pp.
59. Poff N.L. & Allan J.D. (1995) Functional organization of stream fish assemblages in relation to hydrological variability. Ecology, 76, 606-627.
60. Poff N.L., Allan J.D., Bain M.B., Karr J.R., Prestegaard K.L., Richter B.D. et al. (1997) The natural flow regime. BioScience, 47, 769-784.
61. Pozo J., González E., Díez J.R., Molinero J. & Elósegui A. (1997) Inputs of particulate organic matter to streams with different riparian vegetation. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 16, 602-611.
62. Puig M.A., Armengol J., Gonzalez G., Peñuelas J., Sabater F. & Sabater S. (1987) Chemical and biological changes in the Ter River induced by a series of reservoirs. In: Regulated Streams. Advances in Ecology (Eds I.F. Craig & J.B. Kemper ), pp. 373-382. Plenum Press, New York and London.
63. Reichert P., Uehlinger U. & Acuña V. (2009) Estimating stream metabolism from oxygen concentrations: effect of spatial heterogeneity. Journal of Geophysical Research, 114, G03016.
64. Richter B.D., Baumgartner J.V., Powell J. & Braun D.P. (1996) A method for assessing hydrologic alteration within ecosystems. Conservation Biology, 10, 1163-1174.
65. Richter B.D., Mathews R., Harrison D.L. & Wigington R. (2003) Ecologically sustainable water management: managing river flows for ecological integrity. Ecological Applications, 13, 206-224.
66. Sabater S. & Tockner K. (2010) Effects of hydrologic alterations on the ecological quality of river ecosystems. In: Water Scarcity in Mediterranean Areas (Eds S. Sabater & D. Barceló ), pp. 15-39. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg.
67. Santos J.M., Godinho F., Ferreira M.T. & Cortes R. (2004) The organisation of fish assemblages in the regulated Lima basin, Northern Portugal. Limnologica, 34, 224-235.
68. von Schiller D., Martí E., Riera J.L., Ribot M., Argerich A., Fonollà P. et al. (2008) Inter-annual, annual, and seasonal variation of P and N retention in a perennial and an intermittent stream. Ecosystems, 11, 670-687.
69. Sparks R.E. (1995) Need for ecosystem management of large rivers and their floodplains. BioScience, 45, 168-182.
70. Speaker R., Moore K. & Gregory S. (1984) Analysis of the process of retention of organic matter in stream ecosystems. Verhandlungen der Internationalen Vereinigung für theoretische und angewandte Limnologie, 22, 1835-1841.
71. Stanley E.H. & Doyle M.W. (2002) A geomorphic perspective on nutrient retention following dam removal: geomorphic models provide a means of predicting ecosystem responses to dam removal. BioScience, 52, 693-701.
72. Syvitski J.P.M., Vörösmarty C.J., Kettner A.J. & Green P. (2005) Impact of humans on the flux of terrestrial sediment to the global coastal ocean. Science, 308, 376-380.
73. Tena A., Batalla R.J., Vericat D. & López-Tarazón J.A. (2011) Suspended sediment dynamics in a large regulated river over a 10-year period (the lower Ebro, NE Iberian Peninsula). Geomorphology, 125, 73-84.
74. Townsend C.R., Scarsbrook M.R. & Dolédec S. (1997) Quantifying disturbance in streams: an analysis of alternative measures of disturbance in relation to macroinvertebrate species traits and species richness. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 16, 531-544.
75. Uehlinger U., Bührer H. & Reichert P. (1996) Periphyton dynamics in a floodprone prealpine river: evaluation of significant processes by modelling. Freshwater Biology, 36, 249-263.
76. Uehlinger U., Kawecka B. & Robinson C.T. (2003) Effects of experimental floods on periphyton and stream metabolism below a high dam in the Swiss Alps (River Spöl). Aquatic Sciences, 65, 199-209.
77. Valett H.M., Morrice J.A., Dahm C.N. & Campana M.E. (1996) Parent lithology, surface-groundwater exchange, and nitrate retention in headwater streams. Limnology and Oceanography 41, 333-345.
78. Vericat D. & Batalla R.J. (2006) Sediment transport in a large impounded river: the lower Ebro, NE Iberian Peninsula. Geomorphology, 79, 72-92.
79. Voelz N.J. & Ward J.V. (1989) Biotic and abiotic gradients in a regulated high elevation Rocky Mountain river. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management, 3, 143-152.
80. Ward J.V. & Stanford J.A. (1983) The serial discontinuity concept of lotic ecosystems. Dynamics of Lotic Ecosystems, (Eds T.D. Fontaine & S.M. Bartell ), pp. 29-42. Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor, MI.
81. Ward J.V., Tockner K. & Schiemer F. (1999) Biodiversity of floodplain river ecosystems: ecotones and connectivity. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management, 15, 125-139.
82. Webster J.R., Wallace J.B. & Benfield E.F. (1995) Organic processes in streams of the eastern United States. In: Ecosystems of the World 22: River and Stream Ecosystems (Eds C.E. Cushing, K.W. Cummins & G.W. Minshall ), pp. 117-187. Elsevier, New York.
83. Wei Q.-S., Feng C.-H., Wang D.-S., Shi B.-Y., Zhang L.-T., Wei Q. et al. (2008) Seasonal variations of chemical and physical characteristics of dissolved organic matter and trihalomethane precursors in a reservoir: a case study. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 150, 257-264.
84. Williams G.P. & Wolman M.G. (1984) Downstream Effects of Dams on Alluvial Rivers. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.
85. Wolman M.G. (1954) A method of sampling coarse river-bed material. Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 35, 951-956.
86. Yvon-Durocher G., Jones J.I., Trimmer M., Woodward G. & Montoya J.M. (2010) Warming alters the metabolic balance of ecosystems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 365, 2117-2126.