Drying resistance and resilience traits from rivers in Europe
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Drying River Networks (DRNs) are one of the most vulnerable ecosystems to climate change which is causing increasingly pervasive environmental stressors. DRNs represent more than half of Earth's waterways and because of their fluctuating hydrology have unique physical, chemical, and biological characteristics which is reflected by freshwater metacommunities inhabiting them. One of the most important characteristic of freshwater organisms populating such habitats is their ability to survive and recover from drying events. Understanding the unique traits of freshwater organisms that inhabit DRNS is essential for the management and conservation of these ecosystems. To concentrate efforts to understand and mitigate the effects of climate change on DRNs, the DRYvER project was initiated (www.dryver.eu). Important part of the DRYvER project is to develop a comprehensive meta-system framework that will improve our understanding of the effects of drying and changes in the dry periods on river network biodiversity and ecological integrity. In this effort, a database is compiled from the existing as well as newly gathered data and it will contain taxonomic information on a suitable level with attributed traits. It includes traits of bacteria, fungi, diatoms, macroinvertebrates and fish across Europe, and trait sourcing is unique to each group. Gathered knowledge will be used to create predictive models which can improve and accelerate the development of effective conservation strategies to maintain and restore the ecological integrity of DRNs. Additionally, understanding the biological responses of DRNs to environmental change can help predict the impacts of climate change on freshwater ecosystems worldwide. |
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