Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams (SMIRES)

More than half of the global river network is composed of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which are expanding in response to climate change and increasing water demands. After years of obscurity, the science of IRES has bloomed recently and it is being recognised that IRES support a unique and high biodiversity, provide essential ecosystem services and are functionally part of river networks and groundwater systems. However, they still lack protective and adequate management, thereby jeopardizing water resources at the global scale. This Action brings together hydrologists, biogeochemists, ecologists, modellers, environmental economists, social researchers and stakeholders from 14 different countries to develop a research network for synthesising the fragmented, recent knowledge on IRES, improving our understanding of IRES and translating this into a science-based, sustainable management of river networks. Deliverables will be provided through i) research workshops synthesising and addressing key challenges in IRES science, supporting research exchange and educating young researchers, and ii) researcher-stakeholder workshops translating improved knowledge into tangible tools and guidelines for protecting IRES and raising awareness of their importance and value in societal and decision-maker spheres. This Action is organized within six Working Groups to address: (i) the occurrence, distribution and hydrological trends of IRES; (ii) the effects of flow alterations on IRES functions and services; (iii) the interaction of aquatic and terrestrial biogeochemical processes at catchment scale; (iv) the biomonitoring of the ecological status of IRES; (v) synergies in IRES research at the European scale, data assemblage and sharing; (vi) IRES management and advocacy training.

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Emerging controls of in-stream uptake at the catchment scale

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16201 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Joni Dehaspe ◽

Andreas Musolff

Keyword(s):

Aquatic Ecosystems ◽

Food Production ◽

Ecological Status ◽

Low Frequency ◽

River Networks ◽

Catchment Scale ◽

Stream Network ◽

Uptake Efficiency ◽

Wide Range ◽

Landscape Types

Nitrate (NO3-) and phosphate (PO43-) inputs to rivers are high in Germany and Europe following energy and food production demands, which can cause harm to aquatic ecosystems and jeopardize drinking water supplies. It is known that permanent and non-permanent nutrient uptake can retain significant amounts of NO3-&#160;and PO43-&#160;in river networks, however, there is little knowledge about the mechanistic processes involved and their controlling factors on catchment scales. In this work we apply a data driven analysis using the shape of stable, multi-annual, low frequency concentration-discharge (C-Q) relationships in about 500 German monitoring stations. More specifically, the bending of NO3- C-Q relationship was shown to encode uptake efficiency. We systematically address the effects of light and shading, stream ecological status, land-use, hydrological conditions, stream network configurations and chlorophyll a patterns as potential in-stream processing predictors. This assessment allows us to conclude on dominant controls of NO3-&#160;uptake efficiency across a wide range of landscape types.

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Climate Drivers and Sources of Sediment and Organic Matter Fluxes in Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams (IRES) of a Subtropical Watershed, USA

Climate ◽

10.3390/cli8100117 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 117

Author(s):

Janet Dewey ◽

Jeff Hatten ◽

Byoungkoo Choi ◽

Clay Mangum ◽

Ying Ouyang

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

River Networks ◽

Minor Effect ◽

Ephemeral Streams ◽

Hydrological Models ◽

Intermittent Rivers ◽

Flow Through ◽

Flux Increase ◽

Storm Characteristics ◽

Induced Changes

Climate-driven hydrological models rarely incorporate intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) due to monitoring difficulties and their perceived minor effect on river networks. Worldwide, IRES represent approximately 50% of river networks and up to 60% of annual flow and are recognized as conduits and processors of organic matter (OM). Climate induced changes in precipitation and discharge (Q) may impact OM fluxes from IRES. We assessed storm-driven source and flux of total suspended solids (TSS) and OM from small IRES in Mississippi, USA. We used linear Pearson correlations to evaluate relationships between water and storm characteristics (e.g., discharge). Stepwise regression was used to predict change in flux. Dissolved OM was derived from saturated flow through soil whereas particulate OM was derived from channel extension during storms. A power log relationship between Q and materials flux indicated that Q was the driver for flux. A 5% increase in Q within IRES may result in flux increase of 2% TSS and 1.7–2.8% OM. Climate change projections of increased storm intensity over a shorter water year will increase channel extension and soil water transfer resulting in higher material flux to downstream reaches. Climate-driven hydrological models of OM flux should incorporate IRES.

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Body-size distributions and size-spectra: universal indicators of ecological status?

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2010.0240 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 434-437 ◽

Cited By ~ 84

Author(s):

Owen L. Petchey ◽

Andrea Belgrano

Keyword(s):

Ecological Status ◽

Research Network ◽

Size Distributions ◽

Government Employees ◽

European Science Foundation ◽

Size Spectra ◽

Terrestrial Ecology ◽

European Science ◽

Working Groups ◽

Management And Conservation

The sizes of individual organisms, rather than their taxonomy, are used to inform management and conservation in some aquatic ecosystems. The European Science Foundation Research Network, SIZEMIC, facilitates integration of such approaches with the more taxonomic approaches used in terrestrial ecology. During its 4-year tenure, the Network is bringing together researchers from disciplines including theorists, empiricists, government employees, and practitioners, via a series of meetings, working groups and research visits. The research conducted suggests that organismal size, with a generous helping of taxonomy, provides the most probable route to universal indicators of ecological status.

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Biomonitoring of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams in Europe: Current practice and priorities to enhance ecological status assessments

The Science of The Total Environment ◽

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.137 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 618 ◽

pp. 1096-1113 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Rachel Stubbington ◽

Richard Chadd ◽

Núria Cid ◽

Zoltán Csabai ◽

Marko Miliša ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Current Practice ◽

Ecological Status ◽

Ephemeral Streams ◽

Intermittent Rivers

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Hydrological, Environmental and Taxonomical Heterogeneity during the Transition from Drying to Flowing Conditions in a Mediterranean Intermittent River

Biology ◽

10.3390/biology10040316 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 316

Author(s):

Andy Banegas-Medina ◽

Isis-Yelena Montes ◽

Ourania Tzoraki ◽

Luc Brendonck ◽

Tom Pinceel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Base Flow ◽

Ephemeral Streams ◽

Biogeochemical Processes ◽

Flow Conditions ◽

Intermittent Rivers ◽

Terrestrial Biodiversity ◽

Turn Over ◽

Zero Flow ◽

Intermittent River

Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) are increasingly studied because of their often-unique aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, biogeochemical processes and associated ecosystem services. This study is the first to examine the hydrological, physicochemical and taxonomic variability during the dry-wet transition of an intermittent river in the Chilean Mediterranean Zone. Based on 30-years of river monitoring data and the TREHS tool, the hydrology of the river was characterised. Overall, the river shows a significant reduction in streamflow (−0.031 m3/s per year) and a substantial increase of zero flow days (+3.5 days per year). During the transition of hydrological states, variations were observed in the environmental conditions and invertebrate communities. During the drying phase, abundance, richness, and diversity were highest, while species turn-over was highest during base flow conditions. The disconnected pools and the flow resumption phases were characterised by high proportions of lentic taxa and non-insects, such as the endemic species of bivalves, gastropods, and crustaceans, highlighting the relevance of disconnected pools as refuges. Future climatic change scenarios are expected to impact further the hydrology of IRES, which could result in the loss of biodiversity. Biomonitoring and conservation programmes should acknowledge these important ecosystems.

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Unlocking our understanding of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams with genomic tools

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment ◽

10.1002/fee.2404 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rosetta C Blackman ◽

Florian Altermatt ◽

Arnaud Foulquier ◽

Tristan Lefébure ◽

Maïlys Gauthier ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ephemeral Streams ◽

Intermittent Rivers ◽

Genomic Tools

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Extracting the cumulative distribution location of highly intermittent river from Sentinel-1 time series in an alpine catchment on the Tibetan Plateau

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4040 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Junyuan Fei ◽

Jintao Liu

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Time Scale ◽

Proper Time ◽

Cumulative Distribution ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Statistical Features ◽

Catchment Scale ◽

Intermittent Rivers ◽

Intermittent River

Highly intermittent rivers are widespread on the Tibetan Plateau and deeply impact the ecological stability and social development downstream. Due to the highly intermittent rivers are small, seasonal variated and heavy cloud covered on the Tibetan Plateau, their distribution location is still unknown at catchment scale currently. To address these challenges, a new method is proposed for extracting the cumulative distribution location of highly intermittent river from Sentinel-1 time series in an alpine catchment on the Tibetan Plateau. The proposed method first determines the proper time scale of extracting highly intermittent river, based on which the statistical features are calculated to amplify the difference between land covers. Subsequently, the synoptic cumulative distribution location is extracted through Random Forest model using the statistical features above as explanatory variables. And the precise result is generated by combining the synoptic result with critical flow accumulation area. &#160;The highly intermittent river segments are derived and assessed in an alpine catchment of Lhasa River Basin. The results show that the the intra-annual time scale is sufficient for highly intermittent river extraction. And the proposed method can extract highly intermittent river cumulative distribution locations with total precision of 0.62, distance error median of 64.03 m, outperforming other existing river extraction method.

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