| 1. |
- Aguirre Salcedo, Citlali, 1992-
(författare)
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Steering ecological restoration efforts through the storm of climate change : the case of tropical dry forest shrub species
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Climate change compels a reconsideration of prevailing ecological restoration paradigms and methodologies. The main goal of this thesis thesis was to explore strategies to adapt the practices of ecological restoration to climate change. We studied the potential response of six Fabaceae shrub species from tropical dry forests, previously identified as potential candidates for ecological restoration, to anticipated climate change. We found Fabaceae woody shrub species germinated in a wide range of temperatures, light and darkness, and require mechanical scarification to break their physical dormancy. We combined modelling, laboratory, field and nursery experiments to unravel the potential response of Mimosa luisana to climate change. We found trait differentiation among the lower, central and upper population of the species current distribution range within the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley (TCV), Mexico, but not local adaptation. The climatically suitable area of M. luisana is projected to expand, and experimentally, this species could tolerate a wide range of conditions in terms of temperature and soil moisture. Therefore, not need for. assisted migration was found. Seed size differed among M.luisana populations, and showed a significant effect in early biomass production, but not in relative growth rate. This work has directly implications for restoration practices. First, because it addressed some of the challenges posed by climate change by highlighting methodologies that could be replicated for other species and ecosystems. Second, because it provides concrete guidelines for restoring ecological processes in tropical dry lands as the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley, Mexico, that could be implemented by academics and local communities.
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| 2. |
- Alimpić, Filip, et al.
(författare)
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The status and role of genetic diversity of trees for the conservation and management of riparian ecosystems : A European experts' perspective
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8901 .- 1365-2664. ; 59:10, s. 2476-2485
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Riparian vegetation supports high biodiversity providing many services and is, therefore, an important landscape element. Riparian ecosystems are subject to numerous pressures leading to population decline and genetic erosion of riparian plants. This may have cascading effects at various ecosystem levels, including decreasing ecosystem services, so identifying the current status of genetic diversity of riparian tree species is vital to improve the effectiveness of restoration efforts.We aimed to elicit expert views on the status and importance of genetic diversity of tree species, and conservation needs across European riparian ecosystems. Sharing of such information among researchers, managers and policymakers has the potential to enhance ecological restoration and management of riparian ecosystems.We identified experts in riparian genetic resources conservation and management across Europe. These included stakeholders with different perspectives, ranging from researchers to practitioners. We designed a set of questionnaires where our identified experts were asked to answer questions related to the status and conservation of genetic diversity of riparian tree species in their respective countries. Specifically, we asked about societal awareness, legislative tools, good practices and conservation or restoration projects accounting for intraspecific genetic diversity and differentiation of tree species in riparian ecosystems. Questionnaire responses were analysed and discussed in light of the scientific literature to define needs and priorities related to the management and conservation of genetic diversity of riparian tree species.The experts recognized that a combination of in situ and ex situ measures and/or integrative conservation of riparian ecosystems is the most appropriate option for conserving the genetic diversity of riparian tree species. Simultaneous application of conservation measures at the level of priority species, identified by experts, and protection of riparian areas are required.Synthesis and applications. This study revealed the importance of recognizing the ecological processes that shape the genetic diversity of riparian tree species in hydrographic networks (dendritic spatial configuration, specific patterns of gene flow among riparian populations, fragmentation of river by dams) but also the need to overcome socio-economic barriers, such as lack of policy priority, deficiency in funding and weak legislation framework.
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| 3. |
- Bejarano, Maria D., et al.
(författare)
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Hydropeaking affects germination and establishment of riverbank vegetation
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ecological Applications. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1051-0761 .- 1939-5582. ; 30:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hydropeaking, defined as frequent and rapid variation in flow in regulated rivers with hydropower plants over a short period of time, usually sub-daily to weekly, alters hydraulic parameters such as water levels or flow velocity and exerts strong impacts on fluvial ecosystems. We evaluated the effects of hydropeaking on riverbank vegetation, specifically assessing the germination and establishment of seedlings and cuttings of plant species representing a variation in traits. We used seeds and seedlings and cuttings varying in size as phytometers, and transplanted them to riverbanks both above and below dams used for hydropower production in northern Sweden, selected to represent a gradient in hydropeaking intensity, and along a free-flowing reach. We also analyzed sub-daily water-level variables modified by hydropeaking to identify variables key in explaining the observed vegetation patterns. We found that plant responses to hydropeaking varied with species, with flood-intolerant species being the most strongly affected, as early as the germination stage. In contrast, seeds of flood-tolerant species managed to germinate and survive the early establishment phase, although strong erosive processes triggered by hydropeaking eventually caused most of them to fail. The fate of flood-intolerant species identifies germination as the most critical life-history stage. The depth and frequency of the inundation were the leading variables explaining plant responses, while the duration of shallow inundation explained little of the variation. The rise and fall rates of water levels were key in explaining variation in germination success. Based on the results, we propose restoration measures to enhance establishment of riparian plant communities while minimizing the impact on hydropower electricity production. Given the strong decrease in the germination of species intolerant to prolonged flooding with hydropeaking, planting of seedlings, preferably of large sizes, together with restrictions in the operation of the power plant during the establishment phase to enhance survival would be the best restoration option. Given the high probability of plant uprooting with hydropeaking, bank protection measures have the potential to increase riparian plant survival of all species, including flooding-tolerant species.
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| 4. |
- Gomes Marques, Inês, et al.
(författare)
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Germination and seed traits in common alder (Alnus spp.) : the potential contribution of rear-edge populations to ecological restoration success
- 2022
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Ingår i: Restoration Ecology. - : Wiley. - 1061-2971 .- 1526-100X. ; 30:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The degradation of riparian ecosystems occurring throughout the past decades has motivated efforts aimed at the restoration of these ecosystems. The success of active revegetation approaches to restoration requires appropriate selection of reproductive material, which in turn requires knowledge of seed traits and germination. Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. (common alder) is a key riparian tree widely used in restoration projects, and has recently been classified as comprising three species: A. glutinosa; A. lusitanica Vít, Douda, & Mandák; and A. rohlenae Vít, Douda, & Mandák. To help guide restoration species selection, we assessed differences among populations of these species by (1) investigating seed weight, morphology, and germination success from a large population set and (2) modeling germination success in each species in relation to morphological traits and environmental conditions. Seeds were collected from 12 populations encompassing the latitudinal extremes of the species complex, and were then characterized and germinated. Ploidy levels and species were distinguished using cytometric analysis. Site-level climatic data and seed morphology data were used to model germination success for each species. All seed traits differed between populations and one morphological-trait (seed weight-to-area ratio) differed significantly between the three species. Germination modeling showed that the southwestern species, A. lusitanica, responded positively to high temperature extremes, suggesting tolerance to the climate changes projected for southern Europe. Populations of A. lusitanica located at the latitudinal rear edge of common alder's distribution appear to show establishment-facilitating adaptations, and therefore may contribute to ecological restoration efforts under a range of environmental conditions.
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| 5. |
- Lindborg, Regina, et al.
(författare)
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How does a wetland plant respond to increasing temperature along a latitudinal gradient?
- 2021
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Ingår i: Ecology and Evolution. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2045-7758. ; 11:22, s. 16228-16238
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global warming affects plant fitness through changes in functional traits and thereby ecosystem function. Wetlands are declining worldwide, and hence, ecosystem functions linked to wetlands are threatened. We use Caltha palustris “a common wetland plant” to study whether warming affects growth and reproduction differently depending on origin of source population, potentially affecting phenotypic response to local climate. We conducted a 2-year in situ temperature manipulation experiment using clone pairs of C. palustris in four regions, along a 1300-km latitudinal gradient of Sweden. Open-top chambers were used to passively increase temperature, paired with controls. Growth and reproductive traits were measured from 320 plants (four regions × five sites × two treatments × eight plants) over two consecutive seasons to assess the effect of warming over time. We found that warming increased plant height, leaf area, number of leaves, and roots. High-latitude populations responded more strongly to warming than low-latitude populations, especially by increasing leaf area. Warming increased number of flowers in general, but only in the second year, while number of fruits increased in low-latitude populations the first year. Prolonged warming leads to an increase in both number of leaves and flowers over time. While reproduction shows varying and regional responses to warming, impacts on plant growth, especially in high-latitude populations, have more profound effects. Such effects could lead to changes in plant community composition with increased abundance of fast-growing plants with larger leaves and more clones, affecting plant competition and ecological functions such as decomposition and nutrient retention. Effects of warming were highly context dependent; thus, we encourage further use of warming experiments to predict changes in growth, reproduction, and community composition across wetland types and climate gradients targeting different plant forms.
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| 6. |
- Rodríguez-González, Patricia M., et al.
(författare)
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Bringing the margin to the focus : 10 challenges for riparian vegetation science and management
- 2022
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Ingår i: WIREs Water. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2049-1948. ; 9:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Riparian zones are the paragon of transitional ecosystems, providing critical habitat and ecosystem services that are especially threatened by global change. Following consultation with experts, 10 key challenges were identified to be addressed for riparian vegetation science and management improvement: (1) Create a distinct scientific community by establishing stronger bridges between disciplines; (2) Make riparian vegetation more visible and appreciated in society and policies; (3) Improve knowledge regarding biodiversity—ecosystem functioning links; (4) Manage spatial scale and context-based issues; (5) Improve knowledge on social dimensions of riparian vegetation; (6) Anticipate responses to emergent issues and future trajectories; (7) Enhance tools to quantify and prioritize ecosystem services; (8) Improve numerical modeling and simulation tools; (9) Calibrate methods and increase data availability for better indicators and monitoring practices and transferability; and (10) Undertake scientific validation of best management practices. These challenges are discussed and critiqued here, to guide future research into riparian vegetation.
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| 7. |
- Urbanič, Gorazd, et al.
(författare)
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Riparian Zones—From Policy Neglected to Policy Integrated
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Environmental Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-665X. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. Riparian zones are vital areas of interaction between land and rivers and are often degraded by several pressures such as urbanisation, intensive agriculture and river engineering works. 2. This policy brief provides five key policy messages and recommendations to be considered by policy-makers, scientists, managers, and stakeholders to enhance riparian zone management. 3. Adopting an integrated socio-economic and environmentally dynamic view will ensure the sustainable management of riparian zones. 4. In light of climate change, it is critically important to conserve and/or restore the ecological integrity of riparian zones. 5. European Union Directives and national-scale legislation and regulations need updating to ensure coordinated implementation of riparian zone-related policies. 6. Stakeholder knowledge exchange, policy co-creation and adaptive management are key to enhancing riparian zone functions.
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| 8. |
- Widén, Åsa, 1962-
(författare)
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Environmental-flow assessments for current and future run-off in a large river system regulated for hydropower production
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 2019, Sweden implemented legislative changes to renegotiate hydropower permits to both consider environmental rehabilitation and to ensure national supply of hydropower. This means that efforts for environmental rehabilitation of the 2,000 hydropower plants in Sweden need to be considered. Such rehabilitation measures include implementation of environmental flows, enhancing connectivity or morphological restoration. In order to enable prioritization among measures, it is necessary to assess the expected environmental benefits and consequences of implementation. We developed a new method to assess and prioritize among environmental-flow measures that aim to rehabilitate ecosystems in regulated rivers at the catchment level, with the Ume River in northern Sweden as an example. The Ume River is heavily regulated for hydropower production with 19 hydropower stations, with 13 run-of river impoundments in cascade and six storage reservoirs. Our strategy was to identify measures with minimal impact on hydropower production that also provide significant environmental benefits. Based on field studies of remaining natural values and potential for ecological rehabilitation, we quantified the estimated gain in the area of habitat for target organism groups, e.g. lotic fish species and riparian plants, if rehabilitation actions would be implemented along the entire Ume River. Regulated flows imply changes in the seasonal variation in flow, which often means that spring floods are lacking and that flows increase during the winter compared with natural unregulated flows. Hydropeaking, defined as rapid and frequent changes in flow and water levels to optimize hydropower production, is a common procedure that adversely affects habitats in river ecosystems. An important aspect of hydropeaking is zero-flow events, which occurs when hydropower stations are stopped due to low electricity demand or low electricity prices. We quantified the consequences for hydropower production of introducing environmental flows by identifying a set of rules of operation of the hydropower stations that reflect the limitations that ecological regulation of flows and water levels entail. In the work, consideration of technical limitations in the hydropower stations was a key to attain cost-effective measures. We then used hydropower production optimization programs to calculate changes in hydropower production and revenues. We also quantified the environmental benefits of environmental flows described as increases in the area of habitat for riverine species and improvements in ecosystem functions in the Ume River. We identified increasing the area of aquatic habitat with high flow velocity, providing suitable habitat for lotic species, enhancing the establishment of riparian and increasing longitudinal connectivity as the main aspects of the Ume River ecosystems in need of rehabilitation.This thesis focuses specifically on three aspects of environmental flows. (1) Analysis of hydropeaking and zero-flow events for all hydropower stations in a catchment and the introduction of a ban of zero-flow events as an environmental flow measure. The hydropower stations in Ume River system stand still without flow 9% to 55% of the time in a hydrologically normal year, transforming lotic habitat into stagnant water. (2) A comprehensive assessment of environmental flow measures which in addition to banning zero-flow events include improvements of connectivity, spill water to by-passed reached laid dry as well as more natural water-level variation, combined into a total of scenarios where the environmental benefits and impacts on electricity production were quantified. In addition, we modeled a spring-flood scenario and a scenario transforming the flow of the Ume River to its natural flow regime. (3) Predictions of the effects on hydropower production of introducing environmental flow scenarios were modeled using climate change projections for IPCC scenario A1B until the year 2040, where the efficiency of environmental flow measures in a future climate and detection of potential bottlenecks in flow linked to ecological extremes such as periods of drought and flood. Further, the thesis present the framework of collaborative management that facilitated the process to solve complicated societal challenges connected to mitigation measures and environmental flows in higly-regulated river basins. This framwork allowed both for finding the most cost effective environmental flow measures as well as detecting environmental rehabilitation measures that otherwise might go undetected, despite having little impact on hydropower production. Our results show that introducing a zero-flow ban with the aim of avoiding stagnant water would on average mean 0.5% electricity production loss per year and benefit existing and newly created 240 hectares of lotic habitat with a flow rate exceeding 0.1 m/s, suitable for lotic species such as grayling Thymallus thymallus. The small effect in electricity production is the result of an effort to route the flow through the turbines to generate electricity, which means that the main effect is to move electricity production from daytime to nighttime. Implementation of zero-flow restrictions in combination with allocating 1-12% of the average annual flow at all hydropower stations to side channels and reaches laid dry would result in a loss of 2.1% of the annual electricity production for the Ume River catchment. Adding flow to fish-ways would increase the loss to 3.1% per year. With the implementation of more natural water-level variation in the main channel, the loss increases to 3.8%. These measures would more than triple the habitat of lotic species such as grayling Thymallus thymallus, and increase the area of riparian vegetation by about 66%.Assessing hydropower production in the Ume River in a future climate shows that hydropower production is expected to increase by 2.6% compared to current conditions until 2040, which opens up for mitigating the effects of climate change by implementing flow measures that mimic conditions before climate change, which can help to avoid extreme hydrological events potentially harming the riverine ecosystem. The environmental flow scenarios developed in previous projects were tested in simulations with future flow conditions and the results show that all effects on electricity production were projected to be significantly smaller in the future compared with models without climate change. The operation of storage reservoirs is expected to become more important in a future climate. Our assessment is a way of predicting the effectiveness of environmental flow measures in the future with climate change.Our method forms the basis to guide future nationwide implementation of environmental rehabilitation of regulated rivers with the aim of maintaining and restoring riverine ecosystems.
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| 9. |
- Widén, Åsa, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Flow Scenarios for a Regulated River System : Projecting Catchment-Wide Ecosystem Benefits and Consequences for Hydroelectric Production
- 2022
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Ingår i: Water resources research. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0043-1397 .- 1944-7973. ; 58:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To enable prioritization among measures for ecological restoration, knowing the expected benefits and consequences of implementation is imperative but rarely explicitly quantified. We developed a novel method to prioritize among environmental flow measures to rehabilitate ecosystems in the Ume River catchment in northern Sweden, a river system heavily regulated for hydropower production. Our strategy was to identify measures with minimal impact on hydropower production while providing substantial environmental benefits. Based on field surveys of remaining natural values and potential for ecological rehabilitation, we quantified the projected gain in habitat area of implementing environmental flows for target organism groups, for example, lotic fish species and riparian vegetation, along the whole river length. We quantified the consequences for hydropower production by identifying a set of hydropower operational rules reflecting the constraints added by environmental flows. We then used production optimization software to calculate changes in hydropower production and revenues. Implementing restrictions on zero-flow events by mandating minimum discharge at all run-of-river hydropower stations and allocating 1%–12% of mean annual discharge to bypassed reaches in the entire catchment would result in a 2.1% loss of annual electricity production. Adding flow to fishways would increase the loss to 3.1% per year. With implementation of more natural water-level fluctuations in run-of-river impoundments, the loss increases to 3.8%. These actions would increase the habitat for lotic species like the grayling Thymallus more than threefold and increase the area of riparian vegetation by about 66%. Our method forms a basis for ongoing implementation of nationwide environmental rehabilitation schemes.
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| 10. |
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