Files and links (2)
Exploring the nature, origins and ecological significance of dissolved organic matter in freshwaters - State of the science and new directions652.45 kB
Published (Version of Record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Exploring the nature, origins and ecological significance of dissolved organic matter in freshwaters: State of the science and new directions
Biogeochemistry, Vol.164, pp.1-12
2023
Abstract
Over 83% of freshwater habitats in the EU were classed as being in unfavourable condition in 2015, higher than any other habitat type (European Environment Agency 2015). Similarly, freshwaters in North America are reported to be losing species at a rate of 4% per annum, five times faster than in terrestrial ecosystems (Vaughn 2010). Meanwhile, more than 50% of freshwater flora and fauna have declined in the past 40 years in the UK with 13% threatened with extinction and many more are already functionally extinct, while 25% of species in ponds with statutory protection have been lost since the 1990s alone (Hayhow et al. 2016). Over 25% of all freshwater species are currently threatened with extinction globally (Tickner et al. 2020) and freshwater fauna declined globally by 83% from 1970 to 2014, compared to 60% for all habitat types (WWF 2018; Reid et al. 2019). In no other planetary domain is biodiversity declining so rapidly, despite the raft of domestic and international legislation requiring action to halt this decline. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has called for transformative change in our approaches to management of freshwaters to meet this challenge and restore and protect nature (IPBES 2019), and the research community has proposed an emergency recovery plan to ‘bend the curve’ of freshwater biodiversity loss (Tickner et al. 2020).
Freshwater ecosystem decline is caused by a multitude of different stressors, including nutrients and other contaminants flushed from the land and atmosphere to adjacent waters, habitat loss through physical modification, climate change and invasive species. This presents the freshwater biota with a myriad of changes in stressors at rates which frequently preclude evolutionary adaptation (Tickner et al. 2020). Impacts include changes to species distributions, phenology, population dynamics, food webs, local extinction, and modification of ecosystem function through alterations to metabolism from organism to community level (Reid et al. 2019; IPBES 2019). Of these stressors, increasing flux of inorganic and organic nutrient compounds containing carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) is a ubiquitous problem, occurring in all farmed landscapes, all catchments where people live and discharge their wastes to waters via sewerage systems, and from every landscape receiving increased atmospheric N deposition that itself originates from fossil fuel combustion and food production systems (Carpenter et al. 2011; Moss 2012; Steffen et al. 2015; Wymore et al. 2021). Their combined impacts include the promotion of harmful algal blooms generating hepato- and neurotoxins as well as taste and odour problems in water supplies, and filamentous algal or excessive macrophyte growth. Rapid microbial decomposition of this excess biomass can generate oxygen depletion, enhancing resupply of nutrients from the sediment into the water, and in extreme cases this may lead to anoxia and fish kills, with knock-on consequences for ecosystem and human health.
Details
- Title
- Exploring the nature, origins and ecological significance of dissolved organic matter in freshwaters: State of the science and new directions
- Authors/Creators
- Penny J. JohnesRichard P. EvershedDavey L. JonesStephen C. Maberly
- Publication Details
- Biogeochemistry, Vol.164, pp.1-12
- Publisher
- Springer
- Number of pages
- 12
- Grant note
- NE/K010689/1 / Natural Environment Research Council; UK Research & Innovation (UKRI); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Royal Society
- Identifiers
- 991005576544307891
- Copyright
- © The Author(s) 2023, corrected publication 2023
- Murdoch Affiliation
- SoilsWest; Centre for Sustainable Farming Systems
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Metrics
2 File views/ downloads
41 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Citation topics
- 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
- 3.45 Soil Science
- 3.45.1049 Dissolved Organic Matter
- Web Of Science research areas
- Environmental Sciences
- Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
- ESI research areas
- Environment/Ecology