A river that flows free connects up in 4D

Poff, N. LeRoy

doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01393-2

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08 May 2019

A river that flows free connects up in 4D

Humans have altered the natural flow of rivers, adversely affecting biodiversity and the services that these watercourses provide. The mapping of millions of kilometres of rivers reveals the extent of human interference.

N. LeRoy Poff⁰

N. LeRoy Poff
1. N. LeRoy Poff is in the Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA, and at the Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Australia.
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In a paper in Nature, Grill et al.¹ report their use of the latest high-resolution hydrographic and land-use data to produce the first detailed, replicable global map of rivers whose flow has been largely unaffected by human activities. This not only adds greatly to our knowledge of where such rivers remain, but also reveals which rivers have been impaired through severing of the multidimensional river-flow continuum. Such mapping affords insight into how and where river management might be used to restore flow connectivity and thus boost ecosystem function and productivity.

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Nature 569, 201-202 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01393-2

References

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