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GLOBAL CHANGE ECOLOGY

Don’t stressor the small stuff

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 4, pages 1009–1010 (2020)Cite this article

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Freshwaters are subject to a multitude of threats, but complex interactions among stressors are context-dependant and less common than expected.

It’s no exaggeration to say that life on land would not exist without freshwater. As detailed in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment1, freshwater ecosystems service all aspects of human existence, yet are also increasingly degraded by our activities. In part, this sensitivity arises because surface waters lie at the bottom of the gravity well that drives the global hydrological cycle. Here lakes and rivers integrate the influx of energy (irradiance, heat and kinetic energy) and matter (water, solutes and suspended materials) arising from natural biophysical processes and human activities2. As such, freshwater ecosystems are sensitive sentinels of environmental change3, impacted by a multitude of obvious and cryptic stressors. Writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Birk et al.4 roll up their sleeves and get on with the messy and potentially frustrating task of determining when, how and where stressors interact to affect biota in lakes and rivers by synthesizing around 175 studies of European freshwaters.

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Fig. 1: Nutrient pollution of freshwaters leads to intense blooms of cyanobacteria in a process called eutrophication.

Institute of Environmental Change and Society.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Change and Society, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

    Peter R. Leavitt

  2. Global Institute for Food Security, Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Peter R. Leavitt

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  1. Peter R. Leavitt
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Correspondence to Peter R. Leavitt.

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Leavitt, P.R. Don’t stressor the small stuff. Nat Ecol Evol 4, 1009–1010 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1227-1

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