A comparative review of recovery processes in rivers, lakes, estuarine and coastal waters

The European Water Framework Directive aims to improve ecological status within river basins. This requires knowledge of responses of aquatic assemblages to recovery processes that occur after measures have been taken to reduce major stressors. A systematic literature review comparatively assesses r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrobiologia 2013-03, Vol.704 (1), p.453-474
Main Authors: Verdonschot, P. F. M., Spears, B. M., Feld, C. K., Brucet, S., Keizer-Vlek, H., Borja, A., Elliott, M., Kernan, M., Johnson, R. K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
anthropogenic pressures
Aquatic ecology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Brackish
climate-change
Coastal waters
Coasts
Comparative studies
dam removal
ecological relationships
Ecology
Ekologi
Estuaries
fish communities
fresh-water
Freshwater
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Human populations
Lakes
Land use
large woody debris
Life Sciences
Literature reviews
long-term
Management
marine systems
Population growth
Revegetation
River basins
Rivers
stream restoration
Water
Water Bodies in Europe
Water use
Zoology
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Summary:The European Water Framework Directive aims to improve ecological status within river basins. This requires knowledge of responses of aquatic assemblages to recovery processes that occur after measures have been taken to reduce major stressors. A systematic literature review comparatively assesses recovery measures across the four major water categories. The main drivers of degradation stem primarily from human population growth and increases in land use and water use changes. These drivers and pressures are the same in all four water categories: rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters. Few studies provide evidence of how ecological knowledge might enhance restoration success. Other major bottlenecks are the lack of data, effects mostly occur only in short-term and at local scale, the organism group(s) selected to assess recovery does not always provide the most appropriate response, the time lags of recovery are highly variable, and most restoration projects incorporate restoration of abiotic conditions and do not include abiotic extremes and biological processes. Restoration ecology is just emerging as a field in aquatic ecology and is a site, time and organism group-specific activity. It is therefore difficult to generalise. Despite the many studies only few provide evidence of how ecological knowledge might enhance restoration success.
ISSN:0018-8158
1573-5117
1573-5117
DOI:10.1007/s10750-012-1294-7