The process of development has led to the modification of river landscapes. This has created imbalances between ecological, economic, and socio-cultural uses of ecosystem services (ESs), threatening the biotic and social integrity of rivers. Anthropogenic modifications influence river landscapes on multiple scales, which impact river-flow regimes and thus the production of river ESs. Despite progress in developing approaches for the valuation ecosystem goods and services, the ecosystem service research fails to acknowledge the biophysical structure of river landscape where ecosystem services are generated. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to synthesize the literature to develop the understanding of the biocomplexity of river landscapes and its importance in ecosystem service research. The review is limited to anthropogenic modifications from catchment to reach scale which includes inter-basin water transfer, change in land-use pattern, sub-surface modifications, groundwater abstractions, stream channelization, dams, and sand mining. Using 86 studies, the paper demonstrates that river ESs largely depend on the effective functioning of biophysical processes, which are linked with the geomorphological, ecological, and hydrological characteristics of river landscapes. Further, the ESs are linked with the economic, ecological, and socio-cultural aspect. The papers show that almost all anthropogenic modifications have positive impact on economic value of ESs. The ecological and socio-cultural values are negatively impacted by anthropogenic modifications such as dams, inter-basin water transfer, change in land-use pattern, and sand mining. The socio-cultural impact of ground-water abstraction and sub-surface modifications are not found in the literature examined here. Further, the ecological and socio-cultural aspects of ecosystem services from stakeholders’ perspective are discussed. We advocate for linking ecosystem service assessment with landscape signatures considering the socio-ecological interactions.

Background. The East Kolkata Wetlands in India (a Ramsar site) are sewage-fed, nutrient-rich water bodies successfully used for fish production. The vermiculated sailfin catfish, Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus (Weber, 1991), exotic to India, has invaded these wetlands. The management and control of this catfish has been hindered, because of the lack of information on its abundance, population structure, biological traits, level of establishment, and competition with native fish species. Materials and methods. Within 2013-2015 studies were carried out on the population structure of P. disjunctivus, its food habits, reproductive biology, and initial impacts in the wetlands through monthly and seasonal collection of samples, examination of food items, reproductive parameters, catch data, and gathering fishers experience. Results. The length (TL) and weight of the specimens ranged from 10 to 55 cm and from 120 to 1250 g, respectively. Major food items of the catfish were detrital matter (%IRI 56), unidentified plant matter (%IRI 11), fish eggs (%IRI 11), polychaete worms (%IRI 5), and other minor items (%IRI 0.3 to 4). At 50% similarity, the food items of P. disjunctivus overlapped with that of Macrognathus pancalus, Channa punctata, Nandus nandus, Anabas testudineus, Clarias batrachus, Oreochromis niloticus, Cirrhinus mrigala, and Cyprinus carpio while at 80% it overlapped with that of C. mrigala and C. carpio. The fecundity of P. disjunctivus, in the wetlands, was the highest recorded for the species. Females attained the first maturity at 24 cm TL and reproduced multiple times within July-November. The breeding period of the species overlapped with 13 native fish species, of which it seriously overlapped with that of Gudusia chapra, Amblypharyngodon mola, Pethia conchonius, P. ticto, N. nandus, C. punctata, and A. testudineus. The sailfin catfish has established reproducing populations in the wetlands and reached 'invasive' proportions constituting 4.83% (300.04 t • year-1) of the mean annual fish catch (6203.85 t • year-1) from the wetlands. The invasive risk assessment showed a high risk of the species in the current scenario and probable climate change scenarios in future in the region. Conclusions. Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus has successfully colonized the sensitive East Kolkata Wetlands, which might easily spread to neighbouring water bodies including the sensitive Ganga River and Sundarban mangroves and cause ecological and economic disturbance unless preventive measures are taken as the species has high invasive risk in the region.

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Recognition of multiple knowledge systems is essential to facilitate collaboration and mutual learning between different actors, integration across social and ecological systems, and sustainable development goals. This study aims to identify how local knowledge from the indigenous people in developing countries contributes toward supporting the social–ecological system. We use a case study of the Ammatoa community, one of the indigenous communities in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. This study shows how their social and ecological practices are combined to develop their customary area and how the Ammatoa’s customary values contribute towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 15 and 12 of the United Nations, i.e., leveraging local resources for livelihood and ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns. Examples of practices elaborated in this paper are protecting, restoring, and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managing forests, combating desertification, halting and reversing land degradation, halting biodiversity loss, and ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns. Furthermore, the Ammatoa’s customary values form a sustainable system that not only affects their social aspects, but also their economy and surrounding environment. This research can be used to develop relevant environmental-related interventions related to SDGs 15 and 12 from indigenous peoples’ perspectives.

The inland traditional fishers, such as those from riverine, estuarine, reservoirs, and wetlands of India, are primarily dependent on natural waters for their livelihoods. Governments at various levels have made several efforts, including decentralization of management rights, promotion of cooperatives and formation of self-help groups, to develop the fisheries. Despite these efforts, production from most of the culture-based inland fishery waters (particularly adopting fish stock enhancements) is below potential, as a vast gap is observed between the potential and existing fish production. There is immense potential for increasing the fishing effort, production and income. Capture fishery resources, particularly in the riverine fisheries, are declining due to resource degradation and excessive exploitation. The impact of fisheries developmental programmes instituted by government agencies like the National Fisheries Development Board are hardly recognised on fisheries communities due to the multiple-use common pool resource nature of the fishing resource. Comprehensive investigations on the socioeconomic status of riverine fisher communities are rare. The present investigation studies the socioeconomic conditions of riverine fisher communities in different regions of India. The study covered six states of five regions in India: Uttar Pradesh in the North; Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the South; Orissa and West Bengal in the East; Gujarat in the West; Assam in the northeastern region. The overall socioeconomic index results concluded that almost all the regions have achieved only 46% to 52% of the socioeconomic criteria studied. Institutional financial support for alternate income generation activities; organisation under self-help groups, and vocational training for fisherwomen to undertake alternate income-generating activities during the closed/off season are some of the suggestions resulting from the investigation.