Anthropogenic Modifications and River Ecosystem Services: A Landscape Perspective

Abstract

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.

Rediscovering, Reevaluating, and Restoring Lost River-Wetland Corridors

“…Greater biodiversity, coupled with the higher levels of habitat complexity and diversity described previously, may increase the stability of biological populations subject to significant environmental variability (Bellmore et al, 2015). This in turn increases the range, value, and reliability of a suite of ecosystem services highly valued by society (Ekka et al, 2020).…”

Impacto de los efluentes mineros en los macroinvertebrados acuáticos en la cabecera del río Tingo, Cajamarca, Perú

“…Una de las principales consecuencias de los vertidos mineros, tratados o no, es una disminución del OD y el pH (Naveen Saviour, 2012;Xia et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2018). Esto conlleva a una modificación del ecosistema desde la cabecera del río (Ekka et al, 2020). Los valores encontrados para C.E durante la época de lluvia, es algo de esperar, dado que el incremento de las precipitaciones, conlleva un aumento de la escorrentía superficial, y por ende de los iones, sobre todo cuanto más debajo de la cuenca (Khan et al, 2017;Rascón et al, 2021).…”

Assessment of metal concentrations from recreational rivers in a tropical region (Jengka, Malaysia)

“…Nevertheless, the river water quality may deteriorate due to increases in human population and anthropogenic activities. The discharge of industrial by-products, untreated domestic waste and agricultural waste (Ekka et al 2020;Ling et al 2017;Islam et al 2013;Rahman et al 2013) and lack of awareness among the citizens (Suratman et al 2015) are pollution sources of river water. Metals are an environmental pollution source that can weaken the river water quality and consequently disturb the river ecosystem.…”