Natural and Geomorphological Response of the Small Lowland River Valley for Anthropogenic Transformation

Abstract

The regulation of small rivers and the consequent maintenance works are common in the Central European Lowlands. This article attempts to determine the relationship between the invertebrate fauna (and consequently the biocenosis) of the small lowland river valley and its landforms (morphodynamics) under the conditions of very large and rapid changes caused by river regulation and maintenance. On this basis, an attempt to analyze the response of the ecosystem to rapid transformations associated with engineering works was made. The study covered Kraska, a small river typical for Polish Lowlands, which has been regulated along almost the entire length. The results showed that, in the regulated sections, where the natural forms of the relief were destroyed, there were significantly fewer taxa and significantly smaller numbers of the specimen. Despite the clear negative impact of the regulatory work on the ecosystem, the river in some sections showed the ability to spontaneously restore certain geomorphic features.

Development of an integrated modelling framework to evaluate impacts of pressures on habitat conditions and riverine biota

“…The Jeziorka river valley is an ecological corridor characterized by relatively high biodiversity (Oglecki, 2000), despite existing human pressures (Pusłowska-Tyszewska & Tyszewski, 2014). Negative effects of river regulation on river and floodplain habitats were reported for the major tributary of Jeziorka, the rive Kraska by Oglęcki et al (2021).…”

Ex situ experimentation to determine if introduced artificial habitat can provide alternative refuge to hazardous anthropogenic structures

“…Lowland rivers are essential ecosystems which support much of the world's freshwater fish diversity (Huckstorf et al 2008) and are critical for the day-to-day foraging and refuge movements and seasonal spawning migrations of resident fish (Oglęcki et al 2021). Still, lowland rivers are threatened globally by anthropogenic land use activities (Dudgeon et al 2006), especially flood risk management during winter (Angelopoulos et al 2018).…”

Impact of anthropogenic infrastructure on aquatic and avian predator–prey interactions in a modified lowland river

“…River maintenance measures, including the installation and operation of anthropogenic infrastructure, for example water level management structures (here, pumping stations), are required for winter flood risk management in anthroposised water bodies such as lowland freshwater systems (Angelopoulos et al., 2018; Bolland et al., 2019). Globally, lowland rivers provide essential foraging resources and refuge habitats for freshwater communities including aquatic and avian predators and their prey but are becoming increasingly vulnerable to negative impacts from anthropogenic modifications (Oglęcki et al., 2021). Previous work in lowland systems has identified negative ecosystem impacts associated with anthropogenic modifications to ecohydrological processes, including increased nutrient run off (Kupiec et al., 2021), water quality pollution (Dos Reis Oliveira et al., 2019), and creation of unnatural hydrological conditions (Davis et al., 2015).…”