Reducing greenhouse gas emissions of Amazon hydropower with strategic dam planning

Almeida, Rafael M.; Shi, Qinru; Gomes-Selman, Jonathan M.; Wu, Xiaojian; Xue, Yexiang; Angarita, Héctor; Barros, Nathan; Forsberg, Bruce R.; García‐Villacorta, Roosevelt; Hamilton, Stephen K.; Mélack, John M.; Montoya, Mariana; Perez, Guillaume; Sethi, Suresh A.; Gomes, Carla P.; Flecker, Alexander S.

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12179-5

Cited by 146 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…This would prevent additional habitat fragmentation and potentially minimize population declines. This recommendation is consistent with studies on other ecological effects of hydropower dams suggesting that upstream dams tend to be less impactful than mainstem dams [84,85].…”

Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 89%

On the brink of isolation: Population estimates of the Araguaian river dolphin in a human-impacted region in Brazil

Paschoalini

Almeida

Trujillo³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Populations of freshwater dolphins are declining in response to increased human pressure, including habitat degradation, overfishing, bycatch, poaching and obstruction of free-flowing river corridors by dams. At least three river dolphin species occur in South America: the Amazonian river dolphin, or boto (Inia geoffrensis), the Bolivian river dolphin (Inia boliviensis) and the tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis). A fourth species, the Araguaian boto (Inia araguaiaensis), been proposed for the Tocantins-Araguaia, a large river basin in northern Brazil. Here we show that the Araguaian boto population in the Tocantins River is relatively small (N = 1083, CV = 0.52). During a survey to estimate density and abundance, 138 groups (198 individuals) of botos were observed along a~600 km stretch of the Tocantins River in five different habitats (river margin, river channel, channel, island margin, and a dam reservoir). Overall, lower densities of the Araguaian boto were registered downstream of the Tucuruí dam, the world's fifth largest hydropower dam. Density was 68% lower in the river margin habitat downstream (0.23 ind./km 2 , CV = 0.92) than upstream (0.72 ind./km 2 , CV = 0.53). In addition, density within the Tucuruí reservoir decreases from upstream areas towards the dam. Geographic post-stratification of data into sub-regions (downstream, reservoir, upstream) in relation to the Tucuruí dam helped to reduce CV by~70%, which illustrates the high variability in the encounter rate in these areas. Our findings suggest that the Araguaian boto population has been impacted by the construction of the Tucuruí dam. The construction of other dams proposed for the Tocantins-Araguaia basin should be planned strategically to a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111

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Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 89%

On the brink of isolation: Population estimates of the Araguaian river dolphin in a human-impacted region in Brazil

Paschoalini

Almeida

Trujillo³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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“…Individual reservoir and watershed-scale assessments can be successfully developed to optimize the local trade-offs associated with gaseous biogeochemical cycles and reservoir services. For example, Brazil's primarily lowland topography plays a major role in the large magnitude of emissions from its reservoirs 140 ; as a result, a basin-scale multicriteria optimization framework, which strategizes dam locations to maximize hydroelectricity generation while minimizing GHG emissions, was proposed for the Amazon River basin 140 . Ultimately, the net worldwide impact of dam construction on GHG emissions is uncertain, and, so, this approach of focusing on maximizing efficiency for individual basins represents the most feasible course of action.…”

Section: Dam Management and Greenhouse Gasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

River dam impacts on biogeochemical cycling

Maavara

Chen

Meter

et al. 2020

Nat Rev Earth Environ

416

190

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River damming has been practised for millennia, with the first dams built before 2000 BCE in the Egyptian empire 1. The number of dams increased steadily prior to the Second World War, but expanded rapidly thereafter, peaking in the 1960s and 1970s, with most construction in North America and Western Europe 2. A second surge in dam construction began in the early 2000s, with over 3,700 hydroelectric dams either planned or under construction worldwide during this construction boom 3 , each with a generating capacity of >1 megawatt (MW). Many of the new dams are being constructed in South America, Asia and the Balkans, largely driven by the need to expand energy production in growing economies 3,4. Indeed, by 2015, dammed reservoirs supplied around 30-40% of irrigation water globally 5,6 , and 16.6% of the world's electricity was generated by hydropower 7. Almost two-thirds of the world's long rivers (that is, those >1,000 km) are no longer free-flowing 8 and the current surge in dam construction-motivated by the 2016 Paris Agreement and the need for greater renewable energy generation-is expected to double river fragmentation by 2030 (ref. 9). Accordingly, freshwater ecosystems have been referred to as the 'biggest losers' of the Paris Agreement 10. Nutrients, such as carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and silicon (Si), are transported and transformed along the land-ocean aquatic continuum (LOAC), forming the basis for freshwater and, ultimately, marine food webs.

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“…However, hydropower dam development does not occur without environmental and social costs 2,3 . Efforts towards sustainable dam planning have addressed strategic dam sizing , dam location 5,6 , and basin wide portfolios [7][8][9] to minimize long term impacts of such infrastructures. Yet, before starting electricity production, dam reservoirs must be filled withholding a substantial fraction of the river streamflow from downstream users.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When timing matters - misdesigned dam filling impacts hydropower sustainability

Zaniolo

Giuliani

Sinclair

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Decades of sustainable dam planning efforts have focused on containing dam impacts in regime conditions, when the dam is fully filled and operational, overlooking potential disputes raised by the filling phase. Here, we argue that filling timing and operations can catalyze most of the conflicts associated to a dam’s lifetime, which can be mitigated by adaptive solutions that respond to medium-to-long term hydroclimatic fluctuations. Our retrospective analysis of the contested recent filling of Gibe III in the Omo-Turkana basin provides quantitative evidence of the benefits generated by adaptive filling strategies, attaining levels of hydropower production comparable with the historical ones while curtailing the negative impacts to downstream users. Our results can inform a more sustainable filling of the new megadam currently under construction downstream Gibe III, and are generalizable to the almost 500 planned dams worldwide in regions influenced by climate feedbacks, thus representing a significant scope to reduce the societal and environmental impacts of a large number of new hydropower reservoirs.

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Reducing greenhouse gas emissions of Amazon hydropower with strategic dam planning

Cited by 146 publications

References 48 publications

On the brink of isolation: Population estimates of the Araguaian river dolphin in a human-impacted region in Brazil

On the brink of isolation: Population estimates of the Araguaian river dolphin in a human-impacted region in Brazil

River dam impacts on biogeochemical cycling

When timing matters - misdesigned dam filling impacts hydropower sustainability

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