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The social–ecological status of rivers is particularly pronounced during extreme flood events. Extreme floods are a substantial threat to people, infrastructure, and livelihoods. Efforts to address the threats of extreme floods are aligned largely with social values of flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and avoidance of loss. However, extreme floods are also a fundamental driver of river ecosystems, aligned with ecological (biophysical) values of event effectiveness, river change, disturbance, biotic response, and heterogeneity. A survey of the public perceptions of extreme floods revealed that participants generally understood the ecological values of extreme floods through concepts of naturalness, climate change, and knowledge production. However, participants had less understanding of how river integrity might influence the response of rivers to extreme floods. Resilience can be used as a framework for uniting the social and ecological values of extreme floods because it embodies a common language of change, disturbance, and adaptation and complements the socially dominated discourse of risk and emergency management. Three strategies are given for river scientists to frame ecological values in parallel with the paradigms of the socially dominated discourse of extreme floods: be prepared to act following an extreme flood disaster, learn and use the language of the flood risk and emergency management sector, and undertake assessments of the ecological values of extreme floods to highlight the threats to those values that may occur with climate change and river modification.
The social–ecological status of rivers is particularly pronounced during extreme flood events. Extreme floods are a substantial threat to people, infrastructure, and livelihoods. Efforts to address the threats of extreme floods are aligned largely with social values of flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and avoidance of loss. However, extreme floods are also a fundamental driver of river ecosystems, aligned with ecological (biophysical) values of event effectiveness, river change, disturbance, biotic response, and heterogeneity. A survey of the public perceptions of extreme floods revealed that participants generally understood the ecological values of extreme floods through concepts of naturalness, climate change, and knowledge production. However, participants had less understanding of how river integrity might influence the response of rivers to extreme floods. Resilience can be used as a framework for uniting the social and ecological values of extreme floods because it embodies a common language of change, disturbance, and adaptation and complements the socially dominated discourse of risk and emergency management. Three strategies are given for river scientists to frame ecological values in parallel with the paradigms of the socially dominated discourse of extreme floods: be prepared to act following an extreme flood disaster, learn and use the language of the flood risk and emergency management sector, and undertake assessments of the ecological values of extreme floods to highlight the threats to those values that may occur with climate change and river modification.
This chapter reviews the diversity and composition of algal, invertebrate and fish communities in the Llobregat basin and analyses the factors affecting their distribution. Phytoplankton develops only during short periods and in particular areas where the hydraulic residence time is high. Diatoms are by far the most diverse and abundant in autotrophic benthic biofilms. The invertebrate community is highly rich taxonomically, whereas the native fish richness is relatively low, with about eight freshwater species and some others of marine origin. Some of the fish native species are threatened and two have been extirpated. Many exotic fish species have been introduced into the basin and are suspected to have contributed to the decline of native fish. Salt inputs, organic pollution and hydrological conditions lead to further alterations in water quality in the middle part of the river and downstream, thus reducing ecological quality. Multiple pressures on fluvial biodiversity severely compromise the integrity of this river’s ecosystem. To recover the structure and functioning of the biological communities, it is important to maintain the integrity of headwater ecosystems to ensure a species pool for colonisation downstream and reduce water abstraction, regulation and nutrient and pollutant inputsThis research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, projects SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 program, CSD2009-00065), CGL2009-12877-C02-01 and CGL2011-30474-C0
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