Coupling virtual watersheds with ecosystem services assessment: A 21st century platform to support river research and management

Abstract

The demand for freshwater is projected to increase worldwide over the coming decades, resulting in severe water stress and threats to riverine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and services. A major societal challenge is to determine where environmental changes will have the greatest impacts on riverine ecosystem services and where resilience can be incorporated into adaptive resource planning. Both water managers and scientists need new integrative tools to guide them toward the best solutions that meet the demands of a growing human population but also ensure riverine biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. Resource planners and scientists could better address a growing set of riverine management and risk mitigation issues by (1) using a 'virtual watersheds' approach based on improved digital river networks and better connections to terrestrial systems, (2) integrating virtual watersheds with ecosystem services technology (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services: ARIES), and (3) incorporating the role of riverine biotic interactions in shaping ecological responses. This integrative platform can support both interdisciplinary scientific analyses of pressing societal issues and effective dissemination of findings across river research and management communities. It should also provide new integrative tools to identify the best solutions and trade-offs to ensure the conservation of riverine biodiversity and ecosystem services. ; This study was partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness as part of the project RIVERLANDS (BIA2012-33572). José Barquín is supported by a Ramon y Cajal grant (Ref: RYC- 2011-08313) of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Samantha Jane Hughes is SUSTAINSYS funded post doctoral fellow - North-07-0124-FEDER-0000044, financed by the Regional Operational Programme North (ON.2 - The New North), under the National Strategic Framework (NSRF), through the European Regional Development Fund and PIDDAC via the Foundation for Science and Technology. David Vieites is supported by the ERANET Biodiversa EC21C: European Conservation for the 21st Century. Ferdinando Villa's ARIES work is supported by ESPA/NERC (grants ASSETS and WISER) and the Spanish Government's Plan Nacional (grant CAUSE). Clare Gray was funded by a Queen Mary University of London Studentship and the Freshwater Biology Association.