Author
Listed:
- Barbara Belletti
(Politecnico di Milano
EVS, CNRS UMR 5600, University of Lyon)
- Carlos Garcia de Leaniz
(Swansea University)
- Joshua Jones
(Swansea University)
- Simone Bizzi
(Politecnico di Milano
University of Padova)
- Luca Börger
(Swansea University)
- Gilles Segura
(Conservatoire National du Saumon Sauvage
IS Environnement)
- Andrea Castelletti
(Politecnico di Milano)
- Wouter van de Bund
(European Commission Joint Research Centre)
- Kim Aarestrup
(Technical University of Denmark)
- James Barry
(Inland Fisheries Ireland)
- Kamila Belka
(European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences)
- Arjan Berkhuysen
(World Fish Migration Foundation)
- Kim Birnie-Gauvin
(Technical University of Denmark)
- Martina Bussettini
(Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research)
- Mauro Carolli
(Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries)
- Sofia Consuegra
(Swansea University)
- Eduardo Dopico
(University of Oviedo)
- Tim Feierfeil
(ingenieurbüro kauppert)
- Sara Fernández
(University of Oviedo)
- Pao Fernandez Garrido
(World Fish Migration Foundation)
- Eva Garcia-Vazquez
(University of Oviedo)
- Sara Garrido
(AEMS-Rios con Vida)
- Guillermo Giannico
(Oregon State University)
- Peter Gough
(World Fish Migration Foundation)
- Niels Jepsen
(Technical University of Denmark)
- Peter E. Jones
(Swansea University)
- Paul Kemp
(University of Southampton)
- Jim Kerr
(University of Southampton)
- James King
(Inland Fisheries Ireland)
- Małgorzata Łapińska
(European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences
University of Łódź)
- Gloria Lázaro
(AEMS-Rios con Vida)
- Martyn C. Lucas
(Durham University)
- Lucio Marcello
(University of Highlands and Islands)
- Patrick Martin
(Conservatoire National du Saumon Sauvage)
- Phillip McGinnity
(University College Cork
Marine Institute)
- Jesse O’Hanley
(University of Kent)
- Rosa Olivo del Amo
(World Fish Migration Foundation
University of Murcia)
- Piotr Parasiewicz
(Stanisław Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute)
- Martin Pusch
(Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries)
- Gonzalo Rincon
(Polytechnic University of Madrid)
- Cesar Rodriguez
(AEMS-Rios con Vida)
- Joshua Royte
(The Nature Conservancy)
- Claus Till Schneider
(RWE Generation SE)
- Jeroen S. Tummers
(Durham University)
- Sergio Vallesi
(Durham University
Hydronexus)
- Andrew Vowles
(University of Southampton)
- Eric Verspoor
(University of Highlands and Islands)
- Herman Wanningen
(World Fish Migration Foundation)
- Karl M. Wantzen
(University of Tours
CNRS UMR 7362-LIVE, University of Strasbourg)
- Laura Wildman
(Princeton Hydro)
- Maciej Zalewski
(European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences)
Abstract
Rivers support some of Earth’s richest biodiversity1 and provide essential ecosystem services to society2, but they are often fragmented by barriers to free flow3. In Europe, attempts to quantify river connectivity have been hampered by the absence of a harmonized barrier database. Here we show that there are at least 1.2 million instream barriers in 36 European countries (with a mean density of 0.74 barriers per kilometre), 68 per cent of which are structures less than two metres in height that are often overlooked. Standardized walkover surveys along 2,715 kilometres of stream length for 147 rivers indicate that existing records underestimate barrier numbers by about 61 per cent. The highest barrier densities occur in the heavily modified rivers of central Europe and the lowest barrier densities occur in the most remote, sparsely populated alpine areas. Across Europe, the main predictors of barrier density are agricultural pressure, density of river-road crossings, extent of surface water and elevation. Relatively unfragmented rivers are still found in the Balkans, the Baltic states and parts of Scandinavia and southern Europe, but these require urgent protection from proposed dam developments. Our findings could inform the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which aims to reconnect 25,000 kilometres of Europe’s rivers by 2030, but achieving this will require a paradigm shift in river restoration that recognizes the widespread impacts caused by small barriers.
Suggested Citation
Barbara Belletti & Carlos Garcia de Leaniz & Joshua Jones & Simone Bizzi & Luca Börger & Gilles Segura & Andrea Castelletti & Wouter van de Bund & Kim Aarestrup & James Barry & Kamila Belka & Arjan Be, 2020.
"More than one million barriers fragment Europe’s rivers,"
Nature, Nature, vol. 588(7838), pages 436-441, December.
Handle:
RePEc:nat:nature:v:588:y:2020:i:7838:d:10.1038_s41586-020-3005-2
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-3005-2
Download full text from publisher
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the
CitEc Project, subscribe to its
RSS feed for this item.
Cited by:
- Qianhan Wu & Linghong Ke & Jida Wang & Tamlin M. Pavelsky & George H. Allen & Yongwei Sheng & Xuejun Duan & Yunqiang Zhu & Jin Wu & Lei Wang & Kai Liu & Tan Chen & Wensong Zhang & Chenyu Fan & Bin Yon, 2023.
"Satellites reveal hotspots of global river extent change,"
Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
- Kerr, J.R. & Tummers, J.S. & Benson, T. & Lucas, M.C. & Kemp, P.S., 2023.
"Modelling fine scale route choice of upstream migrating fish as they approach an instream structure,"
Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 478(C).
- Isabella Georgiou & Serena Caucci & Jonathan Clive Morris & Edeltraud Guenther & Peter Krebs, 2023.
"Assessing the Potential of Water Reuse Uptake Through a Private–Public Partnership: a Practitioner’s Perspective,"
Circular Economy and Sustainability,,
Springer.
- Łukasz Sługocki & Robert Czerniawski, 2023.
"Water Quality of the Odra (Oder) River before and during the Ecological Disaster in 2022: A Warning to Water Management,"
Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, May.
- Jose M. Gonzalez & James E. Tomlinson & Eduardo A. Martínez Ceseña & Mohammed Basheer & Emmanuel Obuobie & Philip T. Padi & Salifu Addo & Rasheed Baisie & Mikiyas Etichia & Anthony Hurford & Andrea Bo, 2023.
"Designing diversified renewable energy systems to balance multisector performance,"
Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(4), pages 415-427, April.
- Rachel A. Spinti & Laura E. Condon & Jun Zhang, 2023.
"The evolution of dam induced river fragmentation in the United States,"
Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
- Novak, Gorazd & Pengal, Polona & Silva, Ana T. & Domínguez, José M. & Tafuni, Angelo & Četina, Matjaž & Žagar, Dušan, 2023.
"Interdisciplinary design of a fish ramp using migration routes analysis,"
Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 475(C).
- Piotr Parasiewicz & Kamila Belka & Małgorzata Łapińska & Karol Ławniczak & Paweł Prus & Mikołaj Adamczyk & Paweł Buras & Jacek Szlakowski & Zbigniew Kaczkowski & Kinga Krauze & Joanna O’Keeffe & Katar, 2023.
"Over 200,000 kilometers of free-flowing river habitat in Europe is altered due to impoundments,"
Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
- Jing Liu & Chao Zang & Qiting Zuo & Chunhui Han & Stefan Krause, 2023.
"Application and Comparison of Different Models for Quantifying the Aquatic Community in a Dam-Controlled River,"
IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-16, February.
- Dawid Szatten & Michał Habel & Zygmunt Babiński, 2021.
"Influence of Hydrologic Alteration on Sediment, Dissolved Load and Nutrient Downstream Transfer Continuity in a River: Example Lower Brda River Cascade Dams (Poland),"
Resources, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-22, July.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:588:y:2020:i:7838:d:10.1038_s41586-020-3005-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.