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Global streamflow and thermal habitats of freshwater fishes under climate change

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  • Michelle Vliet
  • Fulco Ludwig
  • Pavel Kabat

Abstract

Climate change will affect future flow and thermal regimes of rivers. This will directly affect freshwater habitats and ecosystem health. In particular fish species, which are strongly adapted to a certain level of flow variability will be sensitive to future changes in flow regime. In addition, all freshwater fish species are exotherms, and increasing water temperatures will therefore directly affect fishes’ biochemical reaction rates and physiology. To assess climate change impacts on large-scale freshwater fish habitats we used a physically-based hydrological and water temperature modelling framework forced with an ensemble of climate model output. Future projections on global river flow and water temperature were used in combination with current spatial distributions of several fish species and their maximum thermal tolerances to explore impacts on fish habitats in different regions around the world. Results indicate that climate change will affect seasonal flow amplitudes, magnitude and timing of high and low flow events for large fractions of the global land surface area. Also, significant increases in both the frequency and magnitude of exceeding maximum temperature tolerances for selected fish species are found. Although the adaptive capacity of fish species to changing hydrologic regimes and rising water temperatures could be variable, our global results show that fish habitats are likely to change in the near future, and this is expected to affect species distributions. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Michelle Vliet & Fulco Ludwig & Pavel Kabat, 2013. "Global streamflow and thermal habitats of freshwater fishes under climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 121(4), pages 739-754, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:121:y:2013:i:4:p:739-754
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-013-0976-0
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Xiao & Li, Hong-Yi & Deng, Zhiqun D. & Leung, L. Ruby & Skalski, John R. & Cooke, Steven J., 2019. "On the variable effects of climate change on Pacific salmon," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 397(C), pages 95-106.
    2. Karen Rice & John Jastram, 2015. "Rising air and stream-water temperatures in Chesapeake Bay region, USA," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 127-138, January.
    3. Wenxian Guo & Ning He & Gaofei Dou & Jianwen Hu & Hongxiang Wang, 2021. "Hydrothermal Regime Variation and Ecological Effects on Fish Reproduction in the Yangtze River," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-15, November.
    4. R. J. Nathan & T. A. McMahon & M. C. Peel & A. Horne, 2019. "Assessing the degree of hydrologic stress due to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 87-104, September.
    5. Stephen J. Dugdale & R. Allen Curry & André St-Hilaire & Samuel N. Andrews, 2018. "Impact of Future Climate Change on Water Temperature and Thermal Habitat for Keystone Fishes in the Lower Saint John River, Canada," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 32(15), pages 4853-4878, December.

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