Freshwaters climate change impacts

Grimalt JO, Catalan J, Fernandez P, Pina B, Munthe J (2010) Distribution of persistent organic pollutants and mercury in freshwater ecosystems under changing climate conditions. In Keman M, Battarbee RW, Moss B (eds) Climate change impacts on freshwater ecosystems. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, pp 180-202 (Chapter 8)... 

Modelling the Impacts of Climate Change on Freshwater Ecosystems at the Catchment Scale... 

Implications of Predicted Climate Change Impacts on Freshwater Ecosystems for Policy and Management... 

MODELLING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS AT THE CATCHMENT SCALE... 

IMPLICATIONS OF PREDICTED CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS FOR POLICY AND MANAGEMENT... 

The impact of climate change on freshwaters will necessitate thorough re-evaluation of national, EU and UNECE policies related to enviromnental protection. For freshwater ecosystems there are potentially major implications for the EU Habitats Directive, the Urban Wastewaters Directive and the Water Framework Directive, and for the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLTRAP). 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ecological impacts from climate change An economic analysis of freshwater recreational fishing. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, 1995. 

In the case of freshwaters, the past effects of climate change on UV exposure have impacted sedimentary records in a remarkable way. Analysis of fossil diatom assemblages in Canadian subarctic lake sediments has provided evidence of the interactive impacts of climate change and solar UVR on CDOM concentrations during the Holocene [86]. 

The need for a catchment-scale approach to freshwater ecosystem management is recognised by the EU Water Framework Directive, where the basic unit of management is referred to as the river basin district (European Commission, 2000). The complexity of the interactions between aquatic and terrestrial systems at the catchment scale necessitates a modelling approach also at the catchment scale. With respect to climate change, existing or new models need development to represent climate, soil, land use, lakes, rivers and coastal waters, so that the responses of whole catchment systems can be simulated and the models used to assess the impacts of alternative catchment management decisions. 

When the impact of process scale is viewed from the planetary boundaries perspective, the inherent multicriteria nature of any sustainability assessment is indispensable. Even when only environmental LCA impacts are accounted for, studies have shown that certain boundaries have been crossed or are very close to the limit (i.e., with respect to climate change, biodiversity loss, and nitrogen and phosphorous cycles), while others are stiU reasonably well safeguarded (i.e., stratospheric ozone depletion, ocean acidification, and freshwater use) [64]. It is therefore possible that different production sectors may have an impact on different planetary boundaries some of which may be within or already outside their safe operating space. For instance, studies have indicated the severe impacts of plastic debris on marine organisms [65]. Thus, from a cradle-to-grave LCA perspective, fossil-based plastics production may have a more direct or at least a different kind of effect in terms of biodiversity compared to fossil-based fuel production, which is certainly in higher production scales. 

In this study the ReCiPe methodology (Goedkoop et al., 2008) [3] was adopted. The following midpoint impact categories are included climate change, ozone depletion, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant, particulate matter formation, ionizing radiation, acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity. 

---