Although the dispersal is important for riparian plants, few studies have evaluated the patterns in species richness and composition of propagules deposited by different dispersal types. In the present study we evaluate the temporal and spatial patterns in the diversity of propagules deposited by hydrochory and by other types of dispersal along mountain rivers. To do this, we sampled the propagules deposited in the riparian zone in a distance gradient with respect to the site of origin of the rivers in two seasons. Regarding the temporal analyses, we found no differences in the number of propagules between seasons. In the rainy season we observed a greater number of species deposited by hydrochory, while for other types of dispersal there was a greater number of species in the dry season. Differences in composition were observed for hydrochory but not for other types of dispersal. Regarding the spatial analyses, there were no changes in the number of propagules deposited along the river by hydrochory, while for other types of dispersal an increase was observed in the dry season. A lower number of species deposited by hydrochory along the river in the rainy season was observed. Finally, we observed that turnover increases by other types of dispersal in the dry season but not for hydrochory. The results underline the importance of types of dispersal other than hydrochory in the contribution of propagules dispersed and the temporal and spatial particularities of the hydrochory in mountain rivers.

Headwater streams can constitute up to 80% of river channel length and are vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures due to their high connectivity to adjacent land, large relative catchment size and low dilution capacity. In these environments unrestricted cattle access is a potential significant cause of water quality deterioration, resulting from increases in stream bank erosion, riparian damage and sediment deposition among others. Several studies have reported improvements in physico-chemical and hydromorphological conditions of streams following elimination of cattle access; few, however, have focussed on the ecological impacts of such management practices. Here, such impacts are assessed. We look at the short-term effects by comparing habitat condition, sediment deposition, and instream macroinvertebrate communities upstream and downstream of cattle access points prior to, and one year following exclusion via fencing. The long-term effects are also measured by reassessing a small stream catchment entirely fenced off from cattle access in 2008 under a concerted management effort. In the short term, cattle exclusion led to reduction in deposited sediment downstream of cattle access points and a related homogenisation of macroinvertebrate community structure between upstream and downstream sampling points. Increased abundances of specific indicator taxa ( Ancylus fluviatilis, Glossosomatidae and Elmidae) in the fenced catchment following 9 years of exclusion highlight the long-term ecological benefits of such mitigation practices. These findings highlight the importance of incentivised agri-environment schemes in reducing the negative impacts of cattle access to these vulnerable ecosystems.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) extracted from water is routinely used in river biodiversity research, and via metabarcoding eDNA can provide comprehensive taxa lists with little effort and cost. However, eDNA-based species detection in streams and rivers may be influenced by sampling season and other key factors such as water temperature and discharge. Research linking these factors and also informing on the potential of eDNA metabarcoding to detect shifts in ecological signatures, such as species phenology and functional feeding groups across seasons, is missing. To address this gap, we collected water samples every two weeks for 15 months at a long-term ecological research (LTER) site and at three different positions in the river’s cross section, specifically the water surface, riverbed, and riverbank. For these 102 samples, we analyzed macroinvertebrate species and molecular Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) richness and temporal community turnover across seasons based on COI metabarcoding data. Using Generalized Additive Models, we found a significant influence of sampling season on species richness. Community turnover followed a cyclic pattern, reflecting the continuous change of the macroinvertebrate community throughout the year (‘seasonal clock’). Although water temperature had no influence on the inferred species richness, higher discharge reduced the number of Annelida and Ephemeroptera species detectable with eDNA. Most macroinvertebrate taxa showed the highest species richness in spring, in particular merolimnic species with univoltine life cycles. Further, we detected an increase in proportion of shredders in winter and of parasites in summer. Our results show the usefulness of highly resolved eDNA metabarcoding time series data for ecological research and biodiversity monitoring in streams and rivers.

A document by Behnam Balouchi. Click on the document to view its contents.

Streambank erosion impacts rivers and reservoirs due to bank erosion. However, little information of stream bank is available due to the need for advanced planning. Dendrogeomorphology offers a post-hoc method to calculate streambank erosion providing information about past erosion events and processes. Bank retreat can be calculated by dendrogeomorphology where the distance from a channel bank of an exposed live root shows anatomical changes that are dated from the root’s growth rings. We estimated bank erosion for three different sized southern U.S. watersheds ranging in area from 4 to 3781 km 2 using dendrogeomorphology compared to modeled erosion based on critical velocity required for sediment transport. Erosion values ranging from 3.8 to 13.5 cm/yr for the smaller drainages with no difference found between root and modeled erosion rates. The large sub-basin had erosion ranging from 33.6 to 196.4 cm/yr with high variance associated with two prior 2-year flow events with significant differences found between root and modeled values. We also found distance to bank strongly and positively correlated with root exposure in straight sections of the channel in contrast to roots collected in meander bends attributed to erosion processes (i.e., scour, mass wasting) occurring at these locations. When compared with other erosion studies across the southern U.S. prairie, our values were similar in magnitude but with low correlation to drainage area indicating site specificity of erosion mechanisms. We confirm dendrogeomorphology provides reasonable estimate of bank erosion across multiple spatial scales, important for watershed management in areas lacking intentional and persistent monitoring.

Fish stranding in rivers, due to rapid shoreline dewatering, often occurs during the down-ramping phases of hydropeaks enabling peak energy production. Multiple hydrological characteristics of hydropeaking and river morphology influence stranding, but little is known about their relative effects. The goal of our study is to identify how the combination of hydropeaking characteristics and the occurrence of morphological microstructure (e.g., puddles, scour pools) influence fish stranding. For this purpose, we used an extensive dataset of fish stranding observations collected over 3 years in spring at 48 stations along a 50 km-long river reach. We aimed (1) to characterize stranding events and their associated fish assemblages, and (2) to identify the spatial and temporal determinants of stranding. We found that the occurrence of morphological microstructures of the riverbed was the main factor explaining fish stranding. Scour pools are the most impacting microstructures, followed by scour puddles, humid zones, and alluvial puddles. Then, hydropeaking characteristics interact with morphology and modulate the intensity of stranding. Low flow ranges (low peak flow, low base flow) occurring after periods without hydropeaks induce particular “salmonid” and “super-stranding” events and other flow ranges induce regular stranding events. Salmonids are particularly subject to stranding at the beginning of the sampling period. Recommendations that emerged are (1) to act in priority on stations where stranding is most likely, by morphological operations or by installing attractive structures in the perennial area, and (2) to maintain attractive, perennial habitats in the low flow range of hydropeaks.

A document by Rossa O'Briain. Click on the document to view its contents.

The role of hydropower as a renewable and balancing power source is expected to significantly increase in a Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario. As a common phenomenon in hydropower plants, hydropeaking will become more prominent, resulting in additional stresses on the ecological status of rivers. Here we propose a novel approach to design and operate auxiliary reservoirs called re-regulation reservoirs that aims to mitigate the adverse impacts of hydropeaking on rivers. A re-regulation reservoir aims at smoothing flow fluctuations caused by hydropeaking by diverting and retaining parts of high flows and returning them back to river corridors during low flows. The regulatory performance of re-regulation reservoirs is a function of its geometry and volume availability. It is defined (and optimized) by restricting various flow components thresholds. Using actual data from a hydropeaking-influenced river system, the operation and efficiency of potential re-regulation reservoir have been investigated by employing a range of thresholds for hydropeaking mitigation. A methodology and an open-access algorithm to operate re-regulation reservoirs, by establishing a hierarchy of conditions to restrict peak flow, minimum flow, up-ramping rates, and down-ramping rates was developed. Our calculations show clear theoretical possibilities for regulating hydropeaking with re-regulation reservoirs, while offering several advantages, including greater flexibility and adaptability to changing environmental conditions, power, and water demand without increasing the operational cost of power systems.

Fluvial hazards of river mobility and flooding are often problematic for road infrastructure and need to be considered in the planning process. The extent of river and road infrastructure networks and their tendency to be close to each other creates a need to be able to identify the most dangerous areas quickly and cost-effectively. In this study we propose a novel methodology using random forest (RF) machine learning methods to provide easily interpretable fine-scale fluvial hazard predictions for large river systems. The tools developed provide predictions for three models: presence of flooding (PFM), presence of mobility (PMM) and type of erosion model (TEM, lateral migration, or incision) at reference points every 100 meters along the fluvial network of three watersheds within the province of Quebec, Canada. The RF models uses variables focused on river conditions and hydrogeomorphological processes such as confinement, sinuosity, and upstream slope. Training/validation data included field observations, results from hydraulic and erosion models, government infrastructure databases, and hydro- geomorphological assessments using 1-m DEM and satellite/historical imagery. A total of 1,807 reference points were classified for flooding, 1,542 for mobility, and 847 for the type of erosion out of the 11,452 reference points for the 1,145 km of rivers included in the study. These were divided into training (75%) and validation (25%) datasets, with the training dataset used to train supervised RF models. The validation dataset indicated the models were capable of accurately predicting the potential for fluvial hazards to occur, with precision results for the three models ranging from 83% to 94% of points accurately predicted. The results of this study suggest that RF models are a cost-effective tool to quickly evaluate the potential for fluvial hazards to occur at the watershed scale.