Bronte Wells
River damming is a complex engineering feat that has shaped human societies and the natural world. Dams have been instrumental in securing water resources, generating energy, and controlling floods. However, river damming has also significantly altered the geophysical conditions of rivers, affecting river ecosystems and impacting fish. Exogenous pollution inputs from human activities also greatly affect nutrient transport and balance, which are major factors influencing the ecological health of rivers and nutrient cycling.
What You'll Learn
Reservoir construction activities
River damming is a complex process that has profoundly shaped human societies and the natural world. Dams have been instrumental in securing water resources, generating energy, and controlling floods. However, this manipulation of natural waterways is not without its costs. The decision to dam a river involves a complex interplay of benefits and drawbacks, demanding careful consideration of ecological, economic, and social factors.
The impact of river damming on fish and the associated conservation measures have particularly drawn attention from stakeholders, researchers, and conservationists. A recent study in Reviews of Geophysics comprehensively reviewed the impacts of river damming on the physical habitats of fish. It analyzed the advantages, disadvantages, and cost-benefits of major mitigation measures providing a global perspective on fish conservation in dammed rivers.
The impetus behind dam construction often stems from a desire to harness the power of water for human benefit. However, dam operations have significantly altered the geophysical conditions of rivers, in turn affecting river ecosystems. The effects of river damming on nutrient transport and transformation have also been explored, including nutrient (N, P, Si, and C) retention in reservoirs, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and interactions between the nutrient stoichiometry ratio and the health of the reservoir ecosystem.
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Nutrient transport and transformation
River damming has significantly altered the geophysical conditions of rivers, in turn affecting river ecosystems. The impact of river damming on fish and the associated conservation measures have particularly drawn attention from stakeholders, researchers and conservationists.
Reservoir retention can reduce the downstream pollution load; however, in rivers with lower nutrient levels, it may lead to nutrient depletion. Nutrient transport and transformation are greatly affected by reservoir construction activities and exogenous pollution inputs from human activities. Nutrient retention in reservoirs, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and interactions between the nutrient stoichiometry ratio and the health of the reservoir ecosystem are some of the effects of river damming on nutrient transport and transformation.
River connectivity, hydraulic residence time, hydropower development mode, microbial community variation, and anthropogenic pollution are some of the important drivers of nutrient transport and transformation. In summer flood conditions, the bottom sediment is easily eroded, and P is released into the overlying water, causing serious environmental problems.
Strategies to recover from the negative effects of damming on aquatic ecosystems are summarized and analyzed in the literature. To provide theoretical and scientific support for the ecological and environmental preservation of river-reservoir systems, future studies should focus on nutrient accumulation and GHG emissions in cascade reservoirs.
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Nutrient retention in reservoirs
River damming is a complex and multifaceted process that has profoundly shaped human societies and the natural world. It involves altering the geophysical conditions of rivers, which in turn affects river ecosystems. Reservoir retention can reduce the downstream pollution load, but it may also lead to nutrient depletion in rivers with lower nutrient levels.
The transport and transformation of nutrients are significantly affected by river damming. Nutrient retention in reservoirs is a key aspect of this process. Nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), silicon (Si), and carbon (C) are retained in reservoirs, which can have both positive and negative effects on the reservoir ecosystem.
The construction of reservoirs and the exogenous pollution inputs from human activities also greatly affect nutrient transport and balance. These factors are major influences on the ecological health of rivers and nutrient cycling.
The impact of river damming on fish and the associated conservation measures have drawn attention from stakeholders, researchers, and conservationists. A recent study has comprehensively reviewed the impacts of river damming on the physical habitats of fish, analyzing the advantages, disadvantages, and cost-benefits of major mitigation measures.
To provide theoretical and scientific support for the ecological and environmental preservation of river-reservoir systems, future studies should focus on nutrient accumulation and GHG emissions in cascade reservoirs.
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Greenhouse gas emissions
River damming has profoundly shaped human societies and the natural world. Dams have been instrumental in securing water resources, generating energy, and controlling floods. However, river damming has significantly altered the geophysical conditions of rivers, in turn affecting river ecosystems.
The impacts of river damming on fish and the associated conservation measures have particularly drawn attention from stakeholders, researchers, and conservationists. A recent study in Reviews of Geophysics comprehensively reviewed the impacts of river damming on the physical habitats of fish. It analyzed the advantages, disadvantages, and cost-benefits of major mitigation measures providing a global perspective on fish conservation in dammed rivers.
Reservoir retention can reduce the downstream pollution load; however, in rivers with lower nutrient levels, it may lead to nutrient depletion. Exogenous pollution inputs from human activities also greatly affect nutrient transport and balance—major factors influencing the ecological health of rivers and nutrient cycling.
River damming plays an essential role in flood management, energy production, and water supply worldwide. To meet social-economic development, over half of the large rivers (>1,000 kilometers) in the world are no longer free flowing. However, dam operations have significantly altered the geophysical conditions of rivers, in turn affecting river ecosystems.
The impacts of river damming on nutrient transport and transformation have also been discussed. Nutrient (N, P, Si, and C) retention in reservoirs, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and interactions between the nutrient stoichiometry ratio and the health of the reservoir ecosystem are some of the important drivers of nutrient transport and transformation. Strategies to recover from the negative effects of damming on aquatic ecosystems are summarized and analyzed.
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Fish and river ecosystem impacts
River damming has significantly altered the geophysical conditions of rivers, in turn affecting river ecosystems. The impact of river damming on fish and the associated conservation measures have particularly drawn attention from stakeholders, researchers and conservationists.
A recent study in Reviews of Geophysics comprehensively reviewed the impacts of river damming on the physical habitats of fish. It analyzed the advantages, disadvantages, and cost-benefits of major mitigation measures providing a global perspective on fish conservation in dammed rivers.
Reservoir retention can reduce the downstream pollution load; however, in rivers with lower nutrient levels, it may lead to nutrient depletion. Exogenous pollution inputs from human activities also greatly affect nutrient transport and balance—major factors influencing the ecological health of rivers and nutrient cycling.
River damming has significantly altered the geophysical conditions of rivers, in turn affecting river ecosystems. The impact of river damming on fish and the associated conservation measures have particularly drawn attention from stakeholders, researchers and conservationists.
A recent study in Reviews of Geophysics comprehensively reviewed the impacts of river damming on the physical habitats of fish. It analyzed the advantages, disadvantages, and cost-benefits of major mitigation measures providing a global perspective on fish conservation in dammed rivers.
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Frequently asked questions
River damming is a practice as old as civilization itself that has shaped human societies and the natural world. It involves securing water resources, generating energy, and controlling floods by building dams.
River damming has significantly altered the geophysical conditions of rivers, which has affected river ecosystems. The impacts of river damming on fish and the associated conservation measures have drawn attention from stakeholders, researchers, and conservationists.
River damming has altered nutrient transport and transformation in rivers. Reservoir retention can reduce the downstream pollution load, but in rivers with lower nutrient levels, it may lead to nutrient depletion. Exogenous pollution inputs from human activities also greatly affect nutrient transport and balance, which are major factors influencing the ecological health of rivers and nutrient cycling.
