Published January 17, 2022 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Freshwater salinisation: a research agenda for a saltier world

Creators

  • 1. WasserCluster Lunz - Biologische Station GmbH, Lunz am See, Austria Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management Group (FEHM), Section of Ecology, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
  • 2. Limnology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences and Centre for Ecosystem Research and Implementation, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
  • 3. Serra Húnter Fellow, Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management group (FEHM), Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Institut de Recerca de l'Aigua (IdRA), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
  • 4. Limnology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences and Centre for Ecosystem Research and Implementation, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey Department of Ecoscience and WATEC, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
  • 5. WasserCluster Lunz - Biologische Station GmbH, Lunz am See, Austria
  • 6. Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
  • 7. Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Department of Plankton and Microbial Ecology, Zur alten Fischerhuette 2, 16775 Stechlin, Germany
  • 8. Aquatic Ecology Group, University of Vic, Central University of Catalonia, Vic, Catalonia, Spain Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
  • 9. Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI, USA
  • 10. Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Schleusenstrasse 1, 26382 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
  • 11. Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
  • 12. Department of Ecology and Genetics/Limnology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden Department of Ecology and Genetics/Erken Laboratory, Uppsala University, Norra Malmavägen 45, 761 73 Norrtälje, Sweden
  • 13. Air Pollution & Climate Secretariat (AirClim), Första Långgatan 18, 413 28 Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 14. Department of Biology/Aquatic Ecology, Lund University, Ecology building, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden
  • 15. Institute of Biophysics, Krasnoyarsk Scientific Centre, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 660036, Akademgorodok 50/50, Krasnoyarsk, Russia Siberian Federal University, 79 Svobodniy Ave, 660041, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
  • 16. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, Madrid, Spain Biodiversity Research Chair, MED – Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development. Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal

Description

  • The global acceleration of freshwater salinisation due to human activities such as agriculture, resource extraction, and urbanisation and its amplification by climate change is unequivocal. Although research in this field is growing, there are key aspects at the ecological and evolutionary levels that remain unaddressed.

  • Increasing salinisation is a problem as it can increase the stress or mortality of freshwater organisms, leading to a loss of diversity and/or functionality of freshwater ecosystems but also the services and benefits to human societies that they provide.

  • We identify the main gaps of recent research and suggest a research agenda to facilitate future research efforts in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding on freshwater salinisation.

The widespread salinisation of freshwater ecosystems poses a major threat to the biodiversity, functioning, and services that they provide. Human activities promote freshwater salinisation through multiple drivers (e.g., agriculture, resource extraction, urbanisation) that are amplified by climate change. Due to its complexity, we are still far from fully understanding the ecological and evolutionary consequences of freshwater salinisation. Here, we assess current research gaps and present a research agenda to guide future studies. We identified different gaps in taxonomic groups, levels of biological organisation, and geographic regions. We suggest focusing on global- and landscape-scale processes, functional approaches, genetic and molecular levels, and eco-evolutionary dynamics as key future avenues to predict the consequences of freshwater salinisation for ecosystems and human societies.

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Additional details

Funding

PONDERFUL – POND Ecosystems for Resilient FUture Landscapes in a changing climate 869296
European Commission