Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/R007853/1
Extreme floods and the ecological status of UK rivers: developing new tools to mitigate environmental change
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Dr MJ Klaar, University of Leeds, Sch of Geography
- Grant held at:
- University of Leeds, Sch of Geography
- Science Area:
- Freshwater
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Freshwater
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- Community Ecology
- Environmental stressors
- Freshwater communities
- Habitat modification
- Earth Surface Processes
- Floods
- Ecosystem Scale Processes
- Species response
- Freshwater ecosystems
- Abstract:
- Climate change is predicted to drive changes in the magnitude and timing of climate events such as intense rainfall which can lead to extreme floods. Extreme flood events throughout the UK, Europe and many other regions of the world have increased in recent years due to changing weather patterns which are predicted to increase in the future with climate change. Extreme floods have been shown to significantly impact river ecosystems by altering instream habitat and biotic abundance & biodiversity. Macroinvertebrate communities are currently used as the principle biotic component to assess the ecological status of freshwaters and the compliance of rivers with UK and European regulation. Benthic macroinvertebrates are particularly vulnerable to flood- induced impacts due to sediment scour, deposition and channel form changes, all of which alter the instream habitat template, reducing heterogeneity and the availability flow refugia. The abundance and composition of a river's macroinvertebrate community in relation to a predicted idealised or "natural" community forms the basis of legislative assessment, using a number of observed vs expected quality scores to determine where rivers may be impacted by anthropogenic pressures. Various metrics of macroinvertebrate community structure have been developed for assessing organic enrichment, acidification, morphological (sediment) and flow pressures to determine where additional monitoring or intervention may be required. However, despite the routine use of macroinvertebrate data in environmental monitoring, there is currently little information on how instream communities may be affected by climate change and increasing occurrences of extreme events such as floods and droughts. Macroinvertebrates, fish and other biota may survive flood impacts by either withstanding the flood disturbance (resistance) initially or recovering rapidly (recovery/ resilience), resulting in only a short-term impact on instream populations and communities. The impact of flood events on river communities is likely to be dependent on catchment & localised characteristics, such as adjacent land cover, channel morphology & sediment composition. Emerging evidence from our research suggests that the resilience of river ecosystems to flood events is dependent on the degree of instream habitat complexity & the extent and timing of previous extreme events. Using current and historic data held by the Environment Agency, the student will assess the influence of habitat modification and geomorphic complexity on the resilience and recovery of macroinvertebrate communities following flood events. Using a dataset covering more than a decade of twinned flow- macroinvertebrate- habitat data from >16000 sites will allow the student to apply multi-level modelling to predict the resilience of macroinvertebrate communities to extreme floods. Findings will be used to inform environmental regulators on the role of geomorphic complexity in determining the ecological status of rivers. This information will inform future instream flood management, river maintenance and restoration. The student will be trained in environmental monitoring and reporting by the CASE partner, in addition to being exposed to environmental policy decision-making and compliance assessment by environmental regulators. This will allow the student to understand how their project can be best used to inform Environment Agency practice and advice and experience in undertaking policy- relevant scientific research in an interdisciplinary research team. The project will use direct routes to government in policy formation via the CASE partner. The student will be trained in multilevel statistical modelling and environmental policy-scientific evidence linkages by the academic partner. Dissemination (workshops, policy briefs, flyers) will occur at stakeholder forums e.g. practitioner river restoration events, environmental management conferences & UK policy forums.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/R007853/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Industrial CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £89,251
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Fees | Total - RTSG | Total - Student Stipend |
|---|---|---|
| £17,480 | £11,000 | £60,773 |
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