Jacobsen, D, Milner, AM, Brown, LE et al. (1 more author) (2012) Biodiversity under threat in glacier-fed river systems. Nature Climate Change, 2 (5). 361 - 364. ISSN 1758-678X
Abstract
Freshwater biodiversity is under threat across the globe, with climate change being a significant contributor. One impact of climate change is the rapid shrinking of glaciers, resulting in a reduction in glacial meltwater contribution to river flow in many glacierized catchments. These changes potentially affect the biodiversity of specialized glacier-fed river communities. Perhaps surprisingly then, although freshwater biodiversity is a major conservation priority, the effects of shrinkage and disappearance of glaciers on river biodiversity have hitherto been poorly quantified. Here we focus on macroinvertebrates (mainly insect larvae) and demonstrate that local (α) and regional (γ) diversity, as well as turnover among reaches (β-diversity), will be consistently reduced by the shrinkage of glaciers. We show that 11-38% of the regional species pools, including endemics, can be expected to be lost following complete disappearance of glaciers in a catchment, and steady shrinkage is likely to reduce taxon turnover in proglacial river systems and local richness at downstream reaches where glacial cover in the catchment is less than 5-30%. Our analysis demonstrates not only the vulnerability of local biodiversity hotspots but also that extinction will probably greatly exceed the few known endemic species in glacier-fed rivers.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2012, Nature Publishing Group. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Nature Climate Change. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | biodiversity; catchment; climate change; conservation management; endemic species; extinction risk; glacier; insect; larva; macroinvertebrate; meltwater; proglacial environment; river system; species diversity; vulnerability |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 31 Jul 2013 10:34 |
Last Modified: | 29 Mar 2018 17:24 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1435 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/nclimate1435 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:76081 |