Abstract
Running water ecosystems are key providers of ecosystem services, but are often heavily impacted by multiple stressors, such as elevated organic and inorganic pollution, hydromorphological modification, sedimentation, and invasive species. These stressors can interact both antagonistically and synergistically, with non-additive effects on community composition and diversity, and the key ecosystem processes underlying ecosystem service delivery. Presently, the scientific understanding of these interactions and their impacts is very limited. As a result, management of multiple stressors in running waters is often ineffective, fixing only part of the problem, or targeting the wrong stressor completely. DESTRESS is a cross-disciplinary project which tackles the multiple stressor problem by integrating novel experiments and intensive analysis of existing data within an explicit socio-economic context. DESTRESS will (a) apply a species trait-based framework to help detect and diagnose impacts of multiple stressors on stream biota and ecosystem functioning, and on ecological status as defined by the Water Framework Directive; (b) investigate mechanisms underlying multiple-stressor impacts on ecosystem level properties, including functional stability; (c) Evaluate key indicators of ecological resilience; and (d) develop realistic decision support tools, including models for cost-effective management of multiple stressors in relation to environmental goals and ecosystem services.
Sweden