Abstract
Hydropower production, despite being presented as a clean source of energy, fundamentally transforms rivers, with concomitant consequences for river ecosystems. ECOREG aims at detecting the responses of primary producers (benthic flora) and primary consum ers (benthic macroinvertebrates) to different hydrologic regimes in rivers in Norway. We will focus on benthic invertebrates and benthic flora, because both are mandatory organism groups with respect to the WFD. In addition, differences in hydrologic regi me are expected to highly impact these organisms, while at the same time the ecological consequences are poorly understood. We will i) study the effects of detailed and continuously recorded hydrologic regime on species assemblies and traits at 40 regulat ed and unregulated river sites, ii) study basic ecosystem functions, i.e. food web structure and energy and nutrient flow in experimental flumes, and their reaction to changes in hydrologic regime, and iii) study the effects of multiple stressors (mainly eutrophication and regulation) on species assemblies and traits based on existing data on biology and water chemistry, which we will supply with information on hydrologic regime. We aim at i) contributing to the definition of good ecological potential in regulated rivers, ii) developing an easy-to-use method for defining minimum flow targets, and flow restrictions (e.g. hydropeaking), iii) setting the foundations for predicting ecosystem responses to the expected hydrologic changes related to climate chan ge, and iv) detecting whether or not the effects of river regulation are different from natural differences in hydrologic regime (testing the hypothesis that regulated rivers are a model for what will happen to unregulated rivers in response to climate ch ange). In addition, ECOREG will strengthen our knowledge on what controls species assemblies and ecosystem functions, thus helping us to understand what controls the delivery of important ecosystem services.
Norway