Freshwater ecosystems, under stress from land-use change and pollution, face additional pressures from climate change, directly and through interaction with other drivers of change. Euro-limpacs is concerned with the science required to understand and manage the ecological consequences of these interactions. It is relevant to the Water Framework Directive and other international directives and protocols and supports the EU's Charter on Sustainable Development. The Project comprises a consortium of leading scientists to integrate river, lake and wetland ecosystem science at the catchments scale. It focuses on the key drivers of aquatic ecosystem change (land-use, nutrients, acid deposition and toxic substances) and examines their interactions with global , especially climate, change using time-series analysis, space-for-time substitution, palaeolimnology, experiments and process modelling.

It considers these interactions at 3 critical time-scales:
(i) hours/days, concerned with changes in the magnitude and frequency of extreme events;
(ii) seasons, concerned with changes in ecosystem function and life-cycle strategies of freshwater biota;
(iii) years/decades, concerned with ecological response to environmental pressure, including stress reduction and ecosystem recovery.

Euro-limpacs involves the following elements:

• Asessing the direct impacts of climate change
• The interactions between climate change and:
  • Hydromorphology
  • Eutrophication
  • Acidification
  • Toxic substances
• Catchment scale modelling of climate - freshwater interactions
• Climate change and indicators of freshwater ecosystem health
• Implications of climate change in defining reference conditions and restoration targets
• Developing a decision-support system to advise users and stakeholders
• Training and dissemination

An innovative toolkit for integrated catchments analysis and modelling will be developed to simulate hydrological, hydro chemical and ecological processes at the catchments scale for use in assessing the potential impact of global change under different climate and socio-economic scenarios. A unified system of ecological indicators for monitoring freshwater ecosystem health, and new methods for defining reference conditions and restoration strategies will be developed. These will take into account the probable impacts of future climate change and the need for a holistic approach to restoration based on habitat connectivity.

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