Lentic versus lotic: Biodiversity research in regulated rivers

Dear Colleagues,

Freshwaters make up a tiny fraction of the earth’s surface, but support nearly 6% of its species and provide significant ecosystem services to humans. Longitudinal patterns exist both in diversity and in river development, putting some biotic communities at greater risk than others. Some ecosystem services (e.g., irrigation, boat fishing, and thermoelectric and hydropower generation) involve damming rivers and converting lotic to lentic ecosystems. At a landscape scale, this interspersion of lentic and lotic habitats can increase beta diversity by increasing the variety of aquatic habitat and by preventing movement among habitats. River regulation filters out species unable to persist under altered flow regimes in tailwaters, short river segments between dams or other human-modified conditions.

Fragmentation of habitat and barriers to movement posed by damming have significant impacts on fishes, especially on wide-ranging migratory species and their dependents. Regulation of flow regimes also has notable local effects on biota that are often mediated by water quality (e.g., seasonal changes in temperature or dissolved oxygen), and these are likely to worsen under future climate. Because freshwater biota are among the most imperiled taxa, it is vital to find better ways to promote coexistence between provision of ecosystem services to society and species in river networks.

In this special topic we invite research that offers knowledge into the drivers of freshwater biodiversity in regulated rivers from the local to landscape perspectives, along with studies describing efforts to conserve biodiversity in regulated systems under current and future conditions.

By Prof. Henriette I. Jager, Prof. Dana Infante, Prof. Paulo dos Santos Pompeu, Prof. Kai Chen, Prof. Valter M. Azevedo-Santos, Prof. Junjiro Negishi, Prof. Young-Seuk Park

Guest Editors

Keywords：

regulated rivers, freshwater biodiversity, flow regulation, dams, reservoirs, river networks

Important deadlines：

Submission close: 30 June 2025

Expected time to first decision: 4 weeks after submission

Open access (OA) fee: Waived

Submission instructions：

Please read the Guide for Authors before submitting. All submissions should be made via the online editorial system.

 Guest Editors: