European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Directorate D-Sustainable Resources, via Enrico Fermi 2749, 21027, Ispra, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 16;7(1):205. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-00324-3.
Humans have increased the discharge of pollution, altered water flow regime and modified the morphology of rivers. All these actions have resulted in multiple pressures on freshwater ecosystems, undermining their biodiversity and ecological functioning. The European Union has adopted an ambitious water policy to reduce pressures and achieve a good ecological status for all water bodies. However, assessing multiple pressures on aquatic ecosystems and understanding their combined impact on the ecological status is challenging, especially at the large scale, though crucial to the planning of effective policies. Here, for the first time, we quantify multiple human pressures and their relationship with the ecological status for all European rivers. We considered ecological data collected across Europe and pressures assessed by pan-European models, including pollution, hydrological and hydromorphological alterations. We estimated that in one third of EU's territory rivers are in good ecological status. We found that better ecological status is associated with the presence of natural areas in floodplains, while urbanisation and nutrient pollution are important predictors of ecological degradation. We explored scenarios of improvement of rivers ecological status for Europe. Our results strengthen the need to halt urban land take, curb nitrogen pollution and maintain and restore nature along rivers.
人类排放的污染物增加，改变了水流状态并改变了河流的形态。所有这些行为都对淡水生态系统造成了多重压力，破坏了它们的生物多样性和生态功能。欧盟已经采取了雄心勃勃的水政策，以减少压力并实现所有水体的良好生态状况。然而，评估水生生态系统的多种压力并了解它们对生态状况的综合影响具有挑战性，尤其是在大规模的情况下，尽管对于规划有效的政策至关重要。在这里，我们首次量化了所有欧洲河流的多种人为压力及其与生态状况的关系。我们考虑了在整个欧洲收集的生态数据以及通过泛欧模型评估的压力，包括污染、水文和水力学形态的改变。我们估计，在欧盟三分之一的领土内，河流处于良好的生态状况。我们发现，更好的生态状况与洪泛区自然区域的存在有关，而城市化和营养污染是生态退化的重要预测因素。我们探讨了改善欧洲河流生态状况的情景。我们的研究结果加强了制止城市土地侵占、遏制氮污染以及维护和恢复河流沿线自然的必要性。
