Journal
BIOSCIENCE
Volume 67, Issue 10, Pages 897-911Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/biosci/bix107
Keywords
river ecosystem; food web; ecological network; alpine; biotic response
Categories
Funding
- Natural Environment Research Council Scholarship [NE/L002574/1]
- Natural Environment Research Council grant [NE/P016146/1]
- NERC [NE/P016146/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Natural Environment Research Council [1652119] Funding Source: researchfish
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Climate change is driving the thinning and retreat of many glaciers globally. Reductions of ice-melt inputs to mountain rivers are changing their physicochemical characteristics and, in turn, aquatic communities. Glacier-fed rivers can serve as model systems for investigations of climate-change effects on ecosystems because of their strong atmospheric-cryospheric links, high biodiversity of multiple taxonomic groups, and significant conservation interest concerning endemic species. From a synthesis of existing knowledge, we develop a new conceptual understanding of how reducing glacier cover affects organisms spanning multiple trophic groups. Although the response of macroinvertebrates to glacier retreat has been well described, we show that there remains a relative paucity of information for biofilm, microinvertebrate, and vertebrate taxa. Enhanced understanding of whole river food webs will improve the prediction of river-ecosystem responses to deglaciation while offering the potential to identify and protect a wider range of sensitive and threatened species.
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