Monday, June 4, 2007 - 4:00 PM
72

Effects of climate change and water shortage on freshwater biodiversity

Marguerite A. Xenopoulos, Department of Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada

Climate warming, droughts, extensive water use and water shortage can have many negative consequences for freshwater biodiversity. The rate of water flow in rivers (discharge) is one index of aquatic habitat heterogeneity and fish species richness increases with greater river discharge. Reduced discharge in rivers will result from climate warming and/or reduced precipitation and human use of water, but the possible consequence of these changes on fish richness is still poorly quantified. I used several scenarios developed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change to build scenarios of losses in river discharge and therefore losses of freshwater fish richness that will result from climate change and increased water withdrawal for agriculture and other human uses over the next 100 years. While results differ somewhat across scenarios, typical losses are 1-75% of riverine fish biodiversity by 2100 due to climate change and an additional 1-5% loss of richness due to water use. However, some rivers (e.g., Euphrates R., Indus R.) are predicted to have more substantial fish loss from water use alone. Conservation strategies and reductions in water consumption could prevent many of the extinctions in these scenarios.

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