Biogeochemical Functioning of Large Fluvial or Lacustrine Hydrosystems: Impacts of Human Activities

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263). This special issue belongs to the section "Geochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 August 2019) | Viewed by 16447

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), 75006 Paris, France
Interests: biogeochemical processes affecting metals transport and metal storage in the ecosystems; transport mechanisms of heavy metals in aquatic environments; contamination of riverine, estuarine and coastal shelf sediments

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Guest Editor
UMR228 Espace-DEV Institut de recherche pour le développement, Maison de la Télédétection, Montpellier, France
Interests: tropical wetlands; modeling; global change; sustainability science
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The goal of this Special Issue of Geosciences is to gather high-quality original research articles and reviews on the analysis of the human impact upon the biogeochemical functioning of pristine to highly-impacted large fluvial (±103 m3·s-1) or lacustrine (±102 km2) systems.

Today, no lake or river escapes human pressure, whether for the removal of water resources or, more often, because of contamination linked to human activities. Understanding what the effects of this pressure on water quality are (major and trace element enrichment) and, consequently, on biodiversity across climatic or altitude gradient is the theme of this Special Issue.

A wide spectrum of human pressures may impact hydrosystems and result in modifying their biogeochemical functioning. Here, we want to focus on the pressures or the combination of pressures that may modify carbon emission, contaminant fate, or shift in the trophic network. They may result from land use and land cover changes, mining or urban waste-waters input, but also through physical intervention, such as water derivation, dam construction, etc. Large rivers or lakes representative of climatic zones will be considered.

Studies of interest of this Special Issue include, but are not limited to: Multisite comparative approach, approaches combining observation and modeling, approaches combining several tracers (biological, chemical, etc.), and so on.

Authors are encouraged to approach the Guest Editor by sending a short abstract outlining the purpose of the research and the principal results obtained, in order to verify at an early stage if the contribution they intend to submit fits with the objectives of the Special Issue.

Prof. Patrick Seyler
Dr. Marie-Paule Bonnet
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Lake and riverine systems
  • Eutrophication and biogeochemical mechanisms
  • Contamination by heavy metals
  • Transport and transformation of pollutants

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 979 KiB  
Article
Using Cilioplankton as an Indicator of the Ecological Condition of Aquatic Ecosystems
by Tatiana Kondrateva, Tatiana Nikonenkova and Nadezhda Stepanova
Geosciences 2019, 9(11), 464; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9110464 - 30 Oct 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2339
Abstract
We assess the quality of surface water in water bodies located in the Middle Volga region (Russian Federation). The water quality is assessed using 19 chemical compounds and cilioplankton indicators, such as the total number of species, the abundance of each species, and, [...] Read more.
We assess the quality of surface water in water bodies located in the Middle Volga region (Russian Federation). The water quality is assessed using 19 chemical compounds and cilioplankton indicators, such as the total number of species, the abundance of each species, and, based on both of them, the saprobity index and the Shannon–Weaver diversity index (H). We classify the water quality from polluted to extremely dirty by using abiotic indicators, and from conditionally clean to dirty by means of biotic indicators. Using the logistic regression method, we are able to predict the water quality (clean or dirty) in correspondence with the species diversity index (H) and to clarify how the quality of the water is related to its physicochemical properties. The seven most significant chemical predictors of both natural origin (mineralization, hydro carbonates, and chlorides) and natural-anthropogenic origin (organic substances (according to BOD5), nitrates, total petroleum hydrocarbons, iron), identified during the stepwise selection procedure, have a substantial influence on the outcome of the model. Qualitative and quantitative indicators of development of ciliates, as well as indices calculated on their basis, allow assessing with a very high level of accuracy the water quality and the condition of aquatic ecosystems in general. The Shannon index calculated for the number of ciliates can be successfully used for ranking water bodies as “clean/dirty”. Full article
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26 pages, 6414 KiB  
Article
Managing the Agri-Food System of Watersheds to Combat Coastal Eutrophication: A Land-to-Sea Modelling Approach to the French Coastal English Channel
by Josette Garnier, Philippe Riou, Romain Le Gendre, Antsiva Ramarson, Gilles Billen, Philippe Cugier, Mathilde Schapira, Sylvain Théry, Vincent Thieu and Alain Ménesguen
Geosciences 2019, 9(10), 441; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9100441 - 16 Oct 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3912
Abstract
The continental coastal waters of the Eastern Channel, from Normandy to Hauts-de-France, are subject to the major influence of unbalanced nutrient inputs from inflowing rivers. Several episodes of harmful algal blooms (HABs) compromising fishing and shellfish farming activities have been observed at the [...] Read more.
The continental coastal waters of the Eastern Channel, from Normandy to Hauts-de-France, are subject to the major influence of unbalanced nutrient inputs from inflowing rivers. Several episodes of harmful algal blooms (HABs) compromising fishing and shellfish farming activities have been observed at the coast. For a better understanding of how the land-to-sea aquatic continuum functions, the GRAFS-RIVERSTRAHLER river biogeochemical model was implemented to cover the watersheds of 11 rivers flowing into this area (including the Seine) and chained with the ecological marine ECO-MARS3D model, applied to the French Northern coastal zone. Human activities strongly impact on the functioning of coastal ecosystems. Specifically, for these fertile soils of Northern France, intensive agricultural nitrogen (N) deliveries in excess over silica (Si) and phosphorus (P), essentially of diffuse origin, are potentially responsible for coastal eutrophication. Phosphorous is today equally supplied by diffuse and point sources, after a drastic reduction of inputs from wastewater treatment plants since the 2000s, and is better balanced regarding Si, as shown by the indicators of coastal eutrophication potential (P-ICEP versus N-ICEP). However, despite this drastic P reduction, HABs still appear repeatedly. Exploration of several scenarios of agro-food chain reorganization shows that (i) further progress in urban wastewater treatment to fully comply with current European regulations will not result in a significant reduction of nutrient fluxes to the sea, hence including HABs, and (ii) radical structural changes in agriculture, based on generalization of long and diversified organic crop rotations, reconnection of crop and livestock farming and changes in the human diet have the capacity to significantly reduce nutrient flows, coastal eutrophication and HABs. Full article
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Review

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17 pages, 1160 KiB  
Review
Large Russian Lakes Ladoga, Onega, and Imandra under Strong Pollution and in the Period of Revitalization: A Review
by Tatiana Moiseenko and Andrey Sharov
Geosciences 2019, 9(12), 492; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9120492 - 22 Nov 2019
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 9748
Abstract
In this paper, retrospective analyses of long-term changes in the aquatic ecosystem of Ladoga, Onega, and Imandra lakes, situated within North-West Russia, are presented. At the beginning of the last century, the lakes were oligotrophic, freshwater and similar in origin in terms of [...] Read more.
In this paper, retrospective analyses of long-term changes in the aquatic ecosystem of Ladoga, Onega, and Imandra lakes, situated within North-West Russia, are presented. At the beginning of the last century, the lakes were oligotrophic, freshwater and similar in origin in terms of the chemical composition of waters and aquatic fauna. Three stages were identified in this study: reference condition, intensive pollution and degradation, and decreasing pollution and revitalization. Similar changes in polluted bays were detected, for which a significant decrease in their oligotrophic nature, the dominance of eurybiont species, their biodiversity under toxic substances and nutrients, were noted. The lakes have been recolonized by northern species following pollution reduction over the past 20 years. There have been replacements in dominant complexes, an increase in the biodiversity of communities, with the emergence of more southern forms of introduced species. The path of ecosystem transformation during and after the anthropogenic stress compares with the regularities of ecosystem successions: from the natural state through the developmental stage to a more stable mature modification, with significantly different natural characteristics. A peculiarity of the newly formed ecosystems is the change in structure and the higher productivity of biological communities, explained by the stability of the newly formed biogeochemical nutrient cycles, as well as climate warming. Full article
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