Advance in Freshwater Conservation and Restoration in a Large River Basin

Dear Colleagues,

A large river basin is usually a resource-rich, economically developed and densely populated area with a fragile ecological ecosystem sensitive to human disturbance and climate changes. The maintenance of the health of freshwater ecosystems plays an important role in safeguarding water resources and the ecological foundation for the sustainable development of large river basins. In a broad sense, freshwater ecosystems encompass all inland water bodies, including rivers, lakes, floodplains, marshes, underground water and estuaries, in which the riverine and nonriverine freshwater ecosystems are hydrologically connected within a river basin. Freshwater ecosystems are fundamentally different from terrestrial ecosystems with their longitudinal, lateral and vertical hydrological connectivities. Such inherent interconnections not only maintain ecological processes, biodiversity and ecosystem services of freshwater ecosystems, but also determine the propagation of threats to the ecosystem through freshwater networks within a river basin.  

Although freshwater ecosystems play a vital role in preserving global biodiversity and ecosystem services, they have become one of the most threatened ecosystems on Earth in the past century due to massive alterations to hydrological flow, soil erosion and deposition dynamics, land reclamation, chemical and nutrient pollution and invasive species, in which human-induced impacts have dominated and are coupled with climate change. Thus, there is an urgent need for prioritizing resources and effective actions to conserve and restore those freshwater ecosytems which are particularly interconnected within large river basins. Accordingly, the primary purpose of this Special Issue is to provide state-of-the-art conceptual, methodological, implementary and policy-related studies on the conservation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems in large river basin, where the underlying geo-physical and hydro-ecological processes that cause the degradation of freshwater ecosystems can be addressed at an appropriate scale.

The specific topics of interest in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to: (1) Quantifying anthropogenic drivers and impacts on the degradation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems (e.g., biodiversity and ecosystem services); (2) measuring and characterizing processes and extents of freshwater degradation and restoration; (3) exploring coupled human–climate effects on freshwater ecosystems; (4) identifying degradation thresholds and restorable targets and pathways; (5) integrating riverine and nonriverine wetlands in addressing their multi-directional connectivity in freshwater conservation and restoration planning; (6) assessing co-benefits of cross-realm conservation and restoration between freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems; (7) spatially explicit prioritization of implementary details and measures for freshwater conservation and restoration planning; (8) developing Nature-based solution (NbS) strategies and institutional tools in freshwater conservation and restoration; (9) ecological impact assessment and watershed management.

Dr. Xiaowen Li
Dr. Manyin Zhang
Dr. Ting Lei
Guest Editors

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• conservation
• restoration
• degradation
• climate change
• freshwater ecosystems
• riverine/nonriverine wetlands
• human-induced impacts
• large river basins