How to protect what we do not know we have: Identifying, understanding and managing aquatic biodiversity in intensively managed forests and under an increasingly extreme climate (AquaBioEx)

Ongoing climate change and land-use represent severe pressures on boreal waters, most impacting the smallest natural streams and systems created (ditches) or modified (ditched streams that we call Dreams) by humans. In Sweden, extreme drought events and floods are increasingly more common. At the same time, millions of km of small waterways are under pressure from forestry.

These anthropogenic pressures represent large threats to biological communities in small waterways, but currently we do not have the capacity to predict their responses, nor to protect them.

In AquaBioEx we ask: 1) What are the differences and similarities in biodiversity among natural, modified and man-made small forest waterways? 2) How does biodiversity respond to disturbances caused by hydrological extremes, and are those responses influenced by the magnitude of disturbance due to forestry? 3) Can we find climate-proofed solutions for managing forests along small waterways and thus, prevent biodiversity losses? 4) What indicators can be monitored in small forest waterways to effectively evaluate their ecological status, and can they be integrated into regional, national, and international monitoring programs?

AquaBioEx will use cutting-edge techniques including DNA metabarcoding for invertebrates, diatoms and bacteria, experiments in fluvial mesocosms, and high-resolution water balance methods. Importantly, we will collaborate with stakeholders to ensure that our findings are relevant for society.