Local changes caused by dams can have drastic consequences for ecosystems, not only because they change the water regime but also the modification on lakeshore areas. Thus, this work aimed to determine the changes in soil moisture after damming, to understand the consequences of this modification on the arboreal community of dry forests, some of the most endangered systems on the planet. We stu...

Phytoplankton constitutes the primary producers of aquatic ecosystems and represents the food chain base that supports the commercial fisheries of most water bodies. Nowadays, there is lack of information on phytoplankton assemblages of most reservoirs in Africa. To contribute with this knowledge, this study was carried out to determine the density and diversity of seasonal variations of phytop...

Dam construction is one of the challenges among large-scale projects of a country. Among different types of dams, due to special features, earth dams are the most kind of dams that were constructed in Iran in the past three decades. Features such as efficiency and stability of earth dams have an important effect on their operation and prevent them to be damaged. Taham dam is clay core dam which...

Hydrologic alterations resulting from dam construction and other human activities have negatively impacted the biodiversity and ecological integrity of rivers worldwide (Dudgeon 2000, Pringle et al. 2000). These alterations have included habitat fragmentation, conversion of lotic to lentic habitat, variable flow and thermal regimes, degraded water quality, altered sediment transport processes, ...

This paper conducts an assessment on the social-ecological resilience of China’s Dongting Lake (and its three sections – East, West and South Dongting Lake) in relation to the perturbations of the Three Gorges Dam using a set of resilience-based indicators. Expert scoring is applied to identify the different states of the lake and their resilience levels. Based on equal weighting for all indica...

With the occurrence of recreational and small scale subsistence fishing activities at the Vaal Dam, South Africa, consumption of fish from this dam may result in health risks associated with trace elements and metals. The Vaal Dam is one of the largest dams in South Africa, located between the Gauteng Province and Orange Free State, and supplies water to approximately 11.6 million people. A tot...

The 4-year drawdown of Horsetooth Reservoir, Colorado, for dam maintenance, provides a case study analog of vegetation response on sediment that might be exposed from removal of a tall dam. Early vegetation recovery on the exposed reservoir bottom was a combination of (1) vegetation colonization on bare, moist substrates typical of riparian zones and reservoir sediment of shallow dams and (2) a...

The site for the high Quxue Dam has a narrow canyon with very steep abutments and complex geology in Sichuan Province, China. Various types of embankment concrete dams were considered an asphalt-core dam (ACED), 174 m high, was selected. asphalt core is slender impervious element some concerns have been raised about reliability safety type (ACEDs). This paper presents case study highest ever bu...

We investigate the use of the short-lived fallout radionuclide beryllium-7 ( Be; t1/2 = 53·4 days) as a tracer of medium and coarse sand (0·25–2 mm), which transitions between transport in suspension and as bed load, and evaluate the effects of impoundment on seasonal and spatial variations in bed sedimentation. We measure Be activities in approximately monthly samples from point bar and stream...