Deforestation is one of the world’s greatest land-use habitat alterations (Scarsbrook and Halliday, 1999). Specifically, tropical environments, where the rate of deforestation is currently increasing and changing not only the landscape, but the quality of water draining it, are the sites for the greatest freshwater biodiversity loss and system simplification (Boyero and Bailey, 2001). For examp...

Aim Increasing threats to freshwater biodiversity are rapidly changing the distinctiveness of regional species pools and local assemblages. Biotic homogenization/differentiation processes are threatening the integrity and persistence of native biodiversity patterns at a range of spatial scales and pose a challenge for effective conservation planning. Here, we evaluate the extent and determinant...

a spring-stream called “ghadamgah” in fars province, southern iran, which holds more than 60 aquatic vertebrate and plant species belonging to 46 genera and 33 families is almost the biologically richest water body of fars province. the diversity is especially in its endemic fishes which are under threats nowadays. one of the factors, if not the one, which has kept this system more or less in i...

Stream networks are branched structures wherein water and energy move between land and atmosphere, modulated by evapotranspiration and its interaction with the gravitational dissipation of potential energy as runoff. These actions vary among climates characterized by Budyko theory, yet have not been integrated with Horton scaling, the ubiquitous pattern of eco-hydrological variation among Strah...

Forestry may cause adverse impacts on water quality, and the forestry planning process is a key factor for the outcome of forest operation effects on stream water. To optimise environmental considerations and to identify actions needed to improve or maintain the stream biodiversity, two silvicultural water management tools, BIS+ (biodiversity, impact, sensitivity and added values) and Blue targ...

Fluvial processes such as flooding and sediment deposition play a crucial role in structuring riparian plant communities. In rivers throughout the world, these processes have been altered by channelization and other anthropogenic stresses. Yet despite increasing awareness of the need to restore natural flow regimes for the preservation of riparian biodiversity, few studies have examined the eff...

Lotic environments contain a disproportionate amount of biodiversity given their relatively small proportion of the worldwide landscape. We conducted a systematic literature search of research directed towards understanding factors that influence biodiversity in lotic habitats, published in 31 major ecological and freshwater science journals from 1981 to 2014. Our goal was to characterize emerg...

Urbanization and agricultural intensification can transform landscapes. Changes in land-use lead to increases storm runoff nutrient loadings which impair the health function of stream ecosystems. Microorganisms are an integral component Due sensitivity microorganisms perturbations, changes hydrology water chemistry may alter microbial activity structure. These shifts community dynamics metaboli...