Cover: A highly natural brown-water stream on Stewart Island, showing intact riparian linkages and a diversity of in-stream habitat. Importance sub-project of The Sustainable Development Programme of Action for Freshwater (or 'Water Programme of Action'). It is a working draft that presents a proposed methodology and a preliminary list of candidate rivers of national importance based on their b...

This paper reviews various impacts of urbanization on rivers and streams, which lead to symptoms summarized by the general term “urban stream syndrome”. Growing areas of impervious surfaces cause deterioration of water recipients flowing through urban areas. The symptoms of deterioration usually include altered chemical parameters of water and sediment, accumulation of priority pollutants in aq...

Forests are biologically diverse systems, representing some of the richest biological areas on Earth. They offer a variety of habitats for plants, animals and micro-organisms. However, forest biodiversity is increasingly threatened as a result of deforestation, fragmentation, climate change and other stressors. Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or on t...

Forests are biologically diverse systems, representing some of the richest biological areas on Earth. They offer a variety of habitats for plants, animals and micro-organisms. However, forest biodiversity is increasingly threatened as a result of deforestation, fragmentation, climate change and other stressors. Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or on t...

Riparian habitats of boreal forests are considered as hotspots for biochemical processes and biodiversity, varying width riparian buffers have been proposed to protect species diversity the forests. However, evidence role soil moisture variation in shaping biodiversity ecosystem functioning remain scarce particularly regarding belowground diversity. We studied how distance from stream zone affe...