Earth & Environment
Freshwater Ecosystems
Freshwater Ecosystems occupy a small percent of the Earth's surface but they are rich sources of biodiversity and provide important services to human societies, such as water, food, regulation of hydrological extremes, pollutant attenuation, and carbon sequestration. As freshwater systems are under pressure from human activity and climate change, a more complete understanding of these systems is needed to respond to the environmental changes associated with these processes.
In this PLOS ONE collection, our guest editors have compiled a selection of research conducted in or involving freshwater ecosystems, including rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands. This collection aims to transcend traditional boundaries between ecosystem types (e.g. terrestrial, aquatic, marine) and divisions among processes (e.g. carbon, nutrients, hydrology, human activity, population ecology, etc.).
Image Credit: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255058 CC BY 4.0
Guest Editors
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Guest Editor, PLOS ONE Ben Abbott
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Guest Editor, PLOS ONE Kirsten S. Christoffersen
PLOS ONE
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PLOS ONE Aquatic insects differentially affect lake sturgeon larval phenotypes and egg surface microbial communities
Documentation of how interactions among members of different stream communities [e.g., microbial communities and aquatic insect taxa…
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PLOS ONE Drought and nutrient pollution produce multiple interactive effects in stream ecosystems
Drought and nutrient pollution can affect the dynamics of stream ecosystems in diverse ways. While the individual effects of both…
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PLOS ONE Establishing and using a genetic database for resolving identification of fish species in the Sea of Galilee, Israel
Freshwaters are a very valuable resource in arid areas, such as Mediterranean countries. Freshwater systems are vulnerable ecological…
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PLOS ONE Invertebrate communities in springs across a gradient in thermal regimes
In many respects, freshwater springs can be considered as unique ecosystems on the fringe of aquatic habitats. This integrates their…
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PLOS ONE Riparian vegetation composition and diversity shows resilience following cessation of livestock grazing in northeastern Oregon, USA
Riparian ecosystem restoration has been accomplished through exclusion of livestock using corridor fencing along hundreds of kilometers of…
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PLOS ONE Hyporheic hydraulic geometry: Conceptualizing relationships among hyporheic exchange, storage, and water age
Hyporheic exchange is now widely acknowledged as a key driver of ecosystem processes in many streams. Yet stream ecologists have been slow…
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PLOS ONE Limited progress in nutrient pollution in the U.S. caused by spatially persistent nutrient sources
Human agriculture, wastewater, and use of fossil fuels have saturated ecosystems with nitrogen and phosphorus, threatening biodiversity…
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PLOS ONE A process-based assessment of landscape change and salmon habitat losses in the Chehalis River basin, USA
Identifying necessary stream and watershed restoration actions requires quantifying natural potential habitat conditions to diagnose…
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PLOS ONE Shortcuts for biomonitoring programs of stream ecosystems: Evaluating the taxonomic, numeric, and cross-taxa congruence in phytoplankton, periphyton, zooplankton, and fish assemblages
Different biological groups can be used for monitoring aquatic ecosystems because they can respond to variations in the environment.…
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PLOS ONE Megafire affects stream sediment flux and dissolved organic matter reactivity, but land use dominates nutrient dynamics in semiarid watersheds
Climate change is causing larger wildfires and more extreme precipitation events in many regions. As these ecological disturbances…
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PLOS ONE Identifying the potential of anadromous salmonid habitat restoration with life cycle models
An investigation into the causes of species decline should include examination of habitats important for multiple life stages. Integrating…
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PLOS ONE Livestock as vectors of organic matter and nutrient loading in aquatic ecosystems in African savannas
Populations of large wildlife have declined in many landscapes around the world, and have been replaced or displaced by livestock. The…
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PLOS ONE Impact of heavy precipitation events on pathogen occurrence in estuarine areas of the Puzi River in Taiwan
Pathogen populations in estuarine areas are dynamic, as they are subject to multiple natural and anthropogenic challenges. Heavy rainfall…
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PLOS ONE Large spatiotemporal variability in metabolic regimes for an urban stream draining four wastewater treatment plants with implications for dissolved oxygen monitoring
Urbanization and subsequent expansion of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) capacity has the potential to alter stream metabolic regimes,…
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PLOS ONE Embryonic exposure to predation risk and hatch time variation in fathead minnows
Organisms are exposed to a wealth of chemical information during their development. Some of these chemical cues indicate present or future…
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PLOS ONE Classifying California’s stream thermal regimes for cold-water conservation
Stream temperature science and management is rapidly shifting from single-metric driven approaches to multi-metric, thermal regime…
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PLOS ONE Chemical characteristics of groundwater and source identification in a coastal city
A coastal city is studied in this paper. Based on 42 groundwater sampling points, a Piper diagram, the Shukarev classification, the…
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PLOS ONE Citizen science reveals unexpected solute patterns in semiarid river networks
Human modification of water and nutrient flows has resulted in widespread degradation of aquatic ecosystems. The resulting global water…
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PLOS ONE All day-long: Sticklebacks effectively forage on whitefish eggs during all light conditions
The three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus invaded Lake Contance in the 1940s and expanded in large numbers from an exclusively…
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PLOS ONE Assessment of some key indicators of the ecological status of an African freshwater lagoon (Lagoon Aghien, Ivory Coast)
The supply of drinking water is a vital challenge for the people who live on the African continent, as this continent is experiencing…
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PLOS ONE Response of benthic macroinvertebrates to dam removal in the restoration of the Boardman River, Michigan, USA
Dam removal is an increasingly important method of stream restoration, but most removal efforts are under-studied in their effects. In…
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PLOS ONE The Ayeyarwady River (Myanmar): Washload transport and its global role among rivers in the Anthropocene
The Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) is the second largest river of Southeast Asia and one of the rivers with the highest load of suspended sediment…
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PLOS ONE Dynamics of primary productivity in relation to submerged vegetation of a shallow, eutrophic lagoon: A field and mesocosm study
Aquatic ecosystems nowadays are under constant pressure, either from recent or historical events. In most systems with increased nutrient…
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PLOS ONE An application of Bayesian Belief Networks to assess management scenarios for aquaculture in a complex tropical lake system in Indonesia
A Bayesian Belief Network, validated using past observational data, is applied to conceptualize the ecological response of Lake Maninjau,…
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PLOS ONE Larval development and survival of pond-breeding anurans in an agricultural landscape impacted more by phytoplankton than surrounding habitat
The destruction of freshwater habitat is a major contributor to biodiversity loss in aquatic ecosystems. However, created or restored…
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PLOS ONE Vulnerability of Pacific salmon to invasion of northern pike (Esox lucius) in Southcentral Alaska
The relentless role of invasive species in the extinction of native biota requires predictions of ecosystem vulnerability to inform…
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PLOS ONE Thwarting predators? A three-dimensional perspective of morphological alterations in the freshwater crustacean Daphnia
Predation is a major selective agent, so that many taxa evolved phenotypically plastic defensive mechanisms. Among them are many species…
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PLOS ONE The impact of withdrawing aquaculture facilities on metazooplankton communities in the lakes are connected to the Yangtze River, China
The withdrawal of aquaculture facilities has an important impact on the aquatic ecosystem of the lakes connected to the Yangtze River. In…
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PLOS ONE Successional dynamics of a 35 year old freshwater mitigation wetland in southeastern New Hampshire
The long-term ecological success of compensatory freshwater wetland projects has come into question based on follow-up monitoring studies…
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PLOS ONE Nutrient limitation of algae and macrophytes in streams: Integrating laboratory bioassays, field experiments, and field data
Successful eutrophication control strategies need to address the limiting nutrient. We conducted a battery of laboratory and in situ…
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PLOS ONE Environmentally triggered shifts in steelhead migration behavior and consequences for survival in the mid-Columbia River
The majority of Columbia River summer-run steelhead encounter high river temperatures (near or > 20°C) during their spawning migration.…
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PLOS ONE Belowground productivity varies by assessment technique, vegetation type, and nutrient availability in tidal freshwater forested wetlands transitioning to marsh
Wetlands along upper estuaries are characterized by dynamic transitions between forested and herbaceous communities (marsh) as salinity,…
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