This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using our website you consent to the cookies in accordance with the current settings of your browser.
To learn more about how to adjust the settings of your browser, please visit our Cookie Policy.
The research project RIFFLES is funded by the National Science Centre (NCN), Poland (Sonata 14 Grant 2018/31/D/ST10/03817).
ABOUT THE PROJECT
River flow regimes vary in space and time on an extraordinary scale. Flow variability has been for a long time appraised as the fundamental factor affecting riverine biota, which has led to the concept of environmental flows, i.e. “the flow regimes required in a river to meet its ecological objectives”.
The objective of the proposed project is to increase the understanding about the effects of river flow variability, with a particular focus on extreme low and high discharges, on the biota of temperate floodplain rivers under multiple, environmental and human pressures. The project will explore three different pathways of studying flow-ecology relationships, each suited and adapted to a particular spatial scale: (1) systematic review and meta-analysis synthesising findings from primary studies carried out within a homogenous European eco-region containing Poland; (2) statistical modelling carried out at national scale; (3) ecohydrological modelling using the integrated modelling framework concept, supported by extensive monitoring, carried out at small to medium-sized catchment scale (Jeziorka catchment in central Poland).
The main goal of pillar 1 is to apply evidence synthesis methods to collate data from primary studies on flow-ecology relationships in temperate floodplain rivers. The objective of pillar 2 is to derive quantitative flow-biota relationships valid for Polish rivers using existing, historical data: gauged or modelled river flows paired with bio-monitoring data on fish and macroinvertebrate metrics from environmental agencies. Within pillar 3, the goal will be to develop the modelling cascade consisting of a hydrological, water allocation, hydraulic and ecological models for the River Jeziorka and its catchment (989 km2). The ultimate goal of developing the modelling cascade is its ability to explicitly take into account three key stressors for the freshwater environment: climate change, land use/ land cover change, and water management.
The research project RIFFLES (‘The Effect of River Flow Variability and Extremes on Biota of Temperate Floodplain Rivers under Multiple Pressures’) is funded by the National Science Centre (NCN), Poland (Sonata 14 Grant 2018/31/D/ST10/03817).
PUBLICATIONS
Double click to change this paragraph text. This is not a Lorem Ipsum text, but we still want to keep it long, blah-blah-blah, is it long yet? Oh it's enough, double click to edit :)
Damiano Baldan, David Cunillera-Montcusí, Andrea Funk, Mikołaj Piniewski, Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles, Thomas Hein, The effects of longitudinal fragmentation on riverine beta diversity are modulated by fragmentation intensity, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 903, 2023,166703, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166703
The river fragmentation impact on fish communities studied in three case studies with different network position: Upper Danube (Austrian section), Ebro (Spain), and Odra/Oder (Poland). We used generalized linear models to explain species richness and Local Contributions to Beta Diversity (LCBD) and multilinear regressions on the distance matrix to describe Beta Diversity and its Replacement and Richness Difference components.
2023). Development of an integrated modelling framework to evaluate impacts of pressures on habitat conditions and riverine biota. Ecohydrology, e2585. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.2585 , , , , , , & (
An integrated modelling framework assessing impacts of different stressors on reach-scale habitat conditions for benthic macroinvertebrates in a temperate lowland river in central Poland. Combining hydrological (SWAT+), hydraulic (HEC-RAS 1D and SRH-2D) and habitat (CASiMiR) models to predict the response of habitat suitability in functional group of filter feeders to changes in the Jeziorka river.
Piniewski, M., Eini, M. R., Chattopadhyay, S., Okruszko T.,
Kundzewicz, Z. W. (2022) Is there a coherence in observed and projected changes in riverine low flow indices across Central Europe? Earth-Science Reviews 233: 104187. doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104187
Systematic review of hydrological droughts and low flows in Central Europe. Majority (53%) of historical observations studies show decreases in low flows. Fraction of studies showing low flow increases in future projections is the triple of that in historical observations. RCP-based studies show significantly more low flow increases than SRES-based studies.
Baldan, D., Chattopadhyay, S., Prus, P., Funk, A., Keller, A., & Piniewski, M. (2022) Regionalization strategy affects the determinants of fish community structure. Ecohydrology, e2425. doi.org/10.1002/eco.2425
The study explores how different environmental variables (e.g. sediment, land use) affect fish communities and how several regionalisation strategies vary in explanatory power regarding the fish responses.
2022) High-resolution simulated water balance and streamflow data set for 1951–2020 for the territory of Poland. Geoscience Data Journal, 00, 1– 13. doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.152 , , , , , , et al. (
The core of the article is a publily available data set stored online which can be used for further reasearch. It contains simulated water balance and streamflow for the entire territory of Poland reconstructed for the years 1951–2020 with a daily time step using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model.
Keller, A., Chattopadhyay, S. & Piniewski, M. (2021) What evidence exists on the impacts of flow variability on fish and macroinvertebrates of temperate floodplain rivers in Central and Western Europe? A systematic map protocol. Environ Evid 10, 10. doi.org/10.1186/s13750-021-00225-z
In accordance with the Guidelines and Standards for Evidence Synthesis in Environmental Management developed by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence conducting an evidence synthesis should be preceded by a publicly available protocol.
In this study, we quantified the effect of a moderate (5-year return period) yet long-lasting and unpredictable flood that occurred in summer 2020 on the benthic macroinvertebrates of the Jeziorka River in central Poland. We also evaluated the dynamics of hydrological, hydraulic, channel morphology, and water quality conditions across the studied 1300 m long reach.
Chattopadhyay, S., Oglęcki, P., Keller, A., Kardel, I., Mirosław-Świątek, D., Piniewski, M. (2021) Effect of a Summer Flood on Benthic Macroinvertebrates in a Medium-Sized, Temperate, Lowland River. Water, 13, 885. doi.org/10.3390/w13070885
An update and extension of the previously published (https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/8/127/2016/) first Polish gridded climate dataset at high resolution. New variables and time coverage reaching 2019. Useful as forcing data for environmental models.
Piniewski, M., Szcześniak, M., Kardel, I., Chattopadhyay, S., Berezowski, T. (2021) G2DC-PL+: a gridded 2 km daily climate dataset for the union of the Polish territory and the Vistula and Odra basins, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1273–1288, doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1273-2021, 2021.
NEWS
Presentation at the Symposium for European Freshwater sciences in Newcastle, June 2023
PhD Candidate agata Keller presented preliminary results of the systematic map on the impacts of flow variability on fish and macroinvertebrates in temperate floodplain rivers in Central and Western Europe
Contribution at International Conference on the Status and Future of the World’s Large Rivers, August 2021
Our project team was present at the International Conference on the Status and Future of the World’s Large Rivers with two presentations:
"Impact of Regionalization Strategy on the Fish Community Structure in Polish River" delivered by Somsubhra Chattopadhyay, and "Country-wide Statistical Modelling of Flow-Ecology Relations in Polish Rivres" delivered by Agata Keller.
If you are aware of any piece of evidence possibly relevant to the scope of our systematic map, please kindly submit it HERE.
We would especially welcome any examples of grey literature (e.g. reports, diploma theses).
Thank you for your input!
PROJECT STAFF (WULS-SGGW)
EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS
LET'S GET IN TOUCH!
Folow us on ResearchGate!
Principal Investigator: mikolaj_piniewski@sggw.edu.pl
Website Admin: agata_keller@sggw.edu.pl