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Biogeochemical implications of climate change for tropical rivers and floodplains

  • GLOBAL CHANGE AND RIVER ECOSYSTEMS
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Abstract

Large rivers of the tropics, many of which have extensive floodplains and deltas, are important in the delivery of nutrients and sediments to marine environments, in methane emission to the atmosphere and in providing ecosystem services associated with their high biological productivity. These ecosystem functions entail biogeochemical processes that will be influenced by climate change. Evidence for recent climate-driven changes in tropical rivers exists, but remains equivocal. Model projections suggest substantial future climate-driven changes, but they also underscore the complex interactions that control landscape water balances, river discharges and biogeochemical processes. The most important changes are likely to involve: (1) aquatic thermal regimes, with implications for thermal optima of plants and animals, rates of microbially mediated biogeochemical transformations, density stratification of water bodies and dissolved oxygen depletion; (2) hydrological regimes of discharge and floodplain inundation, which determine the ecological structure and function of rivers and floodplains and the extent and seasonality of aquatic environments; and (3) freshwater–seawater gradients where rivers meet oceans, affecting the distribution of marine, brackish and freshwater environments and the biogeochemical processing as river water approaches the coastal zone. In all cases, climate change affects biogeochemical processes in concert with other drivers such as deforestation and other land use changes, dams and other hydrological alterations and water withdrawals. Furthermore, changes in riverine hydrology and biogeochemistry produce potential feedbacks to climate involving biogeochemical processes such as decomposition and methane emission. Future research should seek improved understanding of these changes, and long-term monitoring should be extended to shallow waters of wetlands and floodplains in addition to the larger lakes and rivers that are most studied.

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Acknowledgements

Ralf Conrad, Michael Hobbins, Jeff Shellberg and Tim Jardine provided advice on specific aspects. Jeff Shellberg provided temperature data for the Mitchell River, Australia. The author was supported during the preparation of this review by a Commonwealth Environmental Research Facilities Fellowship from the Australian government, as well as by the Australian Rivers Institute of Griffith University and the Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge (TRaCK) programme. TRaCK receives major funding for its research through the Australian Government’s Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities initiative; the Australian Government’s Raising National Water Standards Programme; Land and Water Australia; and the Queensland Government’s Smart State Innovation Fund.

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  1. W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, 3700 E. Gull Lake Drive, Hickory Corners, MI, 49060-9516, USA

    Stephen K. Hamilton

  2. Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, 3700 E. Gull Lake Drive, Hickory Corners, MI, 49060-9516, USA

    Stephen K. Hamilton

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Guest editors: R. J. Stevenson, S. Sabater / Global Change and River Ecosystems – Implications for Structure, Function and Ecosystem Services

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Hamilton, S.K. Biogeochemical implications of climate change for tropical rivers and floodplains. Hydrobiologia 657, 19–35 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-009-0086-1

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