An assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on freshwater habitats and biota of Indiana, USA
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An assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on freshwater habitats and biota of Indiana, USA Tomas O. Höök, et al. [full author details at the end of the article] Received: 15 May 2018 / Accepted: 19 July 2019 # Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract Recent climate-driven, physico-chemical changes documented in aquatic systems throughout the world are expected to intensify in the future. Specifically, changes in key environmental attributes of aquatic systems, such as water quantity, clarity, temperatures, ice cover, seasonal flow regimes, external loading, and oxygen content, will undoubtedly have a broad set of direct and indirect ecological consequences. Some anticipated impacts may be similar across different aquatic ecosystems, while others may be system-specific. Here, we review the potential effects of climatic changes for different freshwater habitats within the state of Indiana, USA, a Midwestern state with diverse land and water features. Given this heterogeneity and that the state is among the southernmost states of the US Midwest, evaluation of freshwater habitats of Indiana provides a useful perspective on potential impacts of climate change. In our study, we first review expected or anticipated changes to physico-chemical and habitat conditions in wetlands, lotic systems, small glacial lakes and Lake Michigan. We then highlight anticipated responses of select aquatic biota to these changes. We describe how climatic changes may interact with other anthropogenic stressors affecting freshwater habitats and consider the potential for evolutionary adaptation of freshwater aquatic organisms to mediate any responses. Given anticipated changes, we suggest aquatic ecosystem managers take a precautionary approach broadly applicable in temperate regions to (a) conserve a diversity of aquatic habitats, (b) enhance species diversity and both inter- and intrapopulation genetic variation, and (c) limit stressors which may exacerbate the risk of decline for aquatic biota.
1 Climatic effects on freshwater systems in Indiana Spanning from roughly the 37° 42′ to the 41° 42′ northern parallels, Indiana, USA, is home to several types of aquatic ecosystems. Many streams and rivers run through the state, ultimately draining to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and lakes Erie and Michigan (Fig. 1). Of particular This article is part of a Special Issue on “The Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment” edited by Jeffrey Dukes, Melissa Widhalm, Daniel Vimont, and Linda Prokopy Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-01902502-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Climatic Change
note, the Wabash River watershed drains almost 75% of the state and includes a 661-km undammed, free-flowing section, the longest such stretch in the US east of the Mississippi River. Small, glacially formed lakes abound in the north, while in the south most lentic waterbodies are reservoirs. Wetland ecosystems and small private ponds are found
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