Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1038/s41559-025-02884-4
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Meta-analysis-derived estimates of stressor–response associations for riverine organism groups
Author Kaijser, W.; Musiol, M.; Schneider, A.R.; Prati, S.; Brauer, V.S.; Bayer, R.; Birk, S.; Brauns, M.; Dunne, L.; Enss, J.; Farias, L.; Feld, C.K.; Feldhaus, L.; Gillmann, S.M.; Hupało, K.; Osakpolor, S.E.; Olberg, S.L.M.; Pimentel, I.M.; Schäfer, R.B.; Schlautmann, C.; Schwelm, J.; Sures, B.; Wagner, C.S.; Wells, N.E.; Wenskus, F.; Schürings, C.; Hering, D.
Source Titel Nature Ecology & Evolution
Year 2025
Department FLOEK
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Supplements Supplement 1
Supplement 2
Supplement 3
Supplement 4
Supplement 5
Keywords Biodiversity; Freshwater ecology
Abstract Freshwater ecosystems, particularly rivers, are experiencing the most rapid biodiversity declines of any biome, driven by several interacting stressors operating across local to global scales. Despite growing research on these interactions, the lack of systematic quantification of individual stressor gradients limits our ability to disentangle their cumulative effects. Here we present a global synthesis of stressor–response relationships across five key riverine organism groups—prokaryotes, algae, macrophytes, invertebrates and fish. We screened 22,120 papers and extracted 276 studies with 1,332 stressor–response relationships. We used generalized linear mixed models and Bayesian meta-analyses to quantify the response to the seven most prevalent stressors. Consistently across taxa, biodiversity loss (taxon richness and evenness) reflected elevated salinity, oxygen depletion and fine sediment accumulation, while the association with nutrient enrichment and warming varied among groups. Predictive tools, including hypothetical outcome plots and partial dependence plots, revealed the interplay of stressors and predicted biodiversity response to stress increase. Our findings establish a quantitative baseline for a continuous global synthesis, refining predictions of anthropogenic stressor impacts, identifying key research gaps and informing conservation strategies for freshwater ecosystems.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=31564
Kaijser, W., Musiol, M., Schneider, A.R., Prati, S., Brauer, V.S., Bayer, R., Birk, S., Brauns, M., Dunne, L., Enss, J., Farias, L., Feld, C.K., Feldhaus, L., Gillmann, S.M., Hupało, K., Osakpolor, S.E., Olberg, S.L.M., Pimentel, I.M., Schäfer, R.B., Schlautmann, C., Schwelm, J., Sures, B., Wagner, C.S., Wells, N.E., Wenskus, F., Schürings, C., Hering, D. (2025):
Meta-analysis-derived estimates of stressor–response associations for riverine organism groups
Nat. Ecol. Evol. 10.1038/s41559-025-02884-4