It also shows that river management requires more complicated approaches to tackle several stressors simultaneously.
Climate change and land-use change can have serious impacts on freshwater ecosystems due to combinations of different types of pollution and physical changes of rivers and lakes. Examples on pollution include nutrients and toxic substances from agriculture and urban wastewater. Higher temperature and changes in water level or river flow and shape of the river channel and riparian zones, are examples of physical changes of rivers and lakes.
These combinations of human-induced stress, often referred to as multiple stressors, can cause degradation of water quality, ecological status, biodiversity and aquatic ecosystem services, such as fishing and recreation. In order to plan how to reduce these stressors, managers need to know how the different stressors interact.
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