[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6450\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EFish and plants dying off in Europe\u2019s tainted freshwater\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEach year, agriculture and industry extract more water from our rivers and lakes while simultaneously pumping in more pollutants, like detergents, fertilisers or sewage. Add climate change to the situation and we\u2019re facing even higher concentrations of dirty water.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Climate change causes higher temperatures and thus higher evapotranspiration (evaporation and moisture carried through plants), and that increases concentrations of pollution,\u2019 said ICREA Research Professor Sandra Brucet, from the Aquatic Ecology group at the University of Vic in Spain. \u2018This is causing a growth in algae production and that kills biodiversity.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYou may have seen lakes or rivers covered by a thick, green layer of slime. This is phytoplankton, a type of microscopic plant, and it thrives on the excess nutrients from wastewater like nitrates and phosphorous from agriculture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome phytoplankton species are toxic, which is bad for biodiversity, but the bigger problem is that they take more oxygen from the water to fuel their growth, and that starves large fish and amphibians.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There is also a clear reduction in the transparency of water, which means less sunlight reaches aquatic plants,\u2019 said Prof. Brucet, who is the project coordinator of CLIMBING, an EU-funded project exploring the impacts of climate change in freshwater biodiversity and carried out at Aarhus University in Denmark.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe project conducted the world\u2019s longest-running freshwater ecosystem experiment in order to fully understand the factors that climate change and pollution are having on freshwater.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We had several mini lakes, some of these enclosures had natural conditions and in others we increased the temperature or added nutrients,\u2019 said Prof. Brucet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u2019s clear the effects of climate change and eutrophication (water pollution) are worse combined than they are individually.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe experiment ran for over 10 years, the longest such test in the world, which allowed the enclosures to resemble real freshwater bodies.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018We need to start recycling more and invest in technologies that save water in agriculture and industries.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003ESandra Brucet, ICREA Research Professor, University of Vic, Spain\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We found that in enclosures with higher temperature and concentration of nutrients the ecological quality and the biodiversity was reduced,\u2019 said Prof. Brucet.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe CLIMBING project also examined a database of over 2 000 European lakes in order to compare warmer and colder waters across the continent. They found that fish in the warmer lakes across Europe were smaller, which indicates lower water quality.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018This has consequence for the whole food web and the water quality,\u2019 said Prof. Brucet, who warns current water use will continue to threaten freshwater biodiversity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If we keep extracting so much water, we can\u2019t restore these ecosystems,\u2019 said Prof. Brucet. \u2018We need to start recycling more and invest in technologies that save water in agriculture and industries, which are two main sectors that consume freshwater.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Brucet will now present her results to an international panel looking at the beneficial role that natural elements can play in an ecosystem, an area of study known as ecosystem services. They will form part of a report informing governments on the challenges facing freshwater biodiversity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We have provided evidence on the different impacts that are affecting freshwater and we have recommendations about what we can do to reduce them. The next step now is conservation and restoration.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGood microbes\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the natural elements that can help keep ecosystems well-balanced and potentially mitigate the effects of pollution is a microbial community.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Shinjini Mukherjee, primary researcher on the EU-funded MicroCity project, said: \u2018(Microbes) participate in biogeochemical cycling such as carbon fixation, nitrogen fixation and de-nitrification. In certain amounts they can even degrade different xenobiotics (man-made contaminants). They also have the capacity to break down several polyaromatic hydrocarbons (chemicals that are released from burning coal, oil, gasoline, etc.), pesticide and herbicides.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMicroCity, which began in 2015, is examining the different functions of these microbial communities and how they are impacted by different levels of urbanisation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers are studying microbial genes and functions in over 60 ponds across a range of urban areas in Belgium, like freshwater bodies in cities, gardens, next to motorways and parks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018In most urban environments, we also see the use of a lot of pesticides and herbicides in private gardens,\u2019 said Dr Mukherjee. \u2018There could also be specific industrial outputs like antibiotics and heavy metals.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMicroCity examines the DNA of these urban microbe communities to determine what ecological functions they provide and how they change from one pond to the next depending on the levels of urban pollution.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We can see if a city pond, for example, has a lower capacity of nitrogen fixation, or de-nitrification, than a rural pond,\u2019 said Dr Mukherjee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis information can then be provided to regional or local governments for better sustainable development: like what outputs reach freshwater, and how this affects microbial ecosystem services.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018My vision would be to develop a cohesive synthesis of how these microbes respond to urbanisation,\u2019 said Dr Mukherjee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-4jr-tx-h-b5vsqj0-laz-byjqisa-qm4vuthpxfqvge\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-4JR-tX_H-B5VsQJ0-LaZ_BYjqISA_Qm4vUtHPxFQVgE\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]