Adaptation and Resilience: science for a changing environment

Freshwater systems are among the most endangered habitats in the world due to development, pollution and climate change.

Our rivers, lakes and wetlands (and the functions they provide) are at ever increasing risk. Fundamental research is required to understand how the physical, hydrological, chemical and ecological aspects of freshwaters function and will respond to a range of future scenarios including increased occurrence of floods and droughts and changes in water quality.

Physical

• Mapping rivers and preserving livelihoods

Hydrological

• Scotland River Temperature Monitoring Network (SRTMN)
• hypoTRAIN - A training network for enhancing the understanding of complex physical, chemical and biological process interactions in hyporheic zones
• Panta Rhei - Change in Hydrology and Society - Proposal document (PDF)

Chemical

• INTERFACES - Ecohydrological interfaces as critical hotspots for transformations of ecosystem exchange fluxes
• Large woody debris -A river restoration panacea for streambed nitrate attenuation?

Ecological

• Assessing the effects of EXtreme summer flooding on STREAM ecosystem successional processes (EXSTREAM)
• Drought impacts on stream ecosystem functioning
• Freshwater ecosystems in the Arctic: understanding environment-biodiversity linkages in a changing climate
• University invests £2 Million for environmental genomics and recruits John Colbourne to lead