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Water
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Assessment of Hydropower Sustainability in River Habitats and Aquatic Biota
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Assessment of Hydropower Sustainability in River Habitats and Aquatic Biota

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity and Functionality of Aquatic Ecosystems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2024 | Viewed by 1642

Special Issue Editor

Dr. José Maria Santos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Forest Research Centre, Associate Laboratory TERRA, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: freshwater fish; fish passage; hydropower; fish migration; connectivity; river restoration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hydropower is the leading renewable energy source, contributing two-thirds of global electricity generation from all renewable sources combined. This renewable source has a large potential role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts, being integral to the EU’s target of achieving at least 32 per cent of energy being from renewables by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050, as foreseen in the European Green Deal. Thus, hydropower can directly contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7: “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all”.

However, hydropower projects and the associated infrastructures have been outlined as emerging environmental threats to riverine ecosystems, causing severe declines in vertebrate populations, with a particular impact on migratory fish and their natural habitats, as a result of river fragmentation, the blockage of migratory routes, drifting, stranding, and the modification of natural flow and thermal regimes. Therefore, guaranteeing environmental hydropower sustainability requires an in-depth assessment of all these issues, taking into account that global warming will further stimulate conflicts in water use in a way that disturbs riverine ecosystems.

Science-based knowledge regarding the solutions necessary to counteract the environmental impacts of hydropower, and melding principles of aquatic ecology and engineering hydraulics, is thus urgently needed to assure hydropower sustainability.

This Special Issue aims to compile novel information on fundamental research and applications regarding the hydropower sustainability of river habitats and aquatic biota. Authors may contribute submissions that range from field studies to mesocosms and laboratory experiments that have application to real-world challenges.

Dr. José Maria Santos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • small-scale/large-scale hydropower
  • run-of-river/pumped storage hydropower
  • hydropeaking
  • habitat use and modelling
  • physical and behavioural barriers
  • fish passage and migration
  • environmental flows
  • fish-friendly turbines
  • optimization of hydropower design and operations
  • riparian vegetation management
  • hydropower and interaction with other stressors

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 2705 KiB  
Article
Seasonal and Size-Related Fish Microhabitat Use Upstream and Downstream from Small Hydropower Plants
by José M. Santos, Renan Leite, Maria J. Costa, Francisco Godinho, Maria M. Portela, António N. Pinheiro and Isabel Boavida
Water 2024, 16(1), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16010037 - 21 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1327
Abstract
Hydropower can have significant impacts on riverine ecosystems due to hydropeaking (i.e., artificial rapid and short-term fluctuations in water flow and water levels downstream and upstream of hydropower stations) that negatively affect downstream fish. However, when it comes to analyzing species habitat use [...] Read more.
Hydropower can have significant impacts on riverine ecosystems due to hydropeaking (i.e., artificial rapid and short-term fluctuations in water flow and water levels downstream and upstream of hydropower stations) that negatively affect downstream fish. However, when it comes to analyzing species habitat use and availability above and below small hydropower plants (SHPPs), studies conducted at the microhabitat scale are scarcer, particularly in Mediterranean rivers. The goal of this study is to assess the seasonal (early and late summer) and size-related (juveniles and adults) microhabitat use by native fish above and below SHPPs. Fish were sampled by a modified point electrofishing procedure, and a multivariate approach was used to analyze microhabitat use and availability data from sites located upstream (reference) and downstream (disturbed) from two SHPPs in northeast Portugal. Cover and water depth were the most influential variables in the use of microhabitat for all species at both the reference and disturbed sites, although some differences in the variable rankings were found. Leuciscids exhibited similar patterns of non-random (i.e., selective) microhabitat use between the reference and the disturbed sites. Overall, the seasonal and size-related patterns in species microhabitat use were similar, with the majority of species displaying seasonal patterns in microhabitat use from early summer to late summer. This study showed that differences in fish microhabitat use between downstream SHPP and upstream reference sites were negligible. Cover might have had a significant role in tempering the effects of detrimental environmental conditions, namely, peaking flows, by providing hydraulic shelter, highlighting the need to maintain riparian vegetation strips and mosaics of submerged aquatic macrophytes, as well as the provision of coarse substrata that can be critical for fish. Future studies are needed to better clarify how different size classes of fish select microhabitats when facing past and present hydropeaking conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment of Hydropower Sustainability in River Habitats and Aquatic Biota)
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