Poor correlation between large-scale environmental flow violations and freshwater biodiversity: implications for water resource management and the freshwater planetary boundary
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Abstract
The freshwater ecosystems around the world are degrading, such that maintaining environmental flow 1 (EF) in river networks is critical to their preservation. The relationship between streamflow alterations (subsequent EF violations 2 ) and the freshwater biodiversity response is well established at the scale of stream reaches or small basins (∼<100 km 2 ). However, it is unclear if this relationship is robust at larger scales, even though there are large-scale initiatives to legalize the EF requirement. Moreover, EFs have been used in assessing a planetary boundary 3 for freshwater. Therefore, this study intends to conduct an exploratory evaluation of the relationship between EF violation and freshwater biodiversity at globally aggregated scales and for freshwater ecoregions. Four EF violation indices (severity, frequency, probability of shifting to a violated state, and probability of staying violated) and seven independent freshwater biodiversity indicators (calculated from observed biota data) were used for correlation analysis. No statistically significant negative relationship between EF violation and freshwater biodiversity was found at global or ecoregion scales. These findings imply the need for a holistic bio-geo-hydro-physical approach in determining the environmental flows. While our results thus suggest that streamflow and EF may not be the only determinant of freshwater biodiversity at large scales, they do not preclude the existence of relationships at smaller scales or with more holistic EF methods (e.g., including water temperature, water quality, intermittency, connectivity, etc.) or with other biodiversity data or metrics.
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Cites
Bending the Curve of Global Freshwater Biodiversity Loss: An Emergency Recovery Plan
Tickner, D., Opperman, J. J., Abell, R., Acreman, M., Arthington, A. H., Bunn, S. E., Cooke, S. J., Dalton, J., Darwall, W., Edwards, G., et al. (2020) · BioScience · doi:10.1093/biosci/biaa002 · Cited by 1,241 · cited 1× · see citing works
“There has been an increased recognition in recent decades of the need to maintain a natural flow regime in streams to sustain healthy ecosystems (Horne et al., 2017; Poff et al., 1997, 2017; Tickner et al., 2020; Tonkin et al., 2021).”
BackgroundScientists’ warning to humanity on the freshwater biodiversity crisis
Albert, J. S., Destouni, G., Duke-Sylvester, S. M., Magurran, A. E., Oberdorff, T., Reis, R. E., Winemiller, K. O., & Ripple, W. J. (2021) · Ambio · doi:10.1007/s13280-020-01318-8 · Cited by 943 · see citing works
A global database on freshwater fish species occurrence in drainage basins
Tedesco, P. A., Beauchard, O., Bigorne, R., Blanchet, S., Buisson, L., Conti, L., Cornu, J.-F., Dias, M. S., Grenouillet, G., Hugueny, B., et al. (2017) · Scientific Data · doi:10.1038/sdata.2017.141 · Cited by 268 · cited 2× · see citing works
“…arcsec (3119 Temporal aggregate Observed/measured richness data drainage basins; from data compiled data ∼ 80 % of Earth’s land) from reports between Tedesco et al. (2017) 1960 and 2014 Freshwater fish Basin scale (2465 Representative of 2015 Derived from observed facets drainage basins) (change…”
BackgroundMethodGlobally widespread and increasing violations of environmental flow envelopes
Virkki, V., Alanärä, E., Porkka, M., Ahopelto, L., Gleeson, T., Mohan, C., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Flörke, M., Gerten, D., Gosling, S. N., et al. (2022) · Hydrology and Earth System Sciences · doi:10.5194/hess-26-3315-2022 · Cited by 52 · cited 11× · see citing works
“To calculate the EF violation indices, the estimated EFEs for each basin were obtained from Virkki et al. (2022).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationMohan, C., Gleeson, T., Famiglietti, J. S., Virkki, V., Kummu, M., Porkka, M., Huggins, X., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Gerten, D., & Jähnig, S. C. (2022) · doi:10.1002/essoar.10507838.2 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
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Globally widespread and increasing violations of environmental flow envelopes
Virkki, V., Alanärä, E., Porkka, M., Ahopelto, L., Gleeson, T., Mohan, C., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Flörke, M., Gerten, D., Gosling, S. N., et al. (2022) · Hydrology and Earth System Sciences · doi:10.5194/hess-26-3315-2022 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Self-citationZipper, S., Brookfield, A., Ajami, H., Ayers, J. R., Beightel, C., Fienen, M., Gleeson, T., Hammond, J. C., Hill, M., Kendall, A., et al. (2024) · Water Resources Research · doi:10.1029/2023wr035727 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
“…environmental flow needs for aquatic ecosystems have been developed and proposed, these are not well‐correlated with freshwater biodiversity (Mohan et al., 2022), suggesting that more information beyond just changes in water quantity is needed to link streamflow depletion to adverse…”
BackgroundSelf-citationHuggins, X., Gleeson, T., Villholth, K., Rocha, J. C., & Famiglietti, J. S. (2024) · Water Resources Research · doi:10.1029/2023wr036287 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
“…in complex freshwater systems, such as biodiversity responses to environmental flow transgressions, has proven analytically challenging (Mohan et al., 2022), we suggest that integrating groundwaterscapes and their derivatives in similar investigations can provide an alternative zonal…”
Self-citationMohan, C., Gleeson, T., Famiglietti, J. S., Virkki, V., Kummu, M., Porkka, M., Huggins, X., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Gerten, D., & Jähnig, S. C. (2022) · doi:10.1002/essoar.10507838.2 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citationMahapatra, S., & Jha, M. (2025) · Environmental Processes · doi:10.1007/s40710-025-00774-2 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“It is now widely acknowledged that every aspect of the flow regime, including floods and low flow periods, contributes to the functioning of freshwater ecosystems (Bunn and Arthington 2002; Virkki et al. 2022; Mohan et al. 2022) and an imbalance in flow.”
InfluentialEnvironmental Flow Increases The Riparian Vegetation Diversity And Community Similarity
Guo, M., Xue, W., Wang, C., Li, W.-Z., Gao, H., Saintilan, N., Li, C., Huang, G., & Wang, Y.-Y. (2024) · Wetlands (Wilmington, N.C.) · doi:10.1007/s13157-024-01811-w · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“Environmental flow refers to the quantity, timing of river flow required to sustain aquatic ecosystems, with the aim of maintaining ecosystem integrity (Arthington et al. 2018; Mohan et al. 2022).”
Han, S., Leng, G.-Y., & Yu, L.-F. (2023) · Water Resources Research · doi:10.1029/2022wr033646 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“The government-formulated method (2 of 28 studies) directly adopts the water resource utilization standards formulated by the local government, accounting for ecological water reserve requirements or the EWF, as the water PB (Cole et al., 2014; McLaughlin, 2018).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialHydro-environmental flow classification of rivers (case study: Beshar River, Iran)
Sedghi-Asl, M., & PourSaLEHan, S. (2025) · Ecological Indicators · doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.114049 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Mohan, C., Gleeson, T., Famiglietti, J. S., Virkki, V., Kummu, M., Porkka, M., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Huggins, X., Gerten, D., & Jähnig, S. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Victoria (CA)
- University of Saskatchewan (CA)
- Aalto University (FI)
- Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (SE)
- Stockholm Resilience Centre (SE)
- Leibniz Association (DE)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Mohan, Chinchu
- ORCID
- Venue
- Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
- Publisher
- Copernicus GmbH
- Published
- 2022-12-13
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 23
- Pages
- 6247-6262
- ISSN
- 1027-5606 (ISSN-L)
- 1607-7938
- OpenAlex
- W4311237449
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 88
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 1.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Hydrology and earth system sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Aaltodoc (Aalto University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UVic’s Research and Learning Repository (University of Victoria) (submittedVersion)
- HARVEST (University of Saskatchewan) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RENATE (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Publication Database PIK (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RENATE (cc-by)
- Funders
- Canada First Research Excellence Fund (Na)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Fish Ecology and Management Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity and ecology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes
- Keywords
- environmental flows, freshwater biodiversity, streamflow change, freshwater ecoregions, water resources management, biodiversity indicators
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