Abstract

This talk is free for members of BioSoc or £2 for non-members. You can also sign up for life membership (£15) or annual membership (£10) at this talk.

Human activities are degrading the state of the world’s surface freshwater. Many of these changes are linked to watershed disturbance. This is because aquatic ecosystems are fuelled by biogeochemical cycles that initiate on land. But terrestrial land use and disturbance are frequently overlooked when managing freshwater supplies. Here, I will show how the biology, chemistry, and physics of small boreal lakes, which store most of the world’s freshwater, are controlled by terrestrial vegetation in their surrounding catchments. A consistent finding is that key services delivered by aquatic ecosystems, such as productive fish populations and accessible drinking water supplies, are ultimately products of healthy forests and wetlands. High forest cover may even help increase the resilience of systems to climate warming. Conservation of freshwater ecosystems clearly needs to protect local watersheds and coordinate the management of fisheries and forestry resources.