DRYvER PROJECT – Securing biodiversity, functional integrity and ecosystem
services in DRYing rivER networks

START – END DATE: September 2020 – September 2024

STATUS: In progress

INSTITUTION: Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Dr. Andrea C. Encalada (USFQ Researcher) y Dr. Thibault Datry (Director INREA and IRSTEA professor, Universidad Lyon, Francia).

LOCATION: Cube River Basin (Esmeraldas)

PROJECT DURATION: 48 months

FUNDING: Horizon 2020 (H2020) EU funding programme

River networks are among the most threatened hot spots of biodiversity. In rivernetworks, aquatic communities, ecosystem functions and services are organised through local environmental constraints and regional fluxes of organisms and resources. These fluxes are threatened by climate change and increased human water use, which cause rivers and streams to dry up worldwide, including in Europe. Over 50% of the global river network include drying channels and this share is dramatically increasing worldwide. Because shifts from permanent to intermittent flow regimes represent major tipping points for rivers, including massive fish deaths and impaired water quality, we must urgently understand ecosystem processes and socio-ecological consequences of drying. A fundamental breakthrough in our understanding of and approach to river networks is needed to better manage them in a climate change context.

Although drying river networks (DRNs) are expanding in time and space, they have received little attention from scientists and policymakers, and the public is seemingly unaware of the importance of DRNs in supporting human well-being. This lack of knowledge prevents us from predicting how climate change will alter riverine drying patterns and affect their biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services and the consequences of such alterations for both nature and humans. Currently, there is no effective integrated biodiversity conservation strategy or ecosystem management of DRNs facing climate change. In South America, DRNs harbour 30% of Earth freshwaters and several of the world’s major biodiversity hotspots.

DRYvER is a project funded by the European Union HORIZON 2020 (H2020) call and has the participation of 22 European institutions and 3 Latin American institutions. The Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) is the Ecuadorian partner in this consortium. DRYvER main objective is to investigate how biodiversity, ecosystem functions, ecosystem services and their values in DRNs are directly and indirectly altered by climate change through empirical and modelling work at relevant spatial and temporal scales. Furthermore, DRYvER will provide knowledge-based strategies and tools for cost-effective adaptive management of DRNs in the EU and worldwide.