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Hydropower impacts on riverine biodiversity

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Abstract

Hydropower is a rapidly developing and globally important source of renewable electricity. Globally, over 60% of rivers longer than 500 km are already fragmented and thousands of dams are proposed on rivers in biodiversity hotspots. In this Review, we discuss the impacts of hydropower on aquatic and semi-aquatic species in riverine ecosystems and how these impacts accumulate spatially and temporally across basins. Dams act as physical barriers that disrupt longitudinal connectivity and upstream–downstream movement of species. Impoundment creates still-water habitats upstream of dams and leads to declines in lotic-adapted species. Intermittent water releases modify the natural flow, sediment and thermal regimes in downstream channels, altering water quality, substrate structure and environmental cues that are vital for species to complete their life cycles, resulting in reduced reproduction success. Moreover, retention effects of reservoirs and flow regulation alter river–floodplain exchanges of water, sediment and nutrients, modifying the habitats on which riverine species depend. Improvements to flow regulation, fishway design and sediment redistribution can mitigate these ecological impacts. Future research should support reforms to dam operations and design adaptations to balance renewable electricity development and biodiversity conservation through systematic basin-scale planning, long-term monitoring, adaptive management and involving multiple actors in decision-making.

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Fig. 1: Impacts of hydropower plants on river connectivity and riverine species.
Fig. 2: Impacts of a large hydropower plant on the river section upstream of the dam.
Fig. 3: Downstream impacts of hydropower plants on riverine species.
Fig. 4: Cumulative impacts of hydropower plants on river connectivity and sediment flux.

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Acknowledgements

The work leading to this publication is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant number 2022YFF1300900), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant number E355S122) and the PRIME programme of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). J.-C.S. considers this work a contribution to his VILLUM Investigator project ‘Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World’, funded by VILLUM FONDEN (grant number 16549), and Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO), funded by Danish National Research Foundation (grant number DNRF173). S.C.J. considers this work a contribution to the Leibniz Competition project ‘Freshwater Megafauna Futures’ and acknowledges funding by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme funding for the project DANUBE4ALL (grant number 101093985) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) for the Collaborative Research Centre 1439 RESIST (CRC 1439/1, grant number 426547801). J.D.O. was supported by the Richard C. and Lois M. Worthington Endowed Professor in Fisheries Management from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington. The authors would like to thank Dan Luo and Jida Wang for helping with the figures.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China

    Fengzhi He  (何逢志)

  2. Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China

    Fengzhi He  (何逢志)

  3. Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Fengzhi He  (何逢志) & Sonja C. Jähnig

  4. Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO), Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Fengzhi He  (何逢志) & Jens-Christian Svenning

  5. Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany

    Fengzhi He  (何逢志) & Sonja C. Jähnig

  6. Center for Applied Geoscience, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Christiane Zarfl

  7. Senckenberg – Leibniz Institution for Biodiversity and Earth System Research, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Klement Tockner

  8. Faculty for Biological Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Klement Tockner

  9. School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Julian D. Olden

  10. Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden

    Julian D. Olden

  11. Laboratório de Vida Selvagem, Embrapa Pantanal, Corumbá, Brazil

    Zilca Campos

  12. Instituto de Ciências Exatas e Naturais (ICEN), Universidade Federal de Rondonópolis (UFR), Rondonópolis, Brazil

    Fábio Muniz

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  1. Fengzhi He  (何逢志)
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All authors contributed to the conceptualization and discussion of the content. F.H. led the writing and all authors contributed substantially to the drafts of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Glossary

Aquatic macrophytes

Plants that are submerged or can float at the water surface.

Attraction efficiency

The percentage of fish detected at the entrance of or inside the fishway in relation to all monitored fish.

Benthic macroinvertebrates

Invertebrates, such as aquatic insects, snails, worms and mussels, that attach to substrates or aquatic macrophytes or burrow into riverbed sediments.

Denil fishways

Fish passages with a series of symmetrical, closely spaced baffles that can redirect water flow and create low-velocity zones at the bottom to allow fish to ascend.

Detritivorous, omnivorous, insectivorous

Classification of animals according to their nutrient uptake by consumption of dead organic material, both plant and animal matter, or insects, respectively.

Equilibrium strategists

Fish species often of small to medium body size with intermediate maturation, small clutch size but high parental care.

Filter-collectors

Macroinvertebrates that feed on floating particles by filtering them from running water.

High-profile diatoms

Tall-stature diatoms that can form long colonies, have good access to nutrients and light, but are exposed to disturbances from fast flow and grazers.

Hydraulic residence time

The average time a water molecule is in a reservoir based on the ratio of reservoir volume to average flow rate.

Hydropeaking

Rapid changes in downstream water level and flow owing to intermittent water releases from hydropower plants.

Hypolimnetic releases

Release of deepwater that is of different temperature than surface waters and has low oxygen concentrations.

Opportunistic strategists

Fish species often of small size with early maturation and low juvenile survivorship.

Passage efficiency

The percentage of fish detected at or beyond the fishway exit in relation to fish detected at the entrance of or inside the fishway.

Periodic strategist

Fish species that are characterized by large body size, late maturity, high fecundity but low juvenile survivorship, and typically depend on highly seasonal environments.

Phytoplankton

Pelagic algae and bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis.

Pool-weir fishways

Fish passages with a series of interconnected pools separated by low weirs.

Rheophilic fish

Fish species that prefer to live in a fast-flowing environment.

Semi-aquatic species

Animals and plants that use both aquatic and terrestrial habitats.

Thermal stratification

Lakes and reservoirs have distinct thermal layers at different depths owing to density changes in dependence of temperature.

Thermopeaking

Sudden changes in water temperature in river sections downstream of powerhouses receiving water from high-elevation reservoirs.

Total dissolved gas supersaturation

The level of dissolved gases in water exceeds the solubility threshold under the local atmospheric pressure and temperature.

Zooplankton

Weak active swimming animals that inhabit the water column and obtain energy through consuming other organisms.

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He, F., Zarfl, C., Tockner, K. et al. Hydropower impacts on riverine biodiversity. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 755–772 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00596-0

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