Effects of Consumptive Water Use on Biodiversity in Wetlands of International Importance

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• 作者：Francesca Verones ; Dominik Saner ; Stephan Pfister ; Daniele Baisero ; Carlo Rondinini ; Stefanie Hellweg
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：November 5, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：47
• 期：21
• 页码：12248-12257
• 全文大小：449K
• 年卷期：v.47,no.21(November 5, 2013)
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Wetlands are complex ecosystems that harbor a large diversity of species. Wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems on our planet, due to human influences such as conversion and drainage. We assessed impacts from water consumption on the species richness of waterbirds, nonresidential birds, water-dependent mammals, reptiles and amphibians in wetlands, considering a larger number of taxa than previous life cycle impact assessment methods. Effect factors (EF) were derived for 1184 wetlands of international importance. EFs quantify the number of global species-equivalents lost per m² of wetland area loss. Vulnerability and range size of species were included to reflect conservation values. Further, we derived spatially explicit characterization factors (CFs) that distinguish between surface water and groundwater consumption. All relevant watershed areas that are contributing to feeding the respective wetlands were determined for CF applications. In an example of rose production, we compared damages of water consumption in Kenya and The Netherlands. In both cases, the impact was largest for waterbirds. The total impact from water consumption in Kenya was 67 times larger than in The Netherlands, due to larger species richness and species鈥?vulnerability in Kenya, as well as more arid conditions and larger amounts of water consumed.