Freshwater ecosystems are inland aquatic systems dominated by low-salinity water, encompassing rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and groundwater-dependent habitats. They are structured by hydrological regime, nutrient availability, light penetration, thermal stratification, and substrate characteristics, and support diverse communities of microorganisms, algae, macrophytes, invertebrates, fish, and amphibians. Biogeochemical processes in these systems, including primary production, decomposition, and nutrient cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, regulate water quality and contribute to regional and global elemental fluxes. Research on freshwater ecosystems examines food web dynamics, ecological resilience, responses to eutrophication, pollution, flow alteration, climate change, and their role in providing ecosystem services such as drinking water supply and biodiversity maintenance.
A major new study led by Swansea University has shown that upstream river management, rather than local rainfall, is the primary driver of one of the world's most important wetlands. According to the research published in ...
Environment
3 hours ago
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As sea levels rise due to climate change, encroaching seawater will likely make freshwater environments saltier. In a new study, MIT researchers have shown how that increase in salinity might affect microbial ecosystems found ...
Ecology
Jul 17, 2026
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A new United Nations report co-authored by researchers at the University of Portsmouth provides governments with a practical roadmap for building sustainable blue economies, as pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss ...
Environment
Jul 16, 2026
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When University of Rhode Island researchers slipped beneath the surface of the Moosup River recently, they did not expect to find a living freshwater mussel community. The discovery marked the first documented record of freshwater ...
Ecology
Jul 16, 2026
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The Guadalquivir is the most important river in Andalusia. Stretching 657 kilometers (408 miles), it forms the backbone of Andalusia, from its source in the Sierra de Cazorla mountains to its mouth in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. ...
Environment
Jul 16, 2026
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Approximately 90% of the U.S. population relies on public water systems. A significant portion of the water supplying those systems comes from forested lands, which means policies affecting forests also affect water access.
Environment
Jul 16, 2026
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On a summer afternoon in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain pond can look calm and still, reflecting granite peaks and alpine sky. But beneath the surface, these small, shallow waters are anything but stable. In fact, they are ...
Environment
Jul 15, 2026
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In the heart of the Congo Basin's Cuvette Centrale, a large depression that hosts the world's largest tropical wetland complex, lie two vast, shallow blackwater lakes, Lake Tumba and Lake Mai Ndombe. Together, they are roughly ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 14, 2026
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A new study finds a widely used technique for assessing the health of freshwater streams is not effective at detecting a range of water quality problems, including those related to acidity, oxygen levels and the presence ...
Environment
Jul 13, 2026
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Researchers from King's College London recorded the warning signs of a major low-oxygen event in Lake Victoria just hours before fish deaths were reported by local communities, demonstrating why earlier warning systems are ...
Ecology
Jul 10, 2026
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