How and where will Austrian river systems react to climate change? Interdisciplinary analysis with respect to fish fauna and nutrients

Water temperature and discharge rates are likely to change due to climate change in the coming decades. Running water systems are mainly governed by these two factors. Therefore, adaptions on the ecosystem level are to be expected. We use the fish fauna as indicators of ecologic integrity and nutrient concentrations as indicators for water quality and the functioning of ecosystem processes in general. For a subset of rivers, a modelling framework will examine expected changes in the fish fauna and the nutrients due to changes in water temperature and discharge rates. Secondly, we will evaluate, whether long-term trends are already detectable at several river sites. We will also look for rivers, where concentrations of nitrite and/or ammonia are high enough to make negative effects on the fish fauna likely – in the present situation as well as for modelled future scenarios.