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Biodiversity Assessment and Conservation in High-Altitude Freshwater Systems
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Biodiversity Assessment and Conservation in High-Altitude Freshwater Systems

A Special Issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441) belonging to the section "Biodiversity and Functionality of Aquatic Ecosystems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 June 2026) | Viewed by 1975

Editors

Dr. Wout Van Echelpoel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Interests: freshwater ecology; environmental data science; macroinvertebrates; headwaters; water quality assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Rubén Jerves-Cobo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
PROMAS, University of Cuenca, Av. 12 de Abril S/N y Agustin Cueva Edificio de Laboratorios Tecnológicos, Cuenca 010103, Ecuador
Interests: freshwater ecological modelling; integrated water quality modelling; wastewater enginnering; water quality assessment; greenhouse gases emissions from aquatic ecosystems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

High-altitude freshwater systems are unique ecosystems that are often difficult to reach and affect the water quality and quantity of downstream areas significantly. Due to their combined remoteness and exposure to high-altitude climatic conditions, inimitable biological communities have developed and support a variety of complex interactions. By monitoring and assessing these communities, valuable information can be obtained on both the habitat preference of rare species and the value and equivalence of the prevailing interactions.

Unfortunately, these unique aquatic systems are not immune to the global and local changes that continue to impact various low-altitude freshwater systems. The alterations in the abiotic conditions caused by climate change also affect the biotic community, while shifts in land use modify the water–land interaction through increased inputs of sediments and a wide range of chemicals. As these changes are expected to continue in the future, it is clear that further study and conservation of these high-altitude freshwater systems is essential to the management of our valuable freshwater resources.

This Special Issue aims to seek contributions reporting on the biodiversity of high-altitude freshwater systems in both developed and developing regions, including recommendations on how to manage and/or conserve the considered system sustainably. By doing so, the Special Issue contributes to identifying the current state of freshwater systems at high altitudes, while presenting ideas and solutions to managers facing similar issues and pointing out knowledge gaps that require further research.

Dr. Wout Van Echelpoel
Guest Editor

Dr. Rubén Jerves-Cobo
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • freshwater
  • community
  • high altitude
  • assessment
  • management

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 7490 KB  
Article
A Preliminary Assessment of Phytoplankton Community Characteristics and Environmental Associations in an Extremely High-Altitude River–Lake Confluence Zone
by Yanghui Jiang, Qiming Wang, Suxing Fu, Xinghua Zhang, Tianchen Luo, Jingjing Peng, Qinglin Nie, Xiaoyi Chen, Luo Lei, Chaowei Zhou and Haiping Liu
Water 2026, 18(19), 2378; https://doi.org/10.3390/w18192378 - 23 Sep 2026
Viewed by 187
Abstract
Phytoplankton are sensitive indicators of environmental change in high-altitude aquatic ecosystems, but their community responses across river–lake confluence zones remain insufficiently understood. We investigated phytoplankton community characteristics and environmental associations in the Siling Co river–lake continuum. This endorheic system lies above 4500 m, [...] Read more.
Phytoplankton are sensitive indicators of environmental change in high-altitude aquatic ecosystems, but their community responses across river–lake confluence zones remain insufficiently understood. We investigated phytoplankton community characteristics and environmental associations in the Siling Co river–lake continuum. This endorheic system lies above 4500 m, where river inflows, lake-water mixing, and evaporative concentration generate marked hydrochemical gradients. Genus-level cell density and estimated biomass were assessed with 22 environmental variables from 14 sampling events at 10 lake and river sites. We recorded 54 phytoplankton genera, with Bacillariophyta dominant. Lake and River samples overlapped in composition, whereas sampling period accounted for more community variation than water-body type. Major-ion and salinity-related gradients were associated with cell-density community dissimilarity after accounting for water-body type. Cell-density and biomass composition also showed partly distinct associations with pH and SiO2, and with Cl−, respectively. These observations indicate that phytoplankton communities in the Siling Co river–lake confluence zone are more closely associated with sampling-period variation and hydrochemical gradients than with Lake/River habitat classification. These findings provide an initial basis for integrated biological and hydrochemical monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Assessment and Conservation in High-Altitude Freshwater Systems)
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23 pages, 3339 KB  
Article
Winners and Losers of River Morphological Change: Species- and Trait-Specific Fish Responses in Carpathian Rivers
by Stelian-Valentin Stănescu and Geta Rîșnoveanu
Water 2026, 18(2), 216; https://doi.org/10.3390/w18020216 - 14 Jan 2026
Viewed by 1233
Abstract
Anthropogenic stressors increasingly threaten freshwater biodiversity, with fish communities particularly sensitive to habitat modification. This study evaluates how river morphological alterations influence fish assemblage structure in 114 mountain rivers of the Southern Carpathians, assessing whether such changes cause species loss or drive shifts [...] Read more.
Anthropogenic stressors increasingly threaten freshwater biodiversity, with fish communities particularly sensitive to habitat modification. This study evaluates how river morphological alterations influence fish assemblage structure in 114 mountain rivers of the Southern Carpathians, assessing whether such changes cause species loss or drive shifts toward disturbance-tolerant communities. Using a multi-scale analytical framework integrating non-metric multidimensional scaling, redundancy analysis, and variance partitioning, we quantified the contributions of spatial, catchment, and local habitat variables to community patterns. Spatial- and catchment-scale factors explained the largest variance in fish assemblages (12% in adults and 17% in small-bodied fish). However, morphological pressures proved significant in shaping community structure with clear ecological consequences. Weirs and embankments reduced abundances of rheophilic species (flow-dependent) by 27–38%, potamodromous by 23–42%, invertivorous by 26–49%, benthic by 40–46% and lithophilic taxa by 27–41%, indicating the loss of habitat specialists. In contrast, limnophilic taxa (preferring slow or still water) increased 25 times, phytophilic spawners by 17–41%, and tolerant species by 10%, reflecting biotic homogenization. By integrating a trait-based approach, this study highlights functional shifts that may be overlooked in species-level assessments. It underscores the need to couple local habitat restoration with catchment-scale management to conserve fish biodiversity and maintain natural ecological gradients in mountain river systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Assessment and Conservation in High-Altitude Freshwater Systems)
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