The Freshwater Blog

🏊‍♂️ This summer’s Olympic Games in Paris saw swimmers compete in the River Seine, a waterway that has been closed to public bathers for more than a century due to high levels of water pollution.

🌊 We follow the story of the Seine's clean-up, and its resonances with urban swimming and nature-based solutions movements across Europe.

Making the Seine swimmable for the Paris Olympics The Women’s Triathlon at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the urban River Seine. Image: Ville de Paris This summer’s Olympic Games in Paris saw swimmers compete in the River Seine, a waterway that …

🏆 The Forth Rivers Trust has won the Climate Impact award at the recent Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCOV) Scottish Charity Awards 2024 for their work in restoring the Allan Water in Central Scotland.

🌊 The Trust, supported by the MERLINproject and other funders, has been working with land managers and communities for the past eight years to restore degraded habitats along the Allan Water.

🌳 The Trust have implemented a range of nature-based solutions to help build resilience to ongoing climate changes along the catchment. These include measures to slow water flows to help buffer flooding, riparian tree planting to help keep the river cool under increasing air temperatures, restoring degraded peatland to lock in carbon, and creating new wetlands to help boost wading bird populations.

Allan Water restoration project wins major Scottish award The Forth Rivers Trust team with their Climate Impact award. Image: Forth Rivers Trust The Forth Rivers Trust has won the Climate Impact award at the recent Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisat…

🌿 Restoring damaged and depleted ecosystems in Europe is a hot topic right now, following the adoption of the Nature Restoration Law earlier this summer.

💡 As awareness of the need for ambitious nature restoration projects grows across the continent, so too does the recognition of their links to economic prosperity and human well-being.

💻 The new MERLINproject Marketplace is designed to support the growing need for cutting-edge solutions and services which help mainstream nature restoration.

🤝 It connects the suppliers of tools which support restoration with audiences of environmental managers, community groups and policy makers.

The MERLIN Marketplace: innovative products and services for nature restoration Restoring damaged and depleted ecosystems in Europe is a hot topic right now, following the adoption of the Nature Restoration Law earlier this summer. As awareness of the need for ambitious nature…

📚 The EU MERLINproject has launched its new online Academy, a hub for cutting-edge learning, resources, webinars and podcasts around freshwater restoration. The open-access Academy is designed to help support practitioners, students and policy makers in mainstreaming freshwater restoration, both in Europe and globally.

🌊 This task is ever more important following last month’s news that – after a series of political hurdles – the EU Nature Restoration Law will be adopted. The law’s aim is to restore 20% of EU’s degraded ecosystems by 2030 and all by 2050, and to restore 25,000km of free-flowing rivers across the continent.

🔎 Clearly, the time for ambitious freshwater restoration is now, and the MERLIN Academy offers a hugely valuable set of open-access resources to guide visitors through the science, financing and stakeholder engagement involved in restoration. This work has a focus on the value of nature-based solutions, which aim to use natural processes to help tackle socio-environmental challenges like climate change.

👩‍🏫 Visitors to the MERLIN Academy can sign up to a series of Learning Modules for free. The first public Module covers the economics and financing of freshwater restoration in a series of videos featuring experts on the topic, along with a series of worksheets and quizzes. Future Modules will be released from Autumn 2024 onwards.

📖 The MERLIN Academy also hosts a vast Knowledge Centre which brings together resources around environmental restoration, nature-based solutions, governance and financing. These resources – which include websites, reports, videos, e-learning, datasets and much more – can be freely searched and accessed. The Academy also hosts the MERLIN webinars and podcasts which have been produced over the project’s lifespan so far.

The MERLIN Academy: a new open-access learning and resources hub for freshwater restoration The EU MERLIN project has launched its new online Academy, a hub for cutting-edge learning, resources, webinars and podcasts around freshwater restoration. The open-access Academy is designed to he…

The effects of multiple human impacts on streams can increase concentrations of greenhouse gases in their waters, potentially exacerbating the harmful effects of the climate crisis, according to a new study.

Human impacts on stream ecosystems can amplify the effects of the climate crisis The Ave river in northern Portugal – one of the catchments where human impacts were shown to amplify the effects of the climate crisis on the aquatic ecosystem. Image: Vitor Oliveira | Flickr …

📻 This is a podcast telling stories about how restoration gets done across Europe. We hear from Joshua Royte, a conservation scientist working for the Nature Conservancy in the USA. We hear Josh’s perspective on freshwater restoration in Europe, and the work the MERLIN project is doing to help bring its rivers, streams and wetlands back to life.

🗺 This work is explored in five fascinating stories from sites across Europe, each of which highlights the complexities of getting freshwater restoration done. We hear about dam removal in the Basque Country, urban river restoration in Germany, floodplain restoration in Romania and Scotland, and peatland restoration in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

🌊 Together, the stories give a ‘behind the scenes’ snapshot of freshwater restoration projects taking place across Europe. They highlight that restoration is never a simple, straightforward process: instead one that often requires communication, persistence and improvisation in equal measures.

MERLIN Podcast EP.8 – Stories from the water’s edge: getting freshwater restoration done in Europe We’re delighted to share the latest episode of the MERLIN podcast with you. This is a podcast telling stories about how restoration gets done across Europe. First we hear from Joshua Royte, a conse…

🐟 Global migratory fish populations have declined by 81% since 1970, according to a major new report released last week. This startling decline has been documented in freshwaters across the world, with particular severity in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

📉 The new Living Planet Index for Migratory Freshwater Fishes states that the downward trend in migratory fish populations represents an annual decline of 3.3%, and is largely the result of habitat degradation and loss coupled with human over-exploitation.

🌊 The report cites that a key driver of migratory fish declines is the fragmentation of rivers and the blockage of migration routes due to dams, weirs and other barriers.

🌿 Despite its startling headline figure, the report contains glimmers of hope. Nearly one-third of the monitored migratory fish species populations have increased since 1970. The authors suggest that this means river restoration projects such as dam removals, habitat restoration and fisheries management can have positive effects on the health of migratory fish populations.

WWF World Fish Migration Day IUCN SSC Freshwater Fish Specialist Group ZSL EDGE of Existence Wetlands International

Global migratory fish populations have declined by 81% since 1970: but river restoration projects offer hope A salmon leaps a weir in Finland: such river barriers have contributed to significant declines in migratory fish populations since 1970. Image: Petteri Hautamaa, WWF Finland Global migratory fish p…

🐟 Freshwater ecosystems play a vital role in sustaining biodiversity and supporting human livelihoods. They are also under immense pressure: for example, the WWF Living Planet Report shows that vertebrate populations are declining more rapidly in freshwater ecosystems than in terrestrial and marine systems!

📖 Critically, major international biodiversity agreements – agreements aimed at stemming the loss of species, populations and ecosystems – are also focusing on halting freshwater declines. We need to be able to monitor progress towards the targets set by these biodiversity agreements to evaluate if they are successful in achieving their aims. However, effective monitoring of freshwater ecosystems still lags behind monitoring of terrestrial systems, and is often not carried out in a coordinated manner across regions and countries.

🐞 This is where the Global Freshwater Macroinvertebrate Sampling Protocols Task Force (GLOSAM) comes in. This group – which operates under the umbrella of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) – has recently published a first and important review of the current state of freshwater biodiversity monitoring programs, focusing on the use of benthic macroinvertebrates as indicators.

Assessing the State of Freshwater Biodiversity Monitoring: A Global Perspective Dragonfly on a water hyacinth: such ‘benthic macroinvertebrates’ are valuable indicators of freshwater health. Image: John Simaika A guest post by Monika Böhm, Freshwater Conservation C…

🌳 It is well documented that Europe’s ecosystems are in urgent need of protection and restoration. However, as the debates over the EU Nature Restoration Law have shown, getting ambitious nature recovery projects off the ground is not always straightforward.

💶 A common problem is that whilst there may be public and political support for environmental projects, there is often a critical lack of financing to make them happen in practice. The EU MERLIN project has recently released new tools to help environmentalists access funding sources to help make their projects a reality.

🔧 Working with the consultancy firm CONNECTOLOGY, researchers from MERLIN have published two ‘Off-The-Shelf Instruments’ which demonstrate the potential of donation-based crowdfunding and corporate donations to help finance environmental projects.

MERLIN Off-The-Shelf Instruments help access new funding for environmental restoration It is well documented that Europe’s ecosystems are in urgent need of protection and restoration. However, as the debates over the EU Nature Restoration Law have shown, getting ambitious nature reco…

🌊 It’s well known that barriers to fish migration are a major issue in rivers across Europe. An innovative scheme in the Netherlands has harnessed the power of online citizen scientists to alert ecologists in Utrecht when fish are congregating behind a boat lock between the rivers Kromme Rhine and Vecht.

🐟 Visitors to the ‘fish doorbell’ website can then press a button to tell the lock keeper to open the gate to allow the fish through. This scheme – which allows fish such as carp, bream and eels to move upstream and avoid predators such as grebes and cormorants – has been extremely popular, with over a million visitors this year alone.

Ringing the doorbell to help fish migration in the Netherlands Online citizen scientists can ring the ‘fish doorbell’ to open a boat lock in Utrecht to allow fish to move upstream. Image: Robert Oosterbroek / Mark van Heukelum It’s well known…

📻 MERLIN Podcast EP.7 – Learning from the river: restoring the Danube

🌊 Join us on the banks of the Danube River in Austria to hear how ambitious restoration projects are helping free the river from human alterations. We meet Robert Tögel and Alice Kaufmann from viadonau and Silke Drexler from BOKU beside the river to hear about how restoring its banks and side-arms is helping benefit both people and nature. As the trio explain, this work is a process of 'learning from the river' to help create space for natural processes to return, whilst at the same time making sure that navigation routes along the river are not impeded.

🐟 Back in Vienna, we hear from Helmut Habersack in the recently-opened BOKU River Lab to find out how centuries of alterations of the river interact with emerging pressures from the climate emergency and plastic pollution. We speak to Piret Nõukas from the Research Executive Agency at the European Commission to get a wider picture of how freshwater restoration work in MERLIN fits in with wider EU environmental policies like the Green Deal. And finally, we hear from Eva Hernández, co-ordinator of the WWF's Living European Rivers initiative to discuss the pressing need to restore rivers across the continent, and how the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law – if passed – could help achieve this goal.

MERLIN: https://project-merlin.eu/podcasts.html�

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5B1iKGKcFtg8lQpeC59BhK?si=nE89D--IQFydtRdS_cLhaw�

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/merlin-podcast-bringing-europes-freshwaters-back-to-life/id1644329482

‎„MERLIN Podcast: Bringing Europe’s freshwaters back to life“ auf Apple Podcasts ‎Wissenschaft · 2023

🌊 Can the EU Nature Restoration Law help make Europe’s rivers flow more freely?

🗳️ News of the positive vote to adopt the law was met with celebration earlier this month

🐟 But what are the obstacles to restoring free-flowing rivers in Europe?

Can the EU Nature Restoration Law help make Europe’s rivers flow more freely? The Vjosa River in Albania and its tributaries are now protected by a ‘Wild River’ park designed to conserve its free-flowing course. Image: European Wilderness Society After months of …

🌊 "Intertwined but not identical" – great new article on ecosystem restoration and nature-based solutions by Kerry Waylen and MERLIN colleagues

📖 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772411524000077

🌱 And our piece from last year on the topic: https://freshwaterblog.net/2023/01/17/ecosystem-restoration-and-nature-based-solutions-how-do-they-differ-and-why-does-it-matter/

Ecosystem restoration and nature-based solutions: how do they differ and why does it matter? Freshwater catchments across the world are increasingly being restored using nature-based solutions. Image: Alexander Cahlenstein | Flickr Creative Commons Awareness of the need to restore Earth’s …

River restorationists from across Europe met last week in Vienna to discuss the progress of the European Green Deal MERLIN project.

Over the course of four days, attendees – which included scientists, water managers, finance experts and investors – collaborated in discussions around the seventeen sites across Europe where MERLIN is working to kick-start river restoration with ambitious new approaches.

Taking freshwater restoration forward at the MERLIN meeting in Vienna The MERLIN team. Image: Jörg Strackbein River restorationists from across Europe met last week in Vienna to discuss the progress of the European Green Deal MERLIN project. Over the course of four d…

🌊 How can innovative new technologies help transform freshwater restoration?

🎖️ The MERLINproject Innovation Awards celebrated ten amazing projects earlier this month.

📢 Read interviews with our winners SEADS Sea Defence Solutions and Planet here.

MERLIN Innovation Awards celebrates state-of-the-art approaches to freshwater restoration at 2024 ceremony Plannel Srl’s Mangrove Technology Platform uses a passive desalinisation system to aid the planting of mangrove forests in arid regions. Image: Planet Srl The winners of the annual MERLIN Inn…

The relationship between agriculture and the environment is a hot topic in Europe right now. In recent months farmers across the continent have been protesting to highlight a system they see as increasingly unprofitable and burdened by EU rules aimed at making the bloc climate-neutral by 2050. Farmers have organised motorway and city blockades in tractors across Greece, Germany, Portugal, Poland and France, and last week pelted the European Parliament in Brussels with eggs.

This leaves European environmentalists in a tricky situation. Clearly, European farmers are increasingly squeezed economically. However, it is increasingly agreed that there is an urgent need for transformative actions to help preserve and restore European ecosystems. A key element of this work is to make agriculture more sustainable, both economically and environmentally.

As such, there is a pressing need to understand how different forms of agricultural practices affect European ecosystems, and whether the most harmful approaches can be transformed in ways that can support both nature and farmers’ livelihoods.

A new study explores how the impacts different agricultural approaches across Europe impact on the ecological health of rivers and streams across the continent. A research team led by Dr. Christian Schürings from UDE in Germany analysed data on agricultural land use across 27 European countries. Writing in Water Research, the researchers then linked this analysis to data on the ecological status of flowing waters across the continent, from small streams to huge rivers like the Ruhr and Rhine.

They found that the health of river and stream ecosystems in Europe is strongly influenced by the type of agriculture that is practiced in the landscapes which they flow through.

Can European agriculture be economically viable and environmentally friendly? Tractors transported by a barge on the Oude Maas river, a tributary of the River Rhine. Image: Tulumnes | Wikimedia Creative Commons The relationship between agriculture and the environment is a ho…

📻 The new episode of the M E R L I N Podcast explores the issues around stream restoration in the Sorraia catchment in Central Portugal.

🚜 Restoration of the Sorraia river needs to be able to navigate the needs of intensive agriculture in a landscape increasingly affected by the climate crisis.

🌊 Walking along the banks of the river, we meet a range of freshwater scientists, activists, farmers and policy experts to understand the big issues in the Sorraia catchment, and the ways in which restoration is increasingly making space for this river in the landscape.

🌿 We also hear about how work on the Sorraia relates to wider debates over farming, freshwater restoration and the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law.

MERLIN Podcast EP.6 – Water, climate and farming: making space for stream restoration in Portugal In this episode of the MERLIN Podcast we explore the issues around stream restoration in the Sorraia catchment in Central Portugal. Restoration of the Sorraia river needs to be able to navigate the…

In these early days of the new year, we continue our annual tradition of looking back at the top posts of the previous year.

2023 was a year when the realities of the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis really became apparent, as extreme weather and dire warnings about ecosystem declines made regular front page news across Europe.

Throughout the year, we followed the complex and hotly-debated route taken by the ambitious EU Nature Restoration Law towards adoption. If ratified – as it looks as will happen early this year – the law commits European countries to rapid and signficant ecosystem restoration activities on land, in freshwater, and at sea.

We also followed the rising prominence of nature-based solutions as a key focus of contemporary environmental management and policy. These approaches, which foreground the potential of natural processes to generate ecological, social and economic benefits, are rapidly growing in popularity, and we will continue to explore the big questions over their ongoing adoption.

And finally, 2023 was the year when our work on the MERLIN podcast really took off, with new episodes covering peatland restoration, nature-based solutions, economic thinking and much more. If you haven’t already tuned in and subscribed to the podcast, then please consider doing so: 2024 is set to be an exciting year.

And on that note, we want to say a big thank you to you, our readers and listeners, for your eyes and ears through 2023. We really appreciate you, and are always happy to hear your thoughts, whether by email or on our social media platforms.

Top posts of 2023 Image: Stanley Zimny | Flickr Creative Commons In these early days of the new year, we continue our annual tradition of looking back at the top posts of the previous year. 2023 was a year when the …

🌳 The ambitious EU Nature Restoration Law – requiring European countries to restore 20% of their land and seas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050 – is nearing agreement.

🇪🇺 Researchers from MERLIN, WaterLANDS, SUPERB and REST-COAST highlight the promises and pitfalls of the law in a new paper in Science.

🌊 They highlight that the ambition and rapid timescale of the Nature Restoration Law is to be welcomed, but its success will hinge on how well it is translated into action.

💸 This process requires strong policy, which supports existing European legislation, and stable long-term funding streams to allow for the gradual recovery of nature across the continent.

Promises and pitfalls of the EU Nature Restoration Law The EU Nature Restoration Law has taken a complex and sometimes rocky path towards adoption. Image: Milos Golubovic | Flickr Creative Commons Last month, the ambitious EU Nature Restoration Law mov…

☀️ Climate deal struck at COP28 to 'transition away' from fossil fuels

🐟 Red List finds 1/4 of global freshwater fish at risk of extinction

🌊 Major boost to initative restore 300,000km of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands by 2030

Climate deal struck at COP28 as research shows nearly a quarter of global freshwater fish at risk of extinction Freshwater ecosystems – such as the Pantanal wetlands in South America – are both impacted by climate change and critical to mitigating its wider effects. Image: WWF A new climate deal was struck y…

📻 Some Friday listening for you...

💸 Can economics help us restore Europe's freshwaters?

🌊 We deep-dive into the economics of water in the new episode of the MERLIN podcast.

MERLIN Podcast EP. 5 – How economic thinking can help us restore Europe’s freshwaters In October 2023, the WWF released a major report stating that freshwater has long been significantly undervalued in global economies, leading to widespread environmental costs. The report estimates…

🌱 European Nature Restoration Law takes significant step towards adoption

🐟 Last week, an agreement was made to enshrine the ambitious restoration of Europe's ecosystems in law

🚜 However, there are concessions to agricultural lobbying concerns

European Nature Restoration Law takes significant step towards adoption The EU Nature Restoration Law is a step closer to adoption, but with concessions to agricultural lobbying concerns. Image: MERLIN A provisional agreement was reached on a major EU law supporting th…

🌊 Working with nature to shape a healthier future for Europe’s rivers

🌱 How nature-based solutions can help restore rivers to benefit both people and nature

☀️ Ambitious new approaches needed to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis

Working with nature to shape a healthier future for Europe’s rivers Europe’s rivers are under threat from numerous pressures including habitat loss, pollution and dam construction, which are all occurring alongside the rapidly growing impacts of the climate crisis.…

💸 Annual economic value of global freshwater ecosystems estimated at $58 trillion in WWF report

🌊 Water consistently undervalued leading to global freshwater ecosystem decline

🐟 Urgent need to protect & restore vital freshwater life-support systems

The High Cost of Cheap Water: annual economic value of global freshwater ecosystems estimated at $58 trillion Water is a life-support system for human and environmental health. Mina Gurun, Chairwoman of the Community Forest User Group (CFUG), drinking from the local water spout in Nepal. Image: WWF Freshwa…

☀️ Stream restoration in Southern Portugal has to navigate big issues of climate change and water demands from farming.

🗺️How can we imagine a more biodiverse and climate-resilient future?

🤝 Researchers from the EU MERLIN project met last week to find out.

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Water, climate and farming: making space for stream restoration in Portugal A restoration site on the Sorraia catchment, Portugal. Image: MERLIN Last week, researchers from the MERLIN project working on the restoration of small streams across Europe met in Lisbon, Portugal…

🔥 Warming rivers are losing oxygen faster than the oceans

🐟 Climate change is causing widespread deoxygenation in rivers across the USA and Europe – threatening freshwater life

🗺️

Warming rivers are losing oxygen faster than the oceans Rivers across Central Europe are warming and losing oxygen due to climate change. Image: Heinz Bunse | Flickr Creative Commons Climate change is causing rivers across to warm and lose oxygen at a r…

🐟 Can nature-based solutions help freshwater restorationists work with economic sectors like peat extraction and hydropower to benefit both people and nature?

📻 Tune into the new MERLIN podcast for a discussion of the big issues!

🗺️

MERLIN Podcast Episode 4 – Mainstreaming freshwater nature-based solutions across economic sectors Nature-based solutions are a hot topic right now. So-called ‘NbS’ are environmental management approaches that use natural processes to help tackle socio-environmental challenges such a…

🌱 Can nature-based solutions help freshwater managers work with economic sectors to strengthen ecosystem restoration?

🚜 The new MERLIN podcast explores issues around working with industry to drive positive change for nature and society.

🌊 We hear from representatives from peat extraction, hydropower, insurance, navigation and water supply industries to discuss the promise of nature-based solutions for freshwater restoration.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/merlin-podcast-bringing-europes-freshwaters-back-to-life/id1644329482?i=1000625905617

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7jaJNSRGdHfMnsDFBuH9Bc?si=3c13f7a89905427a

📻 https://project-merlin.eu/podcasts.html

Podcasts - MERLIN project Europe’s freshwaters are in an alarming state. Water pollution, habitat destruction and the ongoing effects of climate change have caused significant biodiversity loss and ecological decline across the continent. There is a pressing need for major freshwater restoration projects which tackle these...

🏨 Urbanisation is a key driver of freshwater fish declines in rivers across Europe and the USA, according to a new study.

🧮 Scientists assessed data from over 30,000 sites to examine how fish populations respond to different human land uses.

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Urbanisation is driving freshwater fish declines in rivers in Europe and the USA Urban development is a significant driver of freshwater fish decline in rivers. Image: Dana Infante Urbanisation is a key driver of freshwater fish declines in rivers across Europe and the USA, acc…

🪰 Biodiversity in European rivers increased 1968–2010 due to improved water quality following decades of environmental pollution

🛑 However biodiversity recovery has stalled since 2010

🌊 Ambitious environmental policy and restoration is required!

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Biodiversity recovery in European rivers has stagnated since 2010 Biodiversity recovery in European rivers has stalled since 2010. Image: Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung Biodiversity in European rivers increased between 1968 and 2010 due to improved w…