Introduction - Climate Change Impacts on Freshwater Ecosystems - page 8

Pollution
(nitrogen,
phosphorus)

Habitat
change

Climate
change

Invasive
species

Over-
exploitation

Boreal

Forest Temperate

Tropical

Temperate grassland

Mediterranean

Dryland

Tropical grassland
and savanna

Desert

Inland water

Coastal

Marine

Island

Mountain

Polar

Driver's impact on biodiversity
over the last century
Low
Moderate

Driver's current trends

Decreasing impact
Continuing impact
Increasing impact
Very rapid increase
of the impact

High
Very high

Figure 1.4 Summary of effects of major drivers on major biomes. (From Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment 2005.)

how the adjustments of their communities will occur and what will be the detailed
consequences of the changes for particular places and individual species are thus
much more difficult to predict than if climate change were the only threat to
them. Current attempts rest largely on expert opinion (Mooij et al . 2005). It is
one role of this topic to add to the factual basis for predictions.

Euro-limpacs, European freshwater systems
and approaches to investigation

Europe provides a huge range of inland waters, from the Greenland, Icelandic
and mountain glaciers to the streams and lakes of the arider parts of Spain, from
the small crater lakes of the Azores to the expanses of Lakes Ladoga, Mälaren
and Maggiore and from the tiny headwater streams of the hills to the large, if not