Recreating shallow lakebeds – a measure that promotes biodiversity in regulated lakes?
Project overview
Participants
More related research
Global goals
- 7. Affordable and clean energy
- 15. Life on land
Short summary
Hydropower is central to Sweden’s fossil-free energy supply but entails major ecological consequences. This project is developing innovative methods to restore shallow lakebeds and investigate whether this can enhance biodiversity and ecosystem function in regulated lakes.
Hydropower plays a crucial role in Sweden’s electricity supply and in the transition to a fossil-free energy system. At the same time, the large-scale expansion of hydropower has destroyed many valuable natural habitats in our lakes and watercourses. Today, most environmental measures focus on running waters, while lake environments, especially shallow bottoms, are often forgotten. These lakebed habitats are vital for plants, animals, and ecosystem functioning but have been damaged by unnatural and severe fluctuations in water levels.
This project aims to develop and test innovative methods to recreate shallow lakebed habitats and evaluate if we can restore some of their ecological functions in regulated lakes. We will develop and evaluate three new types of habitat measures:
- Artificial floating lakebeds habitats – which mimic natural shallow areas where plants and small animals can establish themselves (these mainly serve as a way to study how different forms of biodiversity recolonize newly created bottoms).
- Thresholds in reservoirs – which reduce the drying out of lakebed habitats during low water levels.
- Small floating islands – which create sheltered nesting sites for birds.
By studying how plants, algae, bottom-dwelling animals, fish, and birds respond to the new structures, we can assess their effects on biodiversity. The results will provide a basis for evaluating whether these measures have positive environmental impacts of a scale that makes them relevant for continued environmental work, as well as how they can be scaled up and integrated into future environmental adaptations of hydropower.
The project contributes new knowledge on how ecologically sustainable solutions can be combined with efficient energy production. By restoring habitats in regulated lakes, we hope to strengthen both biodiversity and the long-term sustainability of hydropower.
The project includes: Karin Nilsson, Gunnar Öhlund, Jenny Ask (Umeå Marine Research Centre, UMF, Umeå University), Åsa Widen, Florian Käslin, Fredrik Olajos.
Collaboration partners at Vattenfall are Henrik Viklands, Jessica Ruud and Maidul Choudhury.
