MARS

Managing Aquatic ecosystems and water Resources under multiple Stress (MARS).

The health of European freshwaters are impacted by a complex mix of stressors resulting from urban and agricultural land use, water power generation and climate change. The MARS project aims to investigate how these multiple stressors affect rivers, lakes and estuaries.

We use a multi-faceted approach to assess the effects of hydrological and temperature alterations, extreme climate events and nutrient stress. Europe-wide datasets provide the foundation for assessing the relationships between stress intensity, status and service provision. The project aims to support the implementation of several European Directives; the Water Framework Directive, the Floods Directive and the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources.

Project team

Partners

• British Geological Survey
• Cardiff University
• Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
• Environment Agency of England and Wales
• National Research Institute of science & Technology for Environment & Agriculture (IRSTEA)

Find the full list of partners on the MARS project website.

Key publications

• Bruno, D., Gutiérrez-Cánovas, T., Sánchez-Fernández, D., Velasco, J., Nilsson, C., 2016. Impacts of environmental filters on funcational redundancy in riparian vegetation, Journal of Applied Ecology 53, pp. 846-855 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12619
• Bruno, D., Gutiérrez-Cánovas, T., Velasco, J., Sánchez-Fernández, D., 2016. Functional redundancy as a tool for bioassessment: A test using riparian vegetation (in press) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.186
• Hering, D., Carvalho, L., Argillier, C., Beklioglu, M., Borja, A., Cardoso, A. C., Duel, H., Ferreira, T., Globevnik, L., Hanganu, J., Hellsten, S., Jeppesen, E., Kodeš, V., Lyche Solheim, A., Nõges, T., Ormerod, S., Panagopoulos, Y., Schmutz, S. Venohr, M., Birk, S. 2015 Managing aquatic ecosystems and water resources under multiple stress - an introduction to the MARS project, Science of The Total Environment 503-504, pp. 10-21 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.06.106

Find the full list of publications on the MARS project official website.