Impacts of climate-induced drought on lake and reservoir biodiversity and ecosystem services: A review

Xinyu Sun^#^{1

2}, Margaret Armstrong^#^{3

4}, Amirmohammad Moradi^{5

6}, Ruchi Bhattacharya⁷, Ana M Antão-Geraldes⁸, Elias Munthali⁹, Hans-Peter Grossart^{10

11}, Shin-Ichiro S Matsuzaki¹², Külli Kangur¹³, Julita A Dunalska¹⁴, Jason D Stockwell¹⁵, Lisa Borre¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Biology Department, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
² Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
³ Department of Aquatic Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Maggie.Armstrong@waikato.ac.nz.
⁴ University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Maggie.Armstrong@waikato.ac.nz.
⁵ Durham College, 2000 Simcoe St. N, Oshawa, ON, Canada.
⁶ Department of Civil Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, No. 1346, Valiasr St., Mirdamad Intersection, Tehran, P.C, 1996715433, Iran.
⁷ Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
⁸ CIMO, LA SusTEC, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, Bragança, 5300-253, Portugal.
⁹ Operations Department, Northern Region Water Board, Mzuzu, Malawi.
¹⁰ Department of Plankton and Microbial Ecology, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Stechlin, Germany.
¹¹ Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Potsdam University, Potsdam, Germany.
¹² Biodiversity Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan.
¹³ Centre for Limnology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
¹⁴ Center for Water Monitoring and Protection, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
¹⁵ Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA.
¹⁶ Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39775407
PMCID: PMC11780055 (available on 2026-03-01)
DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02092-7

Review

Impacts of climate-induced drought on lake and reservoir biodiversity and ecosystem services: A review

Xinyu Sun et al. Ambio. 2025 Mar.

. 2025 Mar;54(3):488-504.

doi: 10.1007/s13280-024-02092-7. Epub 2025 Jan 8.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Biology Department, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
² Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
³ Department of Aquatic Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Maggie.Armstrong@waikato.ac.nz.
⁴ University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Maggie.Armstrong@waikato.ac.nz.
⁵ Durham College, 2000 Simcoe St. N, Oshawa, ON, Canada.
⁶ Department of Civil Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, No. 1346, Valiasr St., Mirdamad Intersection, Tehran, P.C, 1996715433, Iran.
⁷ Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
⁸ CIMO, LA SusTEC, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, Bragança, 5300-253, Portugal.
⁹ Operations Department, Northern Region Water Board, Mzuzu, Malawi.
¹⁰ Department of Plankton and Microbial Ecology, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Stechlin, Germany.
¹¹ Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Potsdam University, Potsdam, Germany.
¹² Biodiversity Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan.
¹³ Centre for Limnology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
¹⁴ Center for Water Monitoring and Protection, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland.
¹⁵ Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA.
¹⁶ Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39775407
PMCID: PMC11780055 (available on 2026-03-01)
DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02092-7

Abstract

Intensifying extreme droughts are altering lentic ecosystems and disrupting services provisioning. Unfortunately, drought research often lacks a holistic and intersectoral consideration of drought impacts, which can limit relevance of the insights for adaptive management. This literature review evaluated the current state of lake and reservoir extreme drought research in relation to biodiversity and three ecosystem services. The study findings demonstrated that few articles linked or discussed drought implications with one or more ecosystem services, instead focusing primarily on biodiversity. Drought effects on biodiversity varied among species and taxonomic groups. In the limited literature that included ecosystem service provisioning, droughts had a general negative effect. Drinking water supply can decrease and become more costly. Decreasing water flow and volume can reduce hydropower generation. Degraded water quality can also impact recreation. Future intersectoral collaborations and research on intensifying droughts should support adaptive management efforts in mitigating drought impacts.

Keywords: Adaptive management; Climate change; Drinking water; Extreme events; Hydropower; Recreation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare there is no conflict of interest.

References

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Impacts of climate-induced drought on lake and reservoir biodiversity and ecosystem services: A review

Affiliations

Impacts of climate-induced drought on lake and reservoir biodiversity and ecosystem services: A review

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical