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Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity

Naturevolume 467, pages555–561 (2010)Cite this article

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AnErratum to this article was published on 10 November 2010

This article has beenupdated

Abstract

Protecting the world’s freshwater resources requires diagnosing threats over a broad range of scales, from global to local. Here we present the first worldwide synthesis to jointly consider human and biodiversity perspectives on water security using a spatial framework that quantifies multiple stressors and accounts for downstream impacts. We find that nearly 80% of the world’s population is exposed to high levels of threat to water security. Massive investment in water technology enables rich nations to offset high stressor levels without remedying their underlying causes, whereas less wealthy nations remain vulnerable. A similar lack of precautionary investment jeopardizes biodiversity, with habitats associated with 65% of continental discharge classified as moderately to highly threatened. The cumulative threat framework offers a tool for prioritizing policy and management responses to this crisis, and underscores the necessity of limiting threats at their source instead of through costly remediation of symptoms in order to assure global water security for both humans and freshwater biodiversity.

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Figure 1:Global geography of incident threat to human water security and biodiversity.
Figure 2:Incident biodiversity threat transects from headwaters to ocean.
Figure 3:Theme and driver contributions in areas where incident threat exceeds the 75th percentile.
Figure 4:Shifts in spatial patterns of relative human water security threat after accounting for water technology benefits.
Figure 5:Globally aggregated human water security threat indices linked to population and level of economic development.
Figure 6:Prevailing patterns of threat to human water security and biodiversity.

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Change history

  • 30 September 2010

    In the PDF version of this Article, the present address for P. B. McIntyre was truncated; this had now been corrected

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. DeSherbinin, L. Poff, C. Revenga, J. Melillo and O. Young for comments on the manuscript; D. Allan, R. Abell, J. Bogardi, M. Meybeck, W. Wollheim, R. F. Wright, D. Boswell, R. Lacey, N. Schneider and D. Vörösmarty for advice; and D. Dube and B. Fekete for technical support. Grant support for database and tool development was from NASA Inter-Disciplinary Science Program Grant NNX07AF28G, with additional support from the NSF Division of Earth Sciences (Hydrologic Sciences Program Award #0854957) and Global Environment Facility (UPI 00345306). P.B.M. was supported by a D.H. Smith Fellowship. Financial and logistical support for expert group meetings and communications was from the Global Water System Project (Bonn), DIVERSITAS-freshwaterBIODIVERSITY (Paris), NSF BestNet, and Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) through the Australian Water Research Facility. Conference facilities were provided by the Swiss Federal Institute of Science & Technology (Eawag) and The City College of New York/CUNY.

Author information

Author notes

  1. P. B. McIntyre

    Present address: Present address: Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.,

  2. C. J. Vörösmarty and P. B. McIntyre: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Environmental CrossRoads Initiative, City University of New York, The City College of New York, New York, 10035, New York, USA

    C. J. Vörösmarty & P. Green

  2. School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, Michigan, USA

    P. B. McIntyre

  3. Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, and Institute of Integrative Biology (IBZ), ETH Zurich, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland and Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), 16775 Stechlin, Germany,

    M. O. Gessner

  4. Division of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    D. Dudgeon

  5. Water Systems Analysis Group, University of New Hampshire, Durham, 03824, New Hampshire, USA

    A. Prusevich & S. Glidden

  6. Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia ,

    S. E. Bunn

  7. School of Environmental Science and Management, Southern Cross University, New South Wales 2480, Australia

    C. A. Sullivan

  8. School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA ,

    C. Reidy Liermann

  9. Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management, The University of Western Australia, Albany 6330, Australia

    P. M. Davies

Authors
  1. C. J. Vörösmarty
  2. P. B. McIntyre
  3. M. O. Gessner
  4. D. Dudgeon
  5. A. Prusevich
  6. P. Green
  7. S. Glidden
  8. S. E. Bunn
  9. C. A. Sullivan
  10. C. Reidy Liermann
  11. P. M. Davies

Contributions

All authors contributed to project conceptualization during workshops led by C.J.V. C.J.V. designed the global analysis, and P.B.M., A.P., P.G. and M.O.G. designed and implemented the analytical approach with essential input from S.E.B., D.D., C.A.S., P.M.D. and C.R.L. A.P., P.G. and S.G. developed the database and mapping tools. Several authors led a separate component of data set development and all provided quality assurance. C.J.V., P.B.M. and M.O.G. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toC. J. Vörösmarty.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Tables 1-3, Supplementary Figures 1- 12 with legends, Supplementary Discussion, and additional references. (PDF 11253 kb)

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Vörösmarty, C., McIntyre, P., Gessner, M.et al. Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity.Nature467, 555–561 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09440

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Comments

Commenting on this article is now closed.

  1. Luis Berga

    In Table 1, the paper shows the percentages of global population by income level. But these data are not coincident whit the data of the population in the paper.

    "Investments by high-income countries benefit 850 million people, lowering their exposure to high incident threat by 95%, with corresponding values for upper middle-income countries of 140 million and 23% (Table 1). Minimal investment in developing countries means that their vulnerability remains high, with 3.4 billion people in these regions residing in areas showing the highest adjusted threat category."

    Which is the amount of the evaluated global population .

  2. JOSEPH TING

    We had a recent win in Australia: a carbon emissions trading scheme for pulluting industries, despite all saboteurs

    This is a politicised forum. Back in March 11, the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott timed (intentionally or not) his comments on climate skepticism and ecoclimate extremism opportunistically;in the week that several tsunami damaged nuclear reactors in Japan were feared to have released radioactive leaks into the environment. Even taking into account lack of political consensus, the Australian public was then the furthest it has ever been from a much needed carbon policy. There was a deliberate conflation of alternative non-fossil energy sources with a currently much-maligned and feared health radiohazard.

    We have stemmed the onward march of fossil fuel use and carbon emissions, for now, on the second driest continent.

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Editorial Summary

Dual threat to river biodiversity and water security

Access to fresh water is essential for all life forms, but water security for humans and biodiversity are often seen as competing priorities. A new analysis of the threats to the world's rivers breaks new ground by accounting for a broad array of stressors and their downstream effects, from both human and biodiversity perspectives. A subsequent analysis of investments in water resources offers insights into the sources of global disparities in human water security that separate rich from poor. The authors conclude that rivers are in a state of crisis, and that nearly 80% of humanity lives in areas where threat levels are relatively high. River-dwelling species face similarly great challenges around the world. Achieving a sustainable solution to these problems, the authors say, will require creative solutions that jointly address water security for humans and biodiversity, and that treat underlying causes rather than merely symptoms.

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