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Climate Change’s Impact on Our Waterways

The effects of climate change are being felt around the world. The impacts are multiple and varied for Australian waterways like rivers, wetlands, and oceans. From rising water temperatures, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services – to marine dead zones and extreme weather events.

These interconnected impacts of climate change are important to understand so that we can develop practical and robust solutions. And, understanding how climate change impacts waterways can help reveal a range of ways that we can protect these vital ecosystems.

For example, learning how climate change affects water security by altering rainfall patterns, causing droughts and floods, and affecting biodiversity and ecosystem services can help us design appropriate management strategies. Understanding how climate impacts on waterways can affect human health, urban water supplies, agriculture, ecosystems, and energy systems can help us devise practical plans to safeguard water resources and enhance water security.

Below we explore how climate change affects rivers, wetlands and oceans – and ways that you can get involved with CVA to help protect and restore these precious ecosystems.

How Climate Change Affects Rivers

Australia is one of the driest places on Earth, making it particularly susceptible to climate change. But predicting the exact climate impacts on water resources in Australia is challenging, and requires continuous research and monitoring.

As climates change, this can affect streamflow, temperatures, rainfall patterns, evaporation, moisture levels in the soil, and more. When combined with urbanisation and human impacts on rivers, such as pollution and development, this can compound the impacts of climate change on rivers and streams.

As temperatures rise, there will be reduced rainfall in many parts of Australia, which is likely to reduce streamflow, and therefore result in less water flowing into billabongs and wetlands. And as air temperatures rise, the likelihood of more intense weather effects like flash flooding, storms, and bushfires also increases.

Here are some of the ways that climate change can impact rivers and streams in Australia:

• Changes to the flow regime of rivers: Changes in rainfall patterns disrupt the natural flow of rivers. This can result in both droughts and flooding. It can also affect the amount of water that’s available for humans and animals. Streamflow changes vary across the country: there have been significant decreases in streamflow since the 1970s, which have been recorded in 28% of hydrologic reference stations around Australia, mostly in southern Australia. However, 4% of these stations have shown significant increases, mostly all in the north.
• Increases in Water Temperatures: Climate change can cause changes to water temperatures, which in turn can affect species of river plants and animals. Some may be sensitive to changes in temperatures, while some may thrive causing ecosystem imbalances.
• Causes loss of biodiversity: changes to flow regimes, changes in water temperature of rivers, and other changes associated with climate change can affect biodiversity that depends on rivers. Warmer waters can affect oxygen levels and species that depend on seasonal water temperatures may suffer, while invasive species may begin to flourish. Already we’ve been seeing thousands of freshwater mussels in Australian rivers dying, and millions of fish dying in major rivers, largely due to climate change. And, Griffith University research suggests that toxic cyanobacteria could cause devastating algal blooms in waterways, linked to climate change and reduced wind speeds.
• Causes of Sedimentation and Erosion: Changing climates may bring about more intense flooding and droughts, which can result in increased soil erosion and sedimentation in rivers. This can be harmful to natural river habitats and affect water quality and biodiversity.

How Climate Change Affects Wetlands

Australia’s wetlands are vital nature-based solutions to help mitigate climate change, but are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Here are some of the ways in which climate change affects wetlands in Australia:

• Habitat Loss and Degradation: As sea levels rise and rainfall patterns change – resulting in droughts and flooding, this can lead to the degradation of wetland habitats and the biodiversity that they support. Climate change can cause certain species to die, while others (including some invasive species) to thrive.
• Changes in Salinity: as sea levels begin to rise, and rainfall patterns change, there may be less water flowing into wetlands from rivers and streams as well as more droughts and flash floods. This can change the salinity of coastal wetlands, which in turn has an impact on the plants and animals living in wetlands.
• Biodiversity loss: Changes in streamflow, together with more frequent and severe droughts and floods, and increased salinity can negatively affect biodiversity. This may be particularly significant for animals that are sensitive to changes in water temperatures, salinity, algal blooms and reduced streamflow.
• Reduction of ecosystem services: As wetlands lose biodiversity and the ability to function optimally, this in turn can affect wetland ecosystems’ ability to provide value ecosystem services such as clean water, food, carbon storage, and climate regulation and resilience.
• Bushfires: Climate change is increasing the likelihood of severe weather events like bushfires, and also fuels their intensity. When bushfires happen more often in wetlands, this can destroy vast areas of habitat for native fauna and flora, and also alter water quality.
• More Severe and Frequent Droughts: Along with more bushfires, climate change can also result in more frequent and devastating droughts. Droughts can dry out wetlands, altering their ability to support fauna and flora that depend on these ecosystems. This can be particularly damaging to rare and endangered species of plants and animals that may not be able to survive droughts and increased temperatures.

 

How Climate Change Affects Oceans

Oceans are one of the greatest tools we have to address climate change, and yet oceans around the world are also under threat from climate change and a range of other challenges.

Below are some of the ways that climate change is impacting our oceans:

• Sea Level Rise: globally, climate change and rising temperatures are causing sea levels to rise, which can inundate coastal areas – particularly low-lying areas and increase the risk of flooding.
• Ocean Acidification: Another harmful impact of climate change is the warming of ocean temperatures, which can result in more carbon dioxide being absorbed by the water and thereby causing acidification of the oceans. This in turn can be particularly harmful to sensitive ecosystems like coral reefs. In turn ocean acidification can result in dead zones and the loss of habitat for a range of species that rely on sensitive marine environments like coral reefs. This can have a profound impact on food security, tourism and sectors like fishing.
• Extreme Weather Events: climate change is resulting in more extreme weather events like hurricanes, cyclones, tsunamis, coastal storms, and flooding – all of which can damage coastal cities and habitats. There are numerous examples of extreme climate-related events in Australia, which had serious effects on people’s lives, infrastructure, ecosystems and the economy.
• Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services: Climate change affects many biological processes and ocean conditions that are required by marine plants and animals to survive. When these conditions change, such as when there’s a mass coral bleaching event (which has happened several times in the last decade in the Great Barrier Reef), this can cause millions of sea creatures to die off. Many coastal marine ecosystems like mangrove forests and coral reefs are known for their role in protecting coats from the impacts of severe storms and flooding, which makes the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services a risk to our coastal towns and cities, livelihoods, and safety.

What Can We Do To Mitigate Climate Impacts on Waterways?

Addressing the impacts of climate change on our rivers, wetlands and oceans requires a multi-faceted, integrated, and collaborative approach.

We need to find ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change, with nature-based solutions like the restoration of wetlands being one of the best ways of doing this.

In addition, we need to strengthen conservation efforts and ensure that our rivers, wetlands and oceans are being managed sustainably.

Research and monitoring is essential to track the impacts of climate change, and to inform the best management practices.

Importantly, we need to take immediate action on climate change, and to accelerate all of the actions mentioned above. This requires concerted collective action and we can all help to make a difference. Together, our collective power can have a huge impact.

Here are some ways that CVA is empowering a community of nature stewards to take action for the ocean, wetlands and rivers in Australia:

🌊 Conservation volunteering: Take part in one of our exciting conservation volunteering events across Australia and get hands-on experience in restoring and protecting local fauna and flora.

🌊 Learn about the importance of wetlands, rivers and oceans: Find out more about our Revive Our Wetlands initiative, our SeaToSource program, and subscribe to our newsletter for exciting project updates.

🌊 Make changes at home to live more sustainably: take our Plastic Waste Challenge and reduce your at-home consumption of plastics

🌊 Download the CVA App: Join a community of nature stewards today!

🌊 Make a donation to CVA and support our work protecting and restoring wetlands, rivers, and oceans across Australia.