Globally, urban growth will add 1.5 billion people to cities by 2030, making the difficult task of urban water provisions even more challenging. In this article, we develop a conceptual framework of urban water provision as composed of three axes: water availability, water quality, and water delivery. For each axis, we calculate quantitative proxy measures for all cities with more than 50,000 residents, and then briefly discuss the strategies cities are using in response if they are deficient on one of the axes. We show that 523 million people are in cities where water availability may be an issue, 890 million people are in cities where water quality may be an issue, and 1.3 billion people are in cities where water delivery may be an issue. Tapping into groundwater is a widespread response, regardless of the management challenge, with many cities unsustainably using this resource. The strategies used by cities deficient on the water delivery axis are different than for cities deficient on the water quantity or water quality axis, as lack of financial resources pushes cities toward a different and potentially less effective set of strategies.

Climate change scenarios concerning the Baltic Sea predict increase in surface water temperatures. Pikeperch (Sander lucioperca (L.)) inhabits the coastal areas of the northern Baltic Sea and is an important fish species for the Finnish fisheries. The year-class strength of pikeperch varies strongly between years and significantly depends on water temperature. We aimed to study the effects of changing temperature conditions on pikeperch fisheries and distribution based on commercial catch data from the period 1980–2008 in the Finnish coastal areas of the Baltic Sea. The results indicated that warmer summers will produce stronger pikeperch year-classes that consequently contribute significantly to the future catches. The average temperature in June–July explained 40% of the variation in the year-class catches in the Gulf of Finland and 73% in July–August in the Archipelago Sea. During the study period, the distribution of pikeperch catches expanded toward north along the coasts of the Bothnian Sea.

Shortly after the implementation of a marine protected area (MPA) in Lyme Bay in 2008, inside which scallop dredging and bottom trawling is prohibited, a socio-economic impact assessment was initiated. This article presents the initial findings from this study. The aim was to understand the costs and benefits to fishermen and fish merchants of establishing the MPA. These were assessed using a combination of primary and secondary data. The results indicate that the impacts of the closure differ according to the gear type and the fishing location used by the fishermen. Static gear fishermen who fish inside the closed area have seen changes in terms of increased fishing effort, mostly because they have been able to increase the number of crab and whelk pots they deploy. The effects of the closure on static gear fishermen who fish outside the closed area has been reported in terms of increased conflicts with towed gear fishermen who now fish regularly in their traditional grounds. Fishermen using towed gear on the other hand have been impacted through displacement effects as they have been forced to look for other fishing grounds outside the closed area. Most fish merchants and processors initially claimed that they were heavily impacted by the closure but when they were interviewed 1 year after the closure they suggested a more stable picture. Preliminary analyses of landings data indicate that the introduction of the MPA has so far had minimal impacts on the average incomes and financial profits of fishermen and fish merchants. This conclusion, however, reflects a short-term view as the impacts of the closure of Lyme Bay are likely to be felt for a long time to come.

The tilapiine cichlids Oreochromis leucostictus and Tilapia zillii were introduced into Lake Naivasha, Kenya, in 1956. Previous studies on data collected to 1987 revealed they were persistent following establishment, despite environmental variability and exploitation. Recent data, however, suggest this persistence is under threat as data indicate some significant declines in aspects of their abundance since 1999. The influence of changes in lake level, allodiversity and fishing effort on this decline was tested and showed that a decline in lake level was a significant causal factor. The recent change in allodiversity, with the establishment and dominance of Cyprinus carpio in the fishery, was not significant on the catch per unit effort of O. leucostictus but was on T. zillii. Since 1999, catches of tilapiines in the fishery have been independent of fishing effort, contrary to between 1975 and 1987, suggesting their management through application of fishery models may no longer be applicable. As it was anthropogenic-mediated lake level changes that were mainly responsible for their decline, then lake management should focus on sustainable water utilization that maximizes lake levels in accordance with the basin-wide water balance.

This paper aims to identify challenges, and threats, and further explore opportunities for a new Biodiversity Friendly Fisheries Management Regime on the Issyk-Kul Lake in the Kyrgyz Republic. This lake is the second largest high-altitude lake in the world providing recreational and small-scale fishing activities as well as cage culture of introduced species. The populations of several indigenous species are seriously threatened, because many of the introduced species are potential predators. We examine the root causes for overfishing and relationships of alien and endemic fish species in Issyk-Kul Lake and give possible policy options that can help remediate or mitigate the biodiversity degradation. This analysis focuses on necessary legal modifications, institutional cooperation, the protection of selected endemic fish species, control of the alien species, the sustainable extension services and management of fish ponds. Fisheries co-management is one option to explore shared stewardship and empowering user groups on the lake. A comprehensive fisheries management plan is also needed, in addition to immediate action and further studies on the following wider aspects: water management/irrigation issues, water-quality assessment near cage cultures, sociocultural issues, resource inventory, and assessing fish biology and the lake ecosystem.

During the extreme dry year of 2006, abnormal salinity conditions in the Changjiang Estuary of the Yangtze River occurred in partial coincidence with the second impoundment phase of the TGD (Three Gorges Dam). Analysis of discharge observations in the upper reaches of the estuary and of salinity observations in the estuary as a whole reveals that in 2006 salinity was over 100 mg/l during 275 days, over 250 mg/l during 75 days and over 400 mg/l during 48 days. It is well known that this is due to extreme low discharges from the upper catchment area into the estuary. Moreover, large amounts of water consumed along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River can also aggravate the low discharges that lead to stronger saltwater intrusion in the estuary. Of the 75 days that salinity was over 250 mg/l, the low discharge was decreased further by 10 to 20% due to water consumption. The additional impact of the impoundment phase of the TGD (lasting 37 days in autumn) was noticeable only during 7 days in 2006. During that period, the relative contributions of the TGD and the water consumption in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River amounted to 70 and 30%, respectively. It may be concluded that the impact of the second impoundment phase of the TGD on salinity intrusion in the estuary was modest, while the extreme drought of 2006 was the dominant cause.

This study projected responses of forest net primary productivity (NPP) to three climate change scenarios at a resolution of 5 km × 5 km across the state of Louisiana, USA. In addition, we assessed uncertainties associated with the NPP projection at the grid and state levels. Climate data of the scenarios were derived from Community Climate System Model outputs. Changes in annual NPP between 2000 and 2050 were projected with the forest ecosystem model PnET-II. Results showed that forest productivity would increase under climate change scenarios A1B and A2, but with scenario B1, it would peak during 2011–2020 and then decline. The projected average NPP under B1 over the years from 2000 to 2050 was significantly different from those under A1B and A2. Forest NPP appeared to be primarily a function of temperature, not precipitation. Uncertainties of the NPP projection were due to large spatial resolution of the climate variables. Overall, this study suggested that in order to project effects of climate change on forest ecosystem at regional level, modeling uncertainties could be reduced by increasing the spatial resolution of the climate projections.

Repeated fertilization of forests to increase biomass production is an environmentally controversial proposal, the effects of which we assessed on breeding birds in stands of young Norway spruce (Picea abies), in an intensively managed forest area in southern Sweden. Our results show that fertilized stands had 38% more species and 21% more individuals than unfertilized stands. Compared with stands under traditional management, the further intensification of forestry by repeated applications of fertilizers thus seemed to enhance species richness and abundance of forest birds. We cannot conclude at this stage whether the response in the bird community was caused by changes in food resources or increased structural complexity in the forest canopy due to the skid roads used for the application of the fertilizers. Future studies should focus on structural and compositional effects of fertilization processes during the entire rotation period and at assessing its effects in a landscape context.

Land use conflicts are becoming increasingly apparent from local to global scales. Surface gold mining is an extreme source of such a conflict, but mining impacts on local livelihoods often remain unclear. Our goal here was to assess land cover change due to gold surface mining in Western Ghana, one of the world's leading gold mining regions, and to study how these changes affected land use systems. We used Landsat satellite images from 1986–2002 to map land cover change and field interviews with farmers to understand the livelihood implications of mining-related land cover change. Our results showed that surface mining resulted in deforestation (58%), a substantial loss of farmland (45%) within mining concessions, and widespread spill-over effects as relocated farmers expand farmland into forests. This points to rapidly eroding livelihood foundations, suggesting that the environmental and social costs of Ghana's gold boom may be much higher than previously thought.