Assessments of ecosystem service and function losses of wetlandscapes (i.e., wetlands and their hydrological catchments) suffer from knowledge gaps regarding impacts of ongoing hydro-climatic change. This study investigates hydro-climatic changes during 1976–2015 in 25 wetlandscapes distributed across the world’s tropical, arid, temperate and cold climate zones. Results show that the wetlandscapes were subject to precipitation (P) and temperature (T) changes consistent with mean changes over the world’s land area. However, arid and cold wetlandscapes experienced higher T increases than their respective climate zone. Also, average P decreased in arid and cold wetlandscapes, contrarily to P of arid and cold climate zones, suggesting that these wetlandscapes are located in regions of elevated climate pressures. For most wetlandscapes with available runoff (R) data, the decreases were larger in R than in P, which was attributed to aggravation of climate change impacts by enhanced evapotranspiration losses, e.g. caused by land-use changes.

Geography and associated hydrological, hydroclimate and land-use conditions and their changes determine the states and dynamics of wetlands and their ecosystem services. The influences of these controls are not limited to just the local scale of each individual wetland but extend over larger landscape areas that integrate multiple wetlands and their total hydrological catchment - the wetlandscape. However, the data and knowledge of conditions and changes over entire wetlandscapes are still scarce, limiting the capacity to accurately understand and manage critical wetland ecosystems and their services under global change. We present a new Wetlandscape Change Information Database (WetCID), consisting of geographic, hydrological, hydroclimate and land-use information and data for 27 wetlandscapes around the world. This combines survey-based local information with geographic shapefiles and gridded datasets of large-scale hydroclimate and land-use conditions and their changes over whole wetlandscapes. Temporally, WetCID contains 30-year time series of data for mean monthly precipitation and temperature and annual land-use conditions. The survey-based site information includes local knowledge on the wetlands, hydrology, hydroclimate and land uses within each wetlandscape and on the availability and accessibility of associated local data. This novel database (available through PANGAEA https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.907398; Ghajarnia et al., 2019) can support site assessments; cross-regional comparisons; and scenario analyses of the roles and impacts of land use, hydroclimatic and wetland conditions, and changes in whole-wetlandscape functions and ecosystem services.

Heavy metal and metalloid contamination of topsoils from atmospheric deposition and release from landfills, agriculture, and industries is a widespread problem that is estimated to affect >50% of the Ell's land surface. Influx of contaminants from soil to groundwater and their further downstream spread and impact on drinking water quality constitute a main exposure risk to humans. There is increasing concern that the present contaminant loading of groundwater and surface water systems may be altered, and potentially aggravated, by ongoing climate change, through large-scale impacts on recharge and groundwater levels. We investigated this issue by performing hydrogeological-geochemical model projections of changes in metal(loid) (As and Pb) mobilization in response to possible (climate-driven) future shifts in groundwater level and fluctuation amplitudes. We used observed initial conditions and boundary conditions for contaminated soils in the temperate climate zone. The results showed that relatively modest increases (0.2 m) in average levels of shallow groundwater systems, which may occur in Northern Europe within the coming two decades, can increase mass flows of metals through groundwater by a factor of 2-10. There is a similar risk of increased metal mobilization in regions subject to increased (seasonal or event-scale) amplitude of groundwater levels fluctuations. Neglecting groundwater level dynamics in predictive models can thus lead to considerable and systematic underestimation of metal mobilization and future changes. More generally, our results suggest that the key to quantifying impacts of climate change on metal mobilization is to understand how the contact between groundwater and the highly water-conducting and geochemically heterogeneous topsoil layers will change in the future.

Wetlands are often vital physical and social components of a country's natural capital, as well as providers of ecosystem services to local and national communities. We performed a network analysis to prioritize Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for sustainable development in iconic wetlands and wetlandscapes around the world. The analysis was based on the information and perceptions on 45 wetlandscapes worldwide by 49 wetland researchers of the Global Wetland Ecohydrological Network (GWEN). We identified three 2030 Agenda targets of high priority across the wetlandscapes needed to achieve sustainable development: Target 6.3-Improve water quality; 2.4-Sustainable food production; and 12.2-Sustainable management of resources. Moreover, we found specific feedback mechanisms and synergies between SDG targets in the context of wetlands. The most consistent reinforcing interactions were the influence of Target 12.2 on 8.4-Efficient resource consumption; and that of Target 6.3 on 12.2. The wetlandscapes could be differentiated in four bundles of distinctive priority SDG-targets: Basic human needs, Sustainable tourism, Environmental impact in urban wetlands, and Improving and conserving environment. In general, we find that the SDG groups, targets, and interactions stress that maintaining good water quality and a wise use of wetlandscapes are vital to attaining sustainable development within these sensitive ecosystems.

The Selenga River delta (Russia) is a large (>600km(2)) fluvially dominated fresh water system that transfers water and sediment from an undammed drainage basin into Lake Baikal, a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site. Through sedimentation processes, the delta and its wetlands provide important environmental services, such as storage of sediment-bound pollutants (e.g., metals), thereby reducing their input to Lake Baikal. However, in the Selenga River delta and many other deltas of the world, there is a lack of knowledge regarding impacts of potential shifts in the flow regime (e.g., due to climate change and other anthropogenic impacts) on sedimentation processes, including sediment exchanges between deltaic channels and adjacent wetlands. This study uses field measurements of water velocities and sediment characteristics in the Selenga River delta, investigating conditions of moderate discharge, which have become more frequent over the past decades (at the expense of peak flows, Q>1,350m(3)s(-1)). The aims are to determine if the river system under moderate flow conditions is capable of supporting sediment export from the main distributary channels of the delta to the adjacent wetlands. The results show that most of the deposited sediment outside of the deltaic channels is characterized by a large proportion of silt and clay material (i.e., <63m). For example, floodplain lakes function as sinks of very fine sediment (e.g., 97% of sediment by weight<63m). Additionally, bed material sediment is found to be transported outside of the channel margins during conditions of moderate and high water discharge conditions (Q1,000m(3)s(-1)). Submerged banks and marshlands located in the backwater zone of the delta accumulate sediment during such discharges, supporting wetland development. Thus, these regions likely sequester various metals bound to Selenga River sediment.

Surface mining can contribute to increasing riverine loads of potentially metal-enriched sediments. However, the related human disturbances and natural processes reflect a great complexity, which hinders quantitative Understanding. We here consider the Zaamar Goldfield in Mongolia, one of the world's largest placer mining sites, located in the Tuul River basin (upper Lake Baikal basin). A main study aim is to investigate relations between patterns of increased sediment loads along the Tuul River and the (spatially variable) area coverage of active or recently abandoned placer mines in the river vicinity. Specifically, we compare observed loads derived from nested catchment areas with the output from spatially distributed soil erosion modelling. Results showed that riverine sediment loads in mining areas reflect soil losses both from soil erosion and direct human impacts (e.g. waste water discharge), which are two to three orders of magnitude higher than the input from natural areas dominated by soil erosion alone. Notably, the sediment load contributions from the mining areas were insensitive to changes in hydrometeorological conditions, whereas contributions from natural areas were much lower during drier periods (as expected when governed by soil erosion by water). Accordingly, the relative contribution to the total sediment load (TSL) of metal-enriched soil from mining areas is likely to be particularly pronounced (with estimated values of about 80% of TSL) under drier hydrometeorological conditions. This is consistent with observations of considerably elevated metal concentrations under low flow conditions and implies that if annual average discharge continues to decrease in the Tuul River as well as the entire Selenga River system, increased metal concentrations may be one of the consequences.

Mining has become one of the main causes of increased heavy metal loading of river systems throughout the world. There is however an evident gap between assessments of soil contamination and metal release at the mined sites and estimates of river pollution. The present work focuses on Zaamar Goldfield, which is one of the largest placer gold mines in the world, located along the Tuul River, Mongolia, which ultimately drains into Lake Baikal, Russia. It combines field observations in the river basin with soil erosion modelling and aims at quantifying the contribution from natural erosion of metal-rich soil to observed increases in mass flows of metals along the Tuul River. Results show that the sediment delivery from the mining area to the Tuul River is considerably higher than the possible contribution from natural soil erosion. This is primarily due to excessive mining-related water use creating turbid wastewaters, disturbed filtering functions of deposition areas (natural sediment traps) close to the river and disturbances from infrastructures such as roads. Furthermore, relative to background levels, soils within Zaamar Goldfield contained elevated concentrations of As, Sr, Mn, V, Ni, Cu and Cr. The enhanced soil loss caused by mining-related activities can also explain observed, considerable increases in mass flows of metals in the Tuul River. The present example from Tuul River may provide useful new insights regarding the erosion and geomorphic evolution of mined areas, as well as the associated delivery of metals into stream networks.

The Brahmaputra River in South Asia carries one of the world's highest sediment loads, and the sediment transport dynamics strongly affect the region's ecology and agriculture. However, present understanding of sediment conditions and dynamics is hindered by limited access to hydrological and geomorphological data, which impacts predictive models needed in management. We here synthesize reported peer-reviewed data relevant to sediment transport and perform a sensitivity analysis to identify sensitive and uncertain parameters, using the one-dimensional model HEC-RAS, considering both present and future climatic conditions. Results showed that there is considerable uncertainty in openly available estimates (260-720 Mt yr(-1)) of the annual sediment load for the Brahmaputra River at its downstream Bahadurabad gauging station (Bangladesh). This may aggravate scientific impact studies of planned power plant and reservoir construction in the region, as well as more general effects of ongoing land use change and climate change. We found that data scarcity on sediment grain size distribution, water discharge, and Manning's roughness coefficient had the strongest controls on the modelled sediment load. However, despite uncertainty in absolute loads, we showed that predicted relative changes, including a future increase in sediment load by about 40 % at Bahadurabad by 2075-2100, were consistent across multiple model simulations. Nevertheless, for the future scenarios we found that parameter uncertainty almost doubled for water discharge and river geometry, highlighting that improved information on these parameters could greatly advance the abilities to predict and manage current and future sediment dynamics in the Brahmaputra river basin.

Different magnitude, intensity and timing of precipitation can impact runoff, hillslope erosion and transport of sediment along river channels.  Human activities, such as dam construction and surface mining can also considerably influence transport of sediment and sediment-bound contaminants. Many river basins of the world are currently subject to changes in climate at the same time as pressures from other human activities increase. However, because there are often complex interactions between such multiple drivers of change, it is challenging to understand and quantify contributions of individual drivers, which is needed in predictive modelling of future sediment and contaminant flows. This thesis considers sediment transport in the Lake Baikal basin, which is hydrologically dominated by the transboundary Selenga River of Russia and Mongolia. The Selenga River basin is, for instance, subject to climate change and increasing pressures from mining, but process complexity is reduced by the fact that the river basin is one of few large basins in the world that still is essentially undammed and unregulated. A combination of field measurement campaigns and modelling methods are used in this thesis, with the aim to: (i) identify historical hydroclimatic trends and their possible causes, (ii) analyse the spatial variability of riverine sediment loading in the mining affected areas, and (iii) investigate sediment transport and storage processes within river channels and in river deltas. Results show that, during the period 1938-2009, the annual maximum daily flow in the Selenga River basin has decreased, as well as the annual number of high flow events, whereas the annual minimum daily flow has increased. These changes in discharge characteristics are consistent with expected impacts of basin-scale permafrost thaw. Both field observations and modelling results show that changes in magnitude and number of high-flow events can considerably influence the transport of bed sediment. In addition, the average discharge has decreased in the past 20 years due to an extended drought. Under conditions of low flow, metal-enriched sediment from mining areas was observed to dominate the river water. If discharge will continue to decrease in the Selenga River (or other mining-impacted rivers of the world), further increases in riverine metal concentrations may hence be one of the consequences. Furthermore, under current conditions of extended drought, less sediment may have been distributed over the floodplain wetlands in the Selenga River delta. Present estimates, however, show that sediment can still be transported to, and deposited within, the banks and water bodies located in the backwater zone of the Selenga River delta. This can aid bank and levee stabilization, support the development of wetlands and foster net sedimentation.​

Nederbördens olika magnitud, intensitet och tidpunkt kan påverka ytavrinning, vattenerosion och transport av sediment längs flodkanaler. Mänskliga aktiviteter, som dammkonstruktion och gruvdrift i dagbrott kan också påtagligt påverka transport av sediment och sedimentbundna föroreningar. Många avrinningsområden i världen påverkas för närvarande av klimatförändringar samtidigt som trycket från andra mänskliga aktiviteter ökar. Men eftersom det ofta förekommer komplexa interaktioner mellan sådana multipla orsaker till förändring, är det utmanande att förstå och kvantifiera bidrag från enskilda orsaker, vilket behövs vid prediktiv modellering av framtida sediment- och föroreningsflöden. Denna avhandling behandlar sedimenttransport i Bajkalsjöns tillrinningsområde, som hydrologiskt domineras av den internationella Selengafloden i Ryssland och Mongoliet. Selengaflodens tillrinningsområde är exempelvis påverkat av klimatförändringar och ökat tryck från gruvdrift, men processkomplexiteten reduceras av det faktum att tillrinningsområdet är ett av världens få stora som fortfarande väsentligen saknar dammar och flödesreglering. I denna avhandling används en kombination av fältmätningskampanjer och modelleringsmetoder, i syfte att: (i) identifiera historiska hydroklimattrender och deras möjliga orsaker, (ii) analysera den rumsliga variationen i flodens sedimentbelastning inom de gruvpåverkade områdena, och (iii) undersöka sedimenttransport- och retentionsprocesser inom flodkanaler och i floddeltan. Resultaten visar att det årliga maximala dygnsflödet, liksom det årliga antalet högflödeshändelser, har minskat i Selengafloden under perioden 1938-2009, medan det årliga minimala dygnsflödet har ökat. Dessa förändringar i flödeskaraktäristika överensstämmer med förväntade effekter av storskaligt tinande permafrost. Både fältobservationer och modelleringsresultat visar att förändringar i högflödeshändelsers magnitud och årligt antal kan påverka transporten av bottensediment påtagligt. Dessutom har medelflödet minskat under de senaste 20 åren på grund av långvarig torka. Under lågflöden observerades metallberikat sediment från gruvområdena dominera flodvattnet. Om flödena fortsätter att minska i Selengafloden (eller andra gruvdriftspåverkade floder i världen), kan således ytterligare ökningar av flodvattnens metallkoncentrationer vara en av konsekvenserna. Under den långvariga torka som nu råder mängden sediment som fördelats över våtmarkerna i Selengaflodens delta ha minskat. Sediment beräknas dock fortfarande kunna transporteras till och deponeras inom flodbankar och vattenkroppar i Selengadeltats backwaterområden. Detta kan bidra till stabilisering av bankar och skyddsvallar, stödja våtmarkers utveckling och främja nettosedimentering.

Wielkość, czas trwania oraz intensywność opadów atmosferycznych oddziałuje na charakter odpływu, erozję oraz transport osadów rzecznych. Również ingerencja człowieka w środowisko – np. budowa zapór i zbiorników wodnych, czy górnictwo odkrywkowe – w różnym stopniu może wpływać na transport osadów oraz powiązanych z nimi zanieczyszczeń. Wiele dorzeczy na Ziemi, będących pod wpływem obecnych zmian klimatycznych, jest jednocześnie poddawanych narastającej antropopresji. W celu przewidywania przyszłych zmian w transporcie osadów i powiązanych z nimi zanieczyszczeń, potrzeba dogłębnego zrozumienia i oceny wpływu poszczególnych czynników powodujących te zmiany. Taka analiza jest jednak często utrudniona ze względu na złożone interakcje pomiędzy czynnikami powodującymi zmiany.

Niniejsza rozprawa doktorska przedstawia wyniki badań związanych z analizą transportu osadów rzecznych w zlewni jeziora Bajkał, zdominowanej hydrologicznie transgraniczną rzeką Selengą, przepływającą przez tereny Rosji i Mongolii. Zlewnia rzeki Selengi podlega współczesnym zmianom klimatycznym oraz wzrastającej presji związanej z górnictwem. Złożoność procesów hydrologicznych jest jednak w tym wypadku ograniczona, ponieważ zlewnia Selengi jest jednym z nielicznych, względnie dużych dorzeczy na świecie, którego przepływy są – jak dotychczas – naturalne, nieuregulowane przez żadne zapory lub zbiorniki wodne. Dla poszczególnych celów: (i) identyfikacji historycznych trendów hydroklimatycznych i ich przyczyn, (ii) analizy przestrzennych zmian w transporcie osadów rzecznych w części zlewni dotkniętej górnictwem odkrywkowym oraz (iii) badania procesów transportu i magazynowania osadów w korycie i delcie rzeki; zostały w pracy zastosowane hydrometryczne dane pomiarowe, dane pochodzące z badań terenowych oraz metody modelowania. Wyniki badań wskazują na to, że w latach 1938-2009 zmalały roczne przepływy maksymalne oraz liczba wezbrań, podczas gdy w tym samym czasie wzrosły roczne przepływy minimalne. Powyższe zmiany są zgodne z oczekiwanym wpływem rozmarzania wiecznej zmarzliny na ustrój przepływów rzecznych. Analiza danych pomiarowych oraz wyników modelowania wskazują na to, że obecne zmiany dotyczące liczby oraz wielkości wezbrań mogą znacznie wpłynąć na transport osadów dennych w korytach rzek. Dodatkowo, w ciągu ostatnich 20 lat (1995-2014), średnie roczne przepływy znacznie spadły ze względu na przedłużający się okres suszy na terenie zlewni. Analiza danych terenowych pochodzących z obszarów górniczych wykazała, że podczas obniżonych przepływów, w zanieczyszczonych znaczną ilością metali osadach rzecznych, dominuje materiał pochodzący z działalności człowieka (około 80\% transportowanych osadów). Należy zatem przewidywać, że jeśli obecne zmiany w ustroju przepływów w dorzeczu Selengi (lub w innych podobnych dorzeczach na świecie) będą postępować, to ich następstwem może być dalszy wzrost koncentracji zanieczyszczeń (metali pochodzących z obszarów górniczych) rzek. Ponadto, w obecnym okresie obniżonych przepływów, na terenach zalewowych i jeziorach delty rzeki Selengi zatrzymuje się prawdopodobnie mniej osadów. Wyniki badań wskazują jednak na to, że osady rzeczne mogą być wciąż transportowane do brzegów i obszarów wodnych znajdujących się w strefie, w której stany wodne cieków delty są pod wpływem stanów wodnych jeziora Bajkału. Akumulacja materiału w tych częściach delty Selengi może pozytywnie wpływać na stabilizację naturalnych wałów oraz mokradeł i zwiększać sedymentację netto.

Due to specific environmental conditions, headwater catchments located on volcanic slopes and valleys are characterized by distinctive hydrology and sediment transport patterns. However, lack of sufficient monitoring causes that the governing processes and patterns in these areas are rarely well understood. In this study, spatiotemporal water discharge and sediment transport from upstream sources was investigated in one of the numerous headwater catchments located in the lahar valleys of the Kamchatka Peninsula Sukhaya Elizovskaya River near Avachinskii and Koryakskii volcanoes. Three different subcatchments and corresponding channel types (wandering rivers within lahar valleys, mountain rivers within volcanic slopes and rivers within submountain terrains) were identified in the studied area. Our measurements from different periods of observations between years 2012-2014 showed that the studied catchment was characterized by extreme diurnal fluctuation of water discharges and sediment loads that were influenced by snowmelt patterns and high infiltration rates of the easily erodible lahar deposits. The highest recorded sediment loads were up to 9.10(4) mg/L which was related to an increase of two orders of magnitude within a one day of observations. Additionally, to get a quantitative estimate of the spatial distribution of the eroded material in the volcanic substrates we applied an empirical soil erosion and sediment yield model-modified universal soil loss equation (MUSLE). The modeling results showed that even if the applications of the universal erosion model to different non-agricultural areas (e.g., volcanic catchments) can lead to irrelevant results, the MUSLE model delivered might be acceptable for non-lahar areas of the studied volcanic catchment. Overall the results of our study increase our understanding of the hydrology and associated sediment transport for prediction of risk management within headwater volcanic catchments.