Impact of warming on stream ecology in Hengill area, Iceland

Abstract

Global warming is predicted to be more dramatic in the Arctic area where an increase of 4ºC is expected over the next century. In Iceland, hot and glacial streams exist with variable temperatures and are found with a short distance of each others. This offers opportunities to study the impact of temperature on stream ecology, particularly in the Hengill area were a warming-up system has been set up on a cold stream in order to study a sudden increase of temperature. The downstream section of the colder stream has been warmed whereas upstream section remains at its natural temperature. Results from this study show that an increase of temperature has an impact on stream ecology with a higher macroinvertebrates density and dominance and diversity changes.Keywords: macroinvertebrates, stream ecology, climate change, geothermal activity