About this Research Topic

Background

Aquatic ecosystems worldwide are facing several pressures simultaneously. Undoubtedly, pollution of aquatic systems is one of the most visible with different pollutants (e.g., nutrients, pesticides, metals, priority organic pollutants (POPs)) and size classes (macro-, micro-, and nano-). Origins of these anthropogenic pollutants include agriculture and livestock activities, industrial emissions, and daily activities from the general population. Pollutants may have a variety of ecosystem impacts when considered individually, and also show complex interactions among one another. In addition, pollutant impacts occur concurrently with climate change, increasing water temperatures, changes in flow regimes, and potential changes in biodiversity. Pollution and climate change will affect water quality and the ecosystems services across spatial and temporal scales in freshwater ecosystems. Understanding the combined effects of pollutants and climate change on aquatic ecosystem performance is crucial to improve risk assessment now and in the future to ensure environmental and human health in the long term.

There is a critical risk that climate change effects will exacerbate the potential impacts of pollutants on freshwater ecosystems. Temperature can change the chemical characteristics of toxicants, including solubility and degradation, thereby altering bioavailability, mobilization, and persistence in the environment (biotic and abiotic parts). Moreover, the increase of extreme hydrological events (i.e., floods and drought) can re-mobilize toxicants that were previously buried in sediments that could be transformed due to the different oxygen conditions of sediment (oxic/anoxic). Temperature can also affect biodiversity and change the biological interactions within ecosystems.

The aim of this Research Topic is to showcase cutting-edge research on the potential ecosystem-level effects of the combined stress from climate change and anthropogenic pollution. The focus is on freshwater ecosystems, where we aim to highlight approaches to assess and quantify the combined impacts of climate change and pollution on ecosystem biodiversity, resilience, functioning, evolution, and adaption. Additional challenges fall to particulate pollutants, such as engineered nanomaterials and microplastics since they are highly dynamic and prone to transformation reactions. For instance, they can acquire a layer of biological molecules (ecocorona) that makes them appear food-like to organisms and can act as vectors for co-pollutants. Transformation and behaviors like this, among others, are of particular interest, individually or as part of chemical mixtures.

This Research Topic seeks to publish high-quality, innovative research that advances our understanding of the combined effects of pollutants and climate change on freshwater ecosystems. Interdisciplinary approaches are welcomed, as well as those that contribute to novel approaches and/or new combinations to assess pollutants and climate change impacts in freshwater ecosystems. Both experimental and modeling approaches are welcome.

Specific fields of interest include:

1. Ecotoxicological studies combining pollutants and at least one climate change stressor (e.g., temperature, hydrological changes, food availability)
2. All kind of anthropogenic pollutants (organic and inorganic) and different sizes classes (macro-, micro-, and nano-)
3. Laboratory and field experiments, as well as modeling approaches
4. The measurement and monitoring of pollutant behavior, transformation(s)/degradation, mobility, interactions with biota, or combinations among these factors, under changing climate scenarios
5. Ecosystem services effects due to combined pollution and climate change stressors, both in the water column and in sediments
6. Application of frameworks such as the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) approach to link mechanistic effects from the individual and combined stressors to the ecosystem level effects.

Keywords: global warming, hydrological events, toxics, nanoparticles, micropollutants, ecosystems services, food web

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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