UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Data from: More than just a margin: Local and landscape-scale factors regulating the effects of riparian forest buffers on stream-riparian ecosystems in urban and agricultural landscapes

Identification

Public canonical key

radar:r-aa0ab6791cbe58dabd6fc4ae44f6a03f

Authors

Brendan G. McKie · Nikolai Friberg · Marie Anne Eurie Forio · Benjamin Kupilas · Petra Thea Mutinová · Jasmina Šargač · Ellinor Ramberg · Cristina Popescu · Darmina Nita · Valentin Dinu · Mihaela Sava · Felix Witing · Amélie Truchy · Maria Kahlert · Richard K. Johnson · Peter L.M. Goethals · Geta Rîşnoveanu · Martin Volk · Francis J. Burdon

Reported year

2026

Reported language

en

Source type

dataset

First detected

2026-11-14T02:47:43.815101+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-14T02:47:43.815101+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences · Aarhus University · Norwegian Institute for Water Research · Ghent University · University of Bucharest · Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research · University of Waikato

Reported affiliation countries

BE · DE · DK · NO · NZ · RO · SE

Documentary abstract — original language

Riparian forest buffers are a potentially potent nature-based solution for mitigating environmental degradation and improving biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in stream-riparian networks. However, uncertainties about how buffer size, spatial configuration, and land-use intensity shape outcomes and trade-offs hinders management applications. We conducted coordinated field surveys and modelling across four European countries to evaluate how riparian forest properties influence stream-riparian environments, biodiversity, ecosystem processes, and macroinvertebrate functional traits along agricultural and urban land-use gradients. Riparian forest buffers had strong effects on habitats, increasing shading and coarse woody debris. Sediment deposition was halved in buffered stream reaches, and longer buffers lowered thermal maxima in stream and riparian habitats by 13–17%. Buffers further reduced effects of increasing agricultural land use on soluble reactive phosphate concentrations, although this response was highly variable. These environmental changes were associated with multiple effects on biodiversity and ecosystem function. Buffer presence and/or increasing length were associated with 30-100% increases in microbial detritus decomposition, a 53% increase in riparian beetle diversity, and 18%–77% increases in stream macroinvertebrate diversity and the EPT biotic index, and macroinvertebrate leaf shredding and algal grazing traits. In contrast, algal biomass accrual and web-building spider diversity declined by 33% and 36%, respectively, in buffered reaches. As land-use intensified, riparian forest buffers helped maintain macroinvertebrate functional diversity and shredding, predation, and filtration traits, and saturated fatty acid content in terrestrial predators. In contrast, macroinvertebrate particle gathering traits declined. The spatial configuration of riparian forest influenced stream ecosystems at local scales: dissolved phosphorus and diatom species richness declined as spatial proximity among upstream riparian forest blocks decreased, while a diatom-based biomonitoring index increased. Synthesis and applications: Riparian forest buffers support biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and food webs in human-modified landscapes, and dampen land-use and climate stressors (sediments, nutrients, thermal maxima), motivating their wider use in management. These outcomes were regulated by the presence or size of mostly small, mature buffers, and sometimes by proximity among riparian forest blocks upstream, indicating that even modest investments in expanding existing buffer networks are likely to deliver cumulative ecological benefits.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

https://openalex.org/W7172505819

DOI

10.5061/dryad.2280gb67r

Documentary context

Documentary family

dataset

Source-reported types

dataset

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1

• Document · https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2280gb67r

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.