Papers

61,005 results
|
Article Tier 2

Long-term variations in water discharge and sediment load of the Pearl River Estuary: Implications for sustainable development of the Greater Bay Area

This study examined long-term trends in water discharge and sediment load in the Pearl River estuary from the 1950s to 2020, finding that annual sediment load and suspended sediment concentrations declined drastically despite variable water discharge. The changes were driven by climate variability and intensifying human activities such as dam construction and sand mining.

2022 Frontiers in Marine Science 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Soil erosion and sediment dynamics in the Anthropocene: a review of human impacts during a period of rapid global environmental change

This review examines how human activities have altered soil erosion and sediment transport patterns, particularly since the mid-twentieth century. Researchers found that land use changes, deforestation, and agriculture have dramatically increased erosion rates, while dams and reservoirs have disrupted natural sediment flow to oceans. The study highlights how these changes affect global climate, water security, and the transport of pollutants including microplastics through river systems.

2020 Journal of Soils and Sediments 183 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Human Activities on Evapotranspiration and Its Components in Arid Areas

Researchers analyzed evapotranspiration changes in arid southern Xinjiang, China from 1982 to 2015, finding that human activities such as land-use conversion significantly altered regional water cycling patterns and the balance between plant transpiration and soil evaporation.

2023 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Human Management Decreased Suspended Particle Size in the Loess Plateau Rivers during the 1980s to the 2010s

Researchers analyzed changes in suspended particle size in Loess Plateau rivers from the 1980s to the 2010s, finding that human management interventions including dam construction and reforestation decreased particle size over time. The study documented how anthropogenic river management altered sediment dynamics in one of the world's most erosion-prone landscapes.

2024 Sustainability 1 citations
Article Tier 2

What Determines the Future Ecological Risks of Wastewater Discharges in River Networks: Load, Location or Climate Change?

Researchers developed a systematic framework for assessing future ecological risks from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents in river networks by combining plant size class as a proxy for pollutant load with stream order as a proxy for discharge location, applying it under climate change scenarios to show that streamflow reduction in receiving rivers will significantly worsen ecological risk even without increases in pollutant loads.

2022
Article Tier 2

Anthropogenic changes in waterways produce “drought-like” layers in shelf sediments

Damming and waterway diversions have reduced sediment delivery to continental shelves in patterns that mimic drought signals in the sedimentary record, potentially confounding paleoclimate reconstructions that rely on shelf sediment composition to infer past precipitation and river flow.

2022 Elementa Science of the Anthropocene 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Climatic and anthropogenic regulation of carbon transport and transformation in a karst river-reservoir system

Researchers analyzed dissolved inorganic carbon along a cascade of seven dam reservoirs in a karst river system in southwest China over one hydrological year, finding that cascading dams collectively exert a stronger effect on carbon cycling than single dams, with water temperature and hydraulic retention time jointly controlling how much carbon is retained or transformed.

2019 The Science of The Total Environment 76 citations
Article Tier 2

The Effects of Climate Variation and Anthropogenic Activity on Karst Spring Discharge Based on the Wavelet Coherence Analysis and the Multivariate Statistical

Researchers analyzed climate variation and human activity effects on karst spring discharge using wavelet coherence analysis, finding that anthropogenic factors including land-use changes increasingly influence groundwater dynamics alongside natural climate variability.

2023 Sustainability 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Suspended sediment dynamics and the related environmental risk assessment in a sensitive water area

Researchers used 2D hydrodynamic modeling to show that suspended sediment loads in China's Nanji Mountain Nature Reserve vary strongly with seasonal river input from the Ganjiang, and that wet-season sediment pulses carry microplastic and nutrient fluxes up to ten times higher than dry season — elevating ecological risk precisely when waterbird populations are lower.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Interactions of natural and anthropogenic drivers and hydrological processes on local and regional scales: A review of main results of Slovak hydrology from 2019 to 2022

This review synthesizes major results from Slovak hydrological research from 2019 to 2022, examining how natural and anthropogenic drivers interact with hydrological processes at local and regional scales in a country with high spatiotemporal variability in runoff regimes. The authors highlight findings related to extreme floods and droughts, climate change impacts, and advances in monitoring, modelling, and water resources management relevant to Central European hydrology.

2023 Acta hydrologica Slovaca 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Human-environment interactions in the Anthropocene – a case study on reservoir sediments in Central Europe

Researchers analyzed sediment cores from Central European reservoirs to reconstruct a century of changing sediment fluxes, heavy metal contamination, and microplastic inputs linked to human land use change and climate-driven erosion. Microplastics appeared in cores beginning in the mid-20th century, with accelerating accumulation rates tracking regional industrialization and plastic production growth.

2025
Article Tier 2

Interconnected impacts of water resource management and climate change on microplastic pollution and riverine biocoenosis: A review by freshwater ecologists

Researchers reviewed how river hydrology, water resource management, and climate change interact to influence microplastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems. They found that floods can flush microplastics from catchments, while reservoirs act as both sinks and sources, and extreme weather events driven by climate change tend to concentrate microplastics and threaten aquatic organisms. The study highlights a critical gap in research that jointly addresses these interconnected factors and calls for integrated policy approaches.

2024 Journal of Environmental Management 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of watershed habitat quality based on land use: a case study of taking Ciyao River Basin

Land use change analysis in the Ciyao River Basin from 1985 to 2020 showed that habitat quality declined in areas with increased agricultural and urban expansion, highlighting land use as a key driver of watershed ecological health. The findings support land use planning as a tool for biodiversity and water resource protection.

2023 Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods 25 citations
Article Tier 2

An Analytical Framework for Determining the Ecological Risks of Wastewater Discharges in River Networks Under Climate Change

Researchers developed an analytical framework to assess ecological risks from wastewater treatment plant discharges into river networks under climate change scenarios, finding that reduced river flows from climate change will amplify ecological risks from effluent contaminants including microplastics.

2022 Earth s Future 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Analysis of hydrochemical characteristics and genesis of water-deficient rivers in China: a case study of the Ciyao River Basin in Shanxi Province

This study analyzed the chemical characteristics and origins of water in the Ciyao River Basin, a water-scarce region in China's Shanxi Province. Researchers collected water samples across wet, normal, and dry seasons and found that the water chemistry was influenced by both natural rock weathering and human activities. The findings provide baseline data for managing water quality in regions where water scarcity makes understanding pollution sources especially critical.

2023 Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods 40 citations
Article Tier 2

Potential Sediment Transport in Weir Aepodu South Konawe Regency, Indonesia

This study assessed sediment transport potential in the Aepodu watershed in Indonesia, examining how land use changes affect erosion and river siltation. Understanding sediment dynamics in rivers is relevant to predicting how microplastics associated with sediment particles move through freshwater systems.

2023 Stabilita
Article Tier 2

Effect of large topography on atmospheric environment in Sichuan Basin: A climate analysis based on changes in atmospheric visibility

Researchers analyzed 51 years of meteorological station data from the Sichuan-Chongqing region to examine how large topographic features influence the atmospheric environment of the Sichuan Basin, using atmospheric visibility as a proxy for aerosol concentration alongside temperature, humidity, and wind data.

2022 Frontiers in Earth Science 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Hydrological modelling: Insights into hydrological signals and contaminant transport

Researchers modeled how future climate-driven changes in hydrological extremes — including floods and droughts — affect contaminant transport in a heavily polluted Scottish catchment, finding that traditional models calibrated on historical data perform poorly when projecting under novel climatic conditions.

2025
Article Tier 2

The effects of land use types on microplastics in river water: A case study on the mainstream of the Wei River, China

Researchers studied how different land use types along China's Wei River, a major tributary of the Yellow River, influence microplastic concentrations in the water. The study found that urban and agricultural areas contributed more microplastics than other land use types, with seasonal variations also playing a role, highlighting how human activities directly shape plastic pollution patterns in river systems.

2024 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 31 citations
Article Tier 2

Landscape Ecological Risk Assessment Based on Land Use Change in the Yellow River Basin of Shaanxi, China

Researchers assessed landscape ecological risk in the Yellow River Basin of Shaanxi, China using land use change data, finding that fragmentation and conversion of natural habitats driven by urbanization and agriculture have substantially increased ecological risk across the basin over recent decades.

2022 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 33 citations
Article Tier 2

Unraveling the impacts of meteorological and anthropogenic changes on sediment fluxes along an estuary-sea continuum

Researchers ran a 22-year computer simulation of France's Seine Estuary to separate the effects of weather patterns from human engineering changes — like dredging and narrowing the channel — on how sediment flows between the estuary and the sea. They found that human modifications have fundamentally shifted the estuary from a sediment-exporting to a sediment-trapping system, with important implications for how pollutants like microplastics accumulate in estuarine environments.

2021 Scientific Reports 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Yellow River Basin Management under Pressure: Present State, Restoration and Protection II: Lessons from a Special Issue

This review assessed the current state of the Yellow River Basin's water environment, covering sediment dynamics, pollution loads, and restoration challenges, along with management interventions aimed at improving ecological conditions. The authors document improvements from recent restoration policies but identify persistent pressures from agriculture, industry, and climate change threatening the basin's long-term water security.

2024 Water 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Quantifying the Geomorphic Effect of Floods Using Satellite Observations of River Mobility

This paper is not about microplastics; it uses satellite imagery and machine learning to study how flood magnitude, duration, and hydrograph shape determine lateral erosion and channel change in rivers.

2023 Geophysical Research Letters 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Causes, Responses, and Implications of Anthropogenic versus Natural Flow Intermittence in River Networks

Researchers reviewed the differences between natural and human-caused flow intermittence in rivers, examining how anthropogenic drivers such as dams and water diversions alter drying patterns compared to natural seasonal cycles. They found that human-caused flow intermittence produces distinct ecological impacts because the affected organisms have not evolved adaptations to these artificial drying regimes. The study emphasizes that failing to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic intermittence could undermine river management and increase risks to downstream ecosystems.

2022 BioScience 79 citations