Improving connectivity, hydrology, habitats and water resilience in aquatic ecosystems

Introduction

Improve Aquatic LIFE will restore ecosystem functions in rivers and coastal areas in Southern Sweden. All nine County Administrative Boards in the region, two municipalities, the Swedish EPA, SwAM, three universities, and the Swedish Angler Association will work together to achieve the goals of the project.

Overall Aim

The overall aim is to improve the conservation status for species and habitats of the Habitats Directive and to enhance the ability to reach good ecological status according to the WFD and MSFD. This will be achieved with the following specific objectives and connected actions:

Specific Objectives

1. Improve the conservation status of river habitats
   Restore more than hundreds of hectares of 3210 and 3260 river habitats historically altered for agricultural and forestry purposes, towards a more natural status. The specific purpose is to improve the quality of the habitats for the target species, i.e.:

   • Freshwater pearl mussel (1029)
   • Thick-shelled river mussel (1032)
   • Atlantic salmon (1106)
   • Lampreys (1095 and 1099)

2. Improve the conservation status of coastal habitats
   Enhance coastal habitats, i.e.:

   • Reefs (1170)
   • Large shallow inlets and bays (1160)
   • Sandbanks (1110)
   • Lagoons (1150)
   • Estuaries (1130)
     This will be done by creating stone reefs, eelgrass beds, and restoring enclosed estuaries.

3. Improve ecological connectivity
   Remove anthropogenic migration barriers, which will open up to a thousand km of river, improving the status for the WFD connectivity parameter and creating a blue-green infrastructure of significant scale. Improve Aquatic LIFE will substantially contribute to the EU target that at least 25,000 km of rivers will be restored into free-flowing rivers by 2030.

4. Improve water quality and hydrological regime
   Enhance water quality and hydrological resilience through catchment restoration work in more than thousands of hectares of wetland that was historically ditched for agricultural or forestry use. This includes plugging leaking ditches in forests, swamps, bogs, and mires (habitat types 7110, 7140, 9080, and 91E0).