Environmental impact of climate change on alpine streams chemistry: from field study to mesocosms

Name: Silvia

Surname: Bertolotti

Tutor (surname): Fenoglio

The Alps have historically been described as the “Water Towers” of Europe, as alpine rivers provide almost the 40% of the freshwater in the continent. Apart from guaranteeing us high quality water for all our human activities, they shelter a unique diversity of flora and fauna and display fundamental ecosystem services. However, their ability to do so is increasingly impacted by climate change, which alters their flow regimes through less precipitations and rising temperatures. At the same time, growing urbanization and industrialization are causing a severe deterioration of water quality.

My project has the aim to improve our knowledge on how rivers react to climate change and to pressures derived from human activity. This is pursued through three main objectives: 1) analyzing and understanding the modifications occurring in the natural water chemistry, both in terms of nutrient cycling, both in terms of presence and persistence of pollutants in water 2) investigating possible connections between the chemical and the biological asset in impacted waters 3) evaluating the sustainability and the suitability of human intervention on waters (wastewater treatments in particular) related to the climate change. As the topic is strongly interdisciplinary, I collaborate with teams of chemists, environmental biologists and microbiologists. The project includes both field activity, with sampling campaigns on alpine rivers belonging to the Po basin in Piedmont, and laboratory activity, which I am carrying out at the Department of Analytical Chemistry of the University of Turin. Manipulative experiments are also planned to be performed in a second moment, on a set of mesocosms built by the Alpstream Research Center in Ostana (CN) in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Turin.

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