Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-2 (section)

==== 2.3.3.3 Observed Changes in Discharge ====

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Analysis of river flows from 7250 observatories around the world covering the years 1971–2010 and identified spatially complex patterns, with reductions in northeastern Brazil, southern Australia and the Mediterranean, and increases in northern Europe ( ''medium evidence'' , ''medium agreement'' ) ( [[#Gudmundsson--2021|Gudmundsson et al., 2021]] ). More than half of global rivers undergo periodic drying that reduces river connectivity ( ''medium evidence'' , ''medium agreement'' ). Increased frequency and intensity of droughts may cause perennial rivers to become intermittent and intermittent rivers to disappear ( ''medium evidence'' , ''medium agreement'' ), threatening freshwater fish in habitats already characterised by heat and droughts ( [[#Datry--2016|Datry et al., 2016]] ; [[#Schneider--2017|Schneider et al., 2017]] ; [[#Jaric--2019|Jaric et al., 2019]] ). In high-altitude/latitude streams, reduced glacier and snowpack extent, earlier snowmelt and altered precipitation patterns, attributed to climate change, have increased flow intermittency ( [[#Siebers--2019|Siebers et al., 2019]] ; [[#Gudmundsson--2021|Gudmundsson et al., 2021]] ). Patterns in flow regimes can be directly linked to a variety of processes shaping freshwater biodiversity, so any climate change-induced changes in flow regimes and river connectivity are expected to alter species composition as well as having societal impacts (See [[IPCC:Wg2:Chapter:Chapter-3|Chapter 3]] in ( [[#IPCC--2018b|IPCC, 2018b]] )) ( [[#Bunn--2002|Bunn and Arthington, 2002]] ; [[#Thomson--2012|Thomson et al., 2012]] ; [[#Chessman--2015|Chessman, 2015]] ; [[#Kakouei--2018|Kakouei et al., 2018]] ).

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