Primary climate change drivers are precipitation, air temperature and
evaporative demand. Ecological consequences of global climate change
on freshwater ecosystems may be grouped into effects that relate to
water quantity, water quality, habitat and biological assemblages
(Table 2). Often stressors act in synergistic ways with effects exacerbated
through the interaction of two or more effects such as the combined
effect of reduced run-off and elevated water temperature. Consequences
for biological assemblages are thus often the result of several climate
change drivers acting in synergy. In addition, climate change may cause
changes in land-use patterns, which in turn may impact on, for example,
volumes of fine sediment delivered to river channels. Such feedbacks
need to be considered when trying to determine the potential effects of
climate change on aquatic ecosystems.