article · Nature
A global assessment of extinction risk across 23,496 freshwater species, covering fishes, decapod crustaceans, and odonates, reveals that one-quarter are threatened with extinction. The primary drivers of these declines include pollution, dams, water extraction, agriculture, invasive species, and overharvesting. Historically, conservation priorities and environmental policies for freshwaters relied on data from terrestrial tetrapods or non-living abiotic factors, such as nitrogen levels and water stress. An evaluation of these proxies shows that while threatened tetrapods serve as useful indicators for identifying broad areas of high freshwater species richness, they perform poorly for species with very restricted ranges. Furthermore, abiotic targets proved entirely inadequate, performing worse than random selection. Consequently, conservation strategies designed solely around terrestrial animals or physical indicators fail to protect vulnerable freshwater species at local scales.
Freshwater ecosystems support vital economic activities and human livelihoods, yet their biodiversity is experiencing severe pressure. Relying on land animals or simple water quality metrics to plan conservation leaves critical freshwater species unprotected. Identifying specific risks to freshwater fauna ensures that international targets, policies, and local interventions protect the ecosystems that underpin water security and community livelihoods.
The abstract does not indicate an application pathway, as the research focuses on global conservation risk assessments and policy indicators rather than a commercial product or service.
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Freshwater ecosystems are highly biodiverse<sup>1</sup> and important for livelihoods and economic development<sup>2</sup>, but are under substantial stress<sup>3</sup>. To date, comprehensive global assessments of extinction risk have not included any speciose groups primarily living in freshwaters. Consequently, data from predominantly terrestrial tetrapods<sup>4,5</sup> are used to guide environmental policy<sup>6</sup> and conservation prioritization<sup>7</sup>, whereas recent proposals for target setting in freshwaters use abiotic factors<sup>8-13</sup>. However, there is evidence<sup>14-17</sup> that such data are insufficient to represent the needs of freshwater species and achieve biodiversity goals<sup>18,19</sup>. Here we present the results of a multi-taxon global freshwater fauna assessment for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species covering 23,496 decapod crustaceans, fishes and odonates, finding that one-quarter are threatened with extinction. Prevalent threats include pollution, dams and water extraction, agriculture and invasive species, with overharvesting also driving extinctions. We also examined the degree of surrogacy of both threatened tetrapods and freshwater abiotic factors (water stress and nitrogen) for threatened freshwater species. Threatened tetrapods are good surrogates when prioritizing sites to maximize rarity-weighted richness, but poorer when prioritizing based on the most range-restricted species. However, they are much better surrogates than abiotic factors, which perform worse than random. Thus, although global priority regions identified for tetrapod conservation are broadly reflective of those for freshwater faunas, given differences in key threats and habitats, meeting the needs of tetrapods cannot be assumed sufficient to conserve freshwater species at local scales.
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08375-z
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