Biology and conservation of freshwater bivalves: past, present and future perspectives

Abstract

Freshwater bivalves have been highly threatened by human activities, and recently their global decline has been causing conservational and social concern. In this paper, we review the most important research events in freshwater bivalve biology calling attention to the main scientific achievements. A great bias exists in the research effort, with much more information available for bivalve species belonging to the Unionida in comparison to other groups. The same is true for the origin of these studies, since the publishing pattern does not always correspond to the hotspots of biodiversity but is concentrated in the northern hemisphere mainly in North America, Europe and Russia, with regions such as Africa and Southeast Asia being quite understudied. We also summarize information about past, present and future perspectives concerning the most important research topics that include taxonomy, systematics, anatomy, physiology, ecology and conservation of freshwater bivalves. Finally, we introduce the articles published in this Hydrobiologia special issue related with the International Meeting on Biology and Conservation of Freshwater Bivalves held in 2012 in Bragança, Portugal.

Conservation of freshwater bivalves at the global scale: diversity, threats and research needs

“…Increasing anthropogenic pressure worldwide results in habitat loss, habitat modification and fragmentation, overexploitation of natural resources (including water), pollution, introduction of invasive alien species (IAS) and climate change (Malmqvist & Rundle, 2002;Strayer & Dudgeon, 2010). Biodiversity crisis is one of the major consequences of steeply rising human demands, and among the animals with high extinction rates are freshwater bivalves (FB) (Strayer et al, 2004;Lydeard et al, 2004;Régnier et al, 2009;Lopes-Lima et al, 2014, 2017a. The future survival of FB is highly impaired and considering the large suite of ecosystem services they provide (Vaughn, 2017) scientists, managers, politicians and the general public need to strengthen their cooperation in order to conserve these species.…”

“…Whereas over the last years multiple studies have been published concerning the biology, ecology and conservation of FB, the majority of them were carried out in North America and Europe (Lopes-Lima et al, 2014). Consequently, a great ignorance about basic aspects (e.g.…”

Phylogeny of the most species-rich freshwater bivalve family (Bivalvia: Unionida: Unionidae): Defining modern subfamilies and tribes

“…Due to their ecological and economic importance, interesting biological traits (e.g., a parasitic life with the reproductive dependence on a host fish and a particular form of mitochondrial inheritance called double uniparental inheritance; Barnhart et al, 2008;Breton et al, 2007;Hoeh et al, 1996Hoeh et al, , 2002a, scientific research on Unionida has grown in recent years (Haag, 2012;Lopes-Lima et al, 2014). However, taxon-based conservation efforts focused on the Unionidae are hindered by various phylogenetic and taxonomic uncertainties (e.g., Inoue et al, 2014;, and many species, especially those outside of North America and Western Europe, have been assigned a Data Deficient status by the IUCN (Bogan and Roe, 2008;IUCN, 2015;Kohler et al, 2012).…”

Transcriptomic responses of the endangered freshwater mussel Margaritifera margaritifera to trace metal contamination in the Dronne River, France

“…Despite their role in particle processing, nutrient release, and sediment mixing (Vaughn and Hakenkamp 2001), our knowledge about the complex biology of freshwater bivalves (order Unionoida) is still scarce (Lopes-Lima et al 2014). Freshwater mussels form a species-rich group of bivalves, with about 900 species present on all continents except Antarctica (Carella et al 2016).…”