People need freshwater biodiversity

Lynch, Abigail J.; Cooke, Steven J.; Arthington, Angela; Baigún, Claudio Rafael Mariano; Bossenbroek, Lisa; Dickens, Chris; Harrison, Ian; Kimirei, Ismael A.; Langhans, Simone D.; Murchie, Karen J.; Olden, Julian D.; Ormerod, Stephen James; Owuor, Margaret Awuor; Raghavan, Rajeev; Samways, Michael J.; Schinegger, Rafaela; Sharma, Subodh; Tachamo‐Shah, Ram Devi; Tickner, David; Tweddle, Denis; Young, Nathan; Jähnig, Sonja C.

doi:10.1002/wat2.1633

Cited by 55 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 190 publications

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“…Freshwater ecosystems and their constituent biodiversity generate many benefits to humans and nature, but their status is increasingly uncertain (Lynch et al, in press). We argue that achieving meaningful progress requires creating the right social context for change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this approach neglects a wide range of important roles that freshwater habitats and species often play in our societies. For instance, inland fisheries are an essential food source for hundreds of millions of people worldwide (Lynch et al, 2016, in press; McIntyre et al, 2016; Youn et al, 2014), providing essential protein and nutrients. Recreational fisheries also support economic growth and individual well‐being (Arlinghaus & Cooke, 2009).…”

Section: The Perception Of Freshwater Today: How Has Freshwater Biodi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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TheRACEfor freshwater biodiversity: Essential actions to create the social context for meaningful conservation

Birnie‐Gauvin

Lynch

Franklin

et al. 2023

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Freshwater habitats are experiencing two to three times the rate of biodiversity loss of terrestrial and marine habitats. As status quo actions within the conservation community are not reversing the downward trajectory for freshwater biodiversity, we propose four actions to shift the narrative such that freshwater biodiversity is no longer invisible and overlooked, but rather explicitly recognized, valued, and protected: (1) Reshape our relationship with freshwater habitats and biodiversity, (2) Appreciate indigenous knowledge systems relating to freshwater habitats, (3) Connect science more directly to action, and (4) Elevate freshwater habitats as a unique “domain” that requires explicit recognition in conservation planning (RACE). We highlight roles that both freshwater scientists and the wider conservation community can play in implementing the four actions such that the “RACE” can be won.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Perception Of Freshwater Today: How Has Freshwater Biodi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

TheRACEfor freshwater biodiversity: Essential actions to create the social context for meaningful conservation

Birnie‐Gauvin

Lynch

Franklin

et al. 2023

Conservat Sci and Prac

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“…Freshwater biodiversity loss is accelerating rapidly across the globe (Lynch et al, 2023), making reliable and scalable biodiversity assessment frameworks a requirement for monitoring, decision‐making, and conservation efforts (IPBES, 2019; Tickner et al, 2020). DNA metabarcoding shows potential for streamlined, cost‐effective, and highly accurate biodiversity assessments that are scalable across ecosystems (Buchner et al, 2021; Stein et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA metabarcoding captures different macroinvertebrate biodiversity than morphological identification approaches across a continental scale

et al. 2023

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DNA‐based aquatic biomonitoring methods show promise to provide rapid, standardized, and efficient biodiversity assessment to supplement and in some cases replace current morphology‐based approaches that are often less efficient and can produce inconsistent results. Despite this potential, broad‐scale adoption of DNA‐based approaches by end‐users remains limited, and studies on how these two approaches differ in detecting aquatic biodiversity across large spatial scales are lacking. Here, we present a comparison of DNA metabarcoding and morphological identification, leveraging national‐scale, open‐source, ecological datasets from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). Across 24 wadeable streams in North America with 179 paired sample comparisons, we found that DNA metabarcoding detected twice as many unique taxa than morphological identification overall. The two approaches showed poor congruence in detecting the same taxa, averaging 59%, 35%, and 23% of shared taxa detected at the order, family, and genus levels, respectively. Importantly, the two approaches detected different proportions of indicator taxa like %EPT and %Chironomidae. DNA metabarcoding detected far fewer Chironomid and Trichopteran taxa than morphological identification, but more Ephemeropteran and Plecopteran taxa, a result likely due to primer choice. Overall, our results showed that DNA metabarcoding and morphological identification detected different benthic macroinvertebrate communities. Despite these differences, we found that the same environmental variables were correlated with invertebrate community structure, suggesting that both approaches can accurately detect biodiversity patterns across environmental gradients. Further refinement of DNA metabarcoding protocols, primers, and reference libraries–as well as more standardized, large‐scale comparative studies–may improve our understanding of the taxonomic agreement and data linkages between DNA metabarcoding and morphological approaches.

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“…Freshwater ecosystems are of paramount importance for human wellbeing and are home to numerous high-priority conservation species (e.g., Albert et al, 2021;Dudgeon, 2019;Lynch et al, 2016Lynch et al, , 2023Tickner et al, 2020). Due to escalating anthropogenic pressures, freshwater systems stand out as the most threatened on a global scale (Dudgeon et al, 2006;Maasri et al, 2022;Tickner et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for the critically endangered European eel in oceanic islands: A pioneer study in the freshwater systems of Madeira, Macaronesia

Órfão,

Álvarez,

Ramalhosa

et al. 2024

Aquatic Conservation

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The globally threatened European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is the only freshwater fish native to Macaronesia. Despite being a keystone species to freshwater habitats, little is known about its population, environmental associations and conservation requirements in oceanic islands. The density and geographical‐related factors influencing the distribution of A. anguilla in the subtropical Archipelago of Madeira (Portugal) were examined. Data on the species occurrence was initially collected using an online survey addressed to citizens. Eels were then sampled through electrofishing in 31 sampling sites along 11 streams on Madeira Island, and eel‐habitat associations were investigated using LMMs and GLMMs. One stream was also sampled in Porto Santo Island. The presence of A. anguilla was confirmed in the two islands of the archipelago with streams (Madeira and Porto Santo). Eels are distributed throughout Madeira Island, being more abundant – particularly small size individual– at lower altitudes (mostly below 150 m). The number of weirs was an important predictor of eel density, suggesting that these flood‐control structures limit their upstream migration. This study represents a pioneer sampling effort of the European eel in Madeira and results provide much‐needed baseline information on the species distribution and related environmental factors in oceanic islands. While most eel research has historically focused on mainland habitats where dams pose a significant threat to eel habitats, our study underscores the critical importance of addressing smaller, often overlooked barriers that may also cause habitat fragmentation. The European eel is a panmictic species, thus, the conservation of the Macaronesian subpopulations can have substantial benefits for its global recovery. A comprehensive investigation of the impact of man‐made obstacles on eel habitat is still needed. Similarly, other common threats such as interactions with non‐indigenous species and infection by Anguillicola crassus should be a research priority in future studies.

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People need freshwater biodiversity

Cited by 55 publications

References 190 publications

TheRACEfor freshwater biodiversity: Essential actions to create the social context for meaningful conservation

TheRACEfor freshwater biodiversity: Essential actions to create the social context for meaningful conservation

DNA metabarcoding captures different macroinvertebrate biodiversity than morphological identification approaches across a continental scale

Searching for the critically endangered European eel in oceanic islands: A pioneer study in the freshwater systems of Madeira, Macaronesia

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