Source: NCSU COLLEGE OF AG & LIFE SCIENCES, 12/10/21



Freshwater biodiversity research and conservation lag far behind the efforts carried out in terrestrial and marine environments, according to researchers from 90 scientific institutions worldwide. In a new publication in Ecology Letters, they propose a research agenda with 15 priorities aimed at improving research on biodiversity in lakes, rivers, ponds and wetlands. This is urgently needed, as biodiversity loss is taking place much faster in inland waters than on land or in the oceans.

“Freshwater ecosystems are inhabited by a diversity of unique organisms and provide valuable services to humans (e.g., clean water),” says Alonso Ramírez, professor of Applied Ecology and co-author of the study. “Our Research Agenda is an effort to highlight information gaps to properly manage and protect these unique ecosystems.”

Freshwater animal populations have declined by more than 80 percent
The latest Living Planet Report documents an average decline in populations of 84% – in only the last 50 years – for 3,741 populations studied, representing 944 freshwater vertebrate species. This is the steepest decline in the three major realms of land, oceans and freshwater. “Despite the ongoing, unprecedented decline, international and intergovernmental science-policy platforms, funding agencies and major non-profit initiatives still fail to give freshwater biodiversity the priority it deserves,” Dr. Alain Maasri, lead author of the study who is at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and Humboldt University in Berlin, also criticized.

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