Freshwater biodiversity: importance, threats, status and conservation challenges

Biological Reviews - Tập 81 Số 2 - Trang 163-182 - 2006
David Dudgeon1, Angela H. Arthington2, Mark O. Gessner3, Zen’ichiro Kawabata4, Duncan Knowler5, Christian Lévêque6, Robert J. Naiman7, Anne‐Hélène Prieur‐Richard8, Doris Soto9, Melanie L. J. Stiassny10, Caroline A Sullivan11
1Department of Ecology and Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2Centre for Riverine Landscapes and Cooperative Research Centre for Rainforest Ecology and Management, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia
3Department of Limnology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag/ETH), 6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.
4Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 335 Takashima‐cho, Marutamachi‐dori, Kawaramachi nishi‐iru, Kamigyo‐ku, Kyoto, 602‐0878, Japan
5School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Eraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 166
6Institut de Recherches pour le Développement, 1 rue de Marnes, 92410 Ville d'Avray, France
7School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences, University of Washington – 355020, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
8DIVERSITAS, 51 bd Montmorency, 75016 Paris, France
9Instituto de Acuicultura, Universidad Austral de Chile, Nucleo Milenio FORECOS, Casilla 1327, Puerto Montt, Chile
10Department of Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA
11Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, UK

Tóm tắt

ABSTRACT

Freshwater biodiversity is the over‐riding conservation priority during the International Decade for Action ‐‘Water for Life’ ‐ 2005 to 2015. Fresh water makes up only 0.01% of the World's water and approximately 0.8 % of the Earth's surface, yet this tiny fraction of global water supports at least 100 000 species out of approximately 1.8 million ‐ almost 6% of all described species. Inland waters and freshwater biodiversity constitute a valuable natural resource, in economic, cultural, aesthetic, scientific and educational terms. Their conservation and management are critical to the interests of all humans, nations and governments. Yet this precious heritage is in crisis. Fresh waters are experiencing declines in biodiversity far greater than those in the most affected terrestrial ecosystems, and if trends in human demands for water remain unaltered and species losses continue at current rates, the opportunity to conserve much of the remaining biodiversity in fresh water will vanish before the ‘Water for Life’ decade ends in 2015. Why is this so, and what is being done about it? This article explores the special features of freshwater habitats and the biodiversity they support that makes them especially vulnerable to human activities. We document threats to global freshwater biodiversity under five headings: overexploitation; water pollution; flow modification; destruction or degradation of habitat; and invasion by exotic species. Their combined and interacting influences have resulted in population declines and range reduction of freshwater biodiversity worldwide. Conservation of biodiversity is complicated by the landscape position of rivers and wetlands as ‘receivers’ of land‐use effluents, and the problems posed by endemism and thus non‐substitutability. In addition, in many parts of the world, fresh water is subject to severe competition among multiple human stakeholders. Protection of freshwater biodiversity is perhaps the ultimate conservation challenge because it is influenced by the upstream drainage network, the surrounding land, the riparian zone, and ‐ in the case of migrating aquatic fauna ‐ downstream reaches. Such prerequisites are hardly ever met. Immediate action is needed where opportunities exist to set aside intact lake and river ecosystems within large protected areas. For most of the global land surface, trade‐offs between conservation of freshwater biodiversity and human use of ecosystem goods and services are necessary. We advocate continuing attempts to check species loss but, in many situations, urge adoption of a compromise position of management for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning and resilience, and human livelihoods in order to provide a viable long‐term basis for freshwater conservation. Recognition of this need will require adoption of a new paradigm for biodiversity protection and freshwater ecosystem management ‐ one that has been appropriately termed ‘reconciliation ecology’.

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Biological Reviews

Tập 81 Số 2

163-182

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