One-quarter of freshwater fauna threatened with extinction

Sayer CA 1 , Fernando E 2 , Jimenez RR 3 , Macfarlane NBW 4 , Rapacciuolo G 5 , Böhm M 6 Show all authors , Brooks TM 7 , Contreras-MacBeath T 8 , Cox NA 4 , Harrison I 9 , Hoffmann M 10 , Jenkins R 2 , Smith KG 2 , Vié JC 11 , Abbott JC 12 , Allen DJ 2 , Allen GR 13 , Barrios V 14 , Boudot JP 15 , Carrizo SF 16 , Charvet P 17 , Clausnitzer V 18 , Congiu L 19 , Crandall KA 20 , Cumberlidge N 21 , Cuttelod A 22 , Dalton J 7 , Daniels AG 23 , De Grave S 24 , De Knijf G 25 , Dijkstra KB 26 , Dow RA 26 , Freyhof J 27 , García N 28 , Gessner J 29 , Getahun A 30 , Gibson C 31 , Gollock MJ 10 , Grant MI 32 , Groom AER 33 , Hammer MP 34 , Hammerson GA 35 , Hilton-Taylor C 2 , Hodgkinson L 36 , Holland RA 37 , Jabado RW 32 , Juffe Bignoli D 38 , Kalkman VJ 26 , Karimov BK 39 , Kipping J 40 , Kottelat M 41 , Lalèyè PA 42 , Larson HK 34 , Lintermans M 43 , Lozano F 44 , Ludwig A 45 , Lyons TJ 46 , Máiz-Tomé L 47 , Molur S 48 , Ng HH 49 , Numa C 50 , Palmer-Newton AF 51 , Pike C 10 , Pippard HE 52 , Polaz CNM 53 , Pollock CM 2 , Raghavan R 54 , Rand PS 55 , Ravelomanana T 56 , Reis RE 57 , Rigby CL 32 , Scott JA 2 , Skelton PH 58 , Sloat MR 59 , Snoeks J 60 , Stiassny MLJ 61 , Tan HH 49 , Taniguchi Y 62 , Thorstad EB 63 , Tognelli MF 64 , Torres AG 65 , Torres Y 17 , Tweddle D 58 , Watanabe K 66 , Westrip JRS 2 , Wright EGE 67 , Zhang E 68 , Darwall WRT 69

Affiliations 

  • 1 IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Cambridge, UK. catherine.sayer@iucn.org
  • 2 IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Cambridge, UK
  • 3 IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), San Jose, Costa Rica
  • 4 IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Washington, DC, USA
  • 5 Elimia, San Diego, CA, USA
  • 6 Global Center for Species Survival, Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis, IN, USA
  • 7 IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Gland, Switzerland
  • 8 Laboratorio de Ictiología, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, México
  • 9 Free Flowing Rivers Laboratory, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
  • 10 Zoological Society of London, London, UK
  • 11 Fondation Franklinia, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 12 The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
  • 13 Western Australian Museum, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  • 14 Sahara Conservation, Saint Maur des Fossés, France
  • 15 University of Nancy/CNRS, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France
  • 16 Zoo and Aquarium Association Australasia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  • 17 Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil
  • 18 Senckenberg, Görlitz, Germany
  • 19 University of Padova, Padova, Italy
  • 20 George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
  • 21 Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA
  • 22 Independent researcher, Pully, Switzerland
  • 23 Independent researcher, Cambridge, UK
  • 24 Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford, UK
  • 25 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Brussels, Belgium
  • 26 Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  • 27 Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
  • 28 Independent researcher, Malaga, Spain
  • 29 Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
  • 30 Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • 31 Auckland Zoo, Auckland, New Zealand
  • 32 Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture and College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
  • 33 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sandy, UK
  • 34 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
  • 35 NatureServe, Port Townsend, WA, USA
  • 36 Animals Asia Foundation, Bedford, UK
  • 37 University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
  • 38 Durrel Institute for Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
  • 39 Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers National Research University (TIIAME NRU), Tashkent, Uzbekistan
  • 40 BioCart Ökologische Gutachten, Taucha/Leipzig, Germany
  • 41 Independent researcher, Delémont, Switzerland
  • 42 University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin
  • 43 Centre for Applied Water Science, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
  • 44 Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Genética Ambiental - UNDAV, Avellaneda, Argentina
  • 45 Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Department of Evolutionary Genetics & Humboldt University Berlin, Faculty of Life Sciences, Thaer-Institute for Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Berlin, Germany
  • 46 Center for Species Survival: New Mexico, New Mexico BioPark Society, Albuquerque, NM, USA
  • 47 Mott MacDonald Environment and Social Division (ENS), Cambridge, UK
  • 48 Zoo Outreach Organisation, Coimbatore, India
  • 49 Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
  • 50 IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Málaga, Spain
  • 51 Independent researcher, London, UK
  • 52 Independent researcher, Suva, Fiji
  • 53 Chico Mendes Institute (ICMBio), Pirassununga, Brazil
  • 54 Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi, India
  • 55 Prince William Sound Science Center, Cordova, AK, USA
  • 56 Mention Zoologie et Biodiversité Animale, Université d'Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar
  • 57 Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
  • 58 South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Makhanda, South Africa
  • 59 Wild Salmon Center, Portland, OR, USA
  • 60 Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren and KU Leuven (Leuven University), Leuven, Belgium
  • 61 American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA
  • 62 Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan
  • 63 Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim, Norway
  • 64 American Bird Conservancy, The Plains, VA, USA
  • 65 Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science and Mathematics, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City, Philippines
  • 66 Division of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
  • 67 Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough, UK
  • 68 Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
  • 69 Tamar Valley National Landscape, Gunnislake, UK
Nature, 2025 Jan 08.
PMID: 39779863 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08375-z

Abstract

Freshwater ecosystems are highly biodiverse1 and important for livelihoods and economic development2, but are under substantial stress3. To date, comprehensive global assessments of extinction risk have not included any speciose groups primarily living in freshwaters. Consequently, data from predominantly terrestrial tetrapods4,5 are used to guide environmental policy6 and conservation prioritization7, whereas recent proposals for target setting in freshwaters use abiotic factors8-13. However, there is evidence14-17 that such data are insufficient to represent the needs of freshwater species and achieve biodiversity goals18,19. 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.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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