Journal Article

The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt

Fruget, Jean-François, Schmidt-Kloiber, Astrid, Universität Duisburg-Essen = University of Duisburg-Essen [Essen], Balaton Limnological Research Institute ; Centre for Ecological Research [Budapest] ; Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE)-Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)-Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE)-Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), Archambaud-Suard, Gaït, 202548816, Csabai, Zoltán, Polášek, Marek, Graça, Manuel, a S, Paril, Petr, University of Pecs, Vidinova, Yanka, Graf, Wolfram, Czech Republic Government, Risques, Ecosystèmes, Vulnérabilité, Environnement, Résilience (RECOVER) ; Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Johnson, Richard, K, Goethals, Peter, Georgieva, Galia, Eikland, Knut, A, Hering, Daniel, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Varadinova, Emilia, Verdonschot, Piet, F M, van der Lee, Gea, H, Dohet, Alain, Huttunen, Kaisa-Leena, Altermatt, Florian, Haase, Peter, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Tziortzis, Iakov

2023

Overview

Owing to a long history of anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to biodiversity loss. Mitigation measures, including wastewater treatment and hydromorphological restoration, have aimed to improve environmental quality and foster the recovery of freshwater biodiversity. Here, using 1,816 time series of freshwater invertebrate communities collected across 22 European countries between 1968 and 2020, we quantified temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and their responses to environmental pressures and gradients. We observed overall increases in taxon richness (0.73% per year), functional richness (2.4% per year) and abundance (1.17% per year). However, these increases primarily occurred before the 2010s, and have since plateaued. Freshwater communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery. Communities at sites with faster rates of warming had fewer gains in taxon richness, functional richness and abundance. Although biodiversity gains in the 1990s and 2000s probably reflect the effectiveness of water-quality improvements and restoration projects, the decelerating trajectory in the 2010s suggests that the current measures offer diminishing returns. Given new and persistent pressures on freshwater ecosystems, including emerging pollutants, climate change and the spread of invasive species, we call for additional mitigation to revive the recovery of freshwater biodiversity.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group,HAL CCSD,Springer Science and Business Media LLC,Nature Publishing Group UK
• Subject: 631/158/2459 / 704/286 / [SDE.BE] Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology / Agricultural land / Animals / Anthropogenic factors / Aquatic ecosystems / Biodiversity / Biodiversity and Ecology / Biodiversity loss / Biologie / Biology and Life Sciences / Climate change / Conservation of Water Resources / Conservation of Water Resources - statistics & numerical data / Conservation of Water Resources - trends / Crop Production / Deceleration / Earth and Environmental Sciences / Ecology / Ecology and Environment / Ecosystems / Ekologi / Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all / Environmental Monitoring / Environmental quality / Environmental Sciences / Europe / Fresh Water / freshwater ecology / Freshwater ecosystems / Freshwater invertebrates / Freshwater, Ecology, Time Series / Global Warming / http://metadata.un.org/sdg/6 / Human Activities / Humanities and Social Sciences / Hydrobiology / Introduced Species / Introduced Species - trends / Invasive species / Invertebrates / Invertebrates - classification / Invertebrates - physiology / Life Science / Limnology / Miljövetenskap / Multidisciplinary / Native species / Nonnative species / Pollutants / Probability / Recovery / Restoration / River ecology / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Taxa / Taxonomy / Time Factors / Time series / Trends / Urban areas / Urbanization / Wastewater treatment / Water Pollutants / Water Pollutants - analysis / Water quality / Water treatment
• ISBN: 0010496107000