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Emerging Threats and Persistent Conservation Challenges for Freshwater Biodiversity

Name

Research project 2

December 4th, 2022

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Emerging Threats and Persistent Conservation Challenges for Freshwater Biodiversity

Introduction

According to Reid et al., (2019) 0.01% of the water on the earth’s surface is made up of

freshwater. Rivers, lakes and reservoirs cover about 2.3% of the global land surface area without

including large ice sheets. The freshwater biodiversity is undergoing persistent threats such as

habitat degradation and over-exploitation and emerging threats such as climate change, e-

commerce invasion and expanding hydropower.

Persistent Threats to Freshwater Biodiversity

Habitat Degradation

Freshwater biodiversity is undergoing persistent threats through habitat degradation.

Habitat degradation happens through modification. There is over construction of worldwide

dams without considering the ecological impacts on freshwater (Reid et al., 2019). Freshwater

biodiversity is at risk of experiencing the impacts of dam induced flow modifications such as

reduced river floodplain connectivity, impaired migration of fish and decreased discharge.

Over-exploitation

Overexploitation of organisms for consumption is another factor driving the loss of

freshwater biodiversity. Overexploitation involves targeted mortalities and harvest by using

bycatch. People have been thinking theta overexploitation mainly affects marine environment but

the study conducted by Arya (2021) shows that bycatch has a serious effect of freshwater

ecosystem by reducing the number of fish, and has continued to be persistent threat.
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Emerging Threats

Climate Change

Climate change has been an emerging threat influencing freshwater ecosystem. The

extinction of some of freshwater species has been connected to climate change. Climate change

is threatening 50% of the world freshwater species. Climate change is leading to increased water

temperature and altered discharge influencing the quality of freshwater. Increased freshwater

temperature has altered distribution of species, outbreak of diseases, phenology and survival

challenges.

E-Commerce Invasions

Invasive species are emerging threats affecting the biodiversity of freshwater.

International trade is acting as the route for the primary long standing biological invasions of

organisms. Recent study done by Peres et al., (2018) shows that there is a significant implication

of e-commerce in the trade of non-native animals and plants. There is selling of aquatic weds

over the internet increasing the availability of invasive plant species on different websites. As a

result e-commerce is contributing to threats of freshwater biodiversity by leading to biosecurity

risks of plants and animals. The problem is mainly experienced in Brazil.

Expanding hydropower

Around 48% of the global volume of river is affected by fragmentation and regulation of

the flow of water (Geist, 2021). There are about 3700 main hydropower dams that have been

planned or under construction in nations having emerging economies. Completing the

hydropower projects would lead to reduction of 93% of river volume by regulating the amount

of water flowing affecting the existing dams based on discharge, solutes, fish migration,
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temperature and sediment transport. The construction of these dams impose risk of freshwater

biodiversity as dams have to me modifies for the thermal regimes reducing floodplain

connectivity, aquatic production and nursery habitats.

Conclusion

Freshwater biodiversity is essential for the organisms across the globe. Unfortunately,

freshwater ecosystem is being influenced by persistent threats such as habitant destruction and

overexploitation and emerging threats like climate change, e-commerce invasions and expanding

hydropower. Therefore, there is need to protect the freshwater biodiversity from emerging and

persistent threats for the future generations.

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References

Arya, S. (2021). Freshwater Biodiversity and Conservation Challenges: A Review. IJBI, 3(1).

Geist, J. (2021). Green or red: Challenges for fish and freshwater biodiversity conservation

related to hydropower. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and freshwater ecosystems, 31(7),

1551-1558.

Peres, C. K., Lambrecht, R. W., Tavares, D. A., & de Castro, W. A. C. (2018). Alien Express:

The threat of aquarium e-commerce introducing invasive aquatic plants in

Brazil. Perspectives in ecology and conservation, 16(4), 221-227.

Reid, A. J., Carlson, A. K., Creed, I. F., Eliason, E. J., Gell, P. A., Johnson, P. T., ... & Cooke, S.

J. (2019). Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater

biodiversity. Biological Reviews, 94(3), 849-873.