Journal
HYDROBIOLOGIA
Volume 848, Issue 12-13, Pages 3231-3254Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10750-020-04385-w
Keywords
IUCN Red List; Extinction risk; SRLI; Bivalves; Gastropods; Congruence
Categories
Funding
- Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
- Rufford Foundation
- Russian Fund for Basic Research [19-04-00270]
- Biodiversity Synthesis Center
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The study revealed that approximately one third of freshwater mollusc species are threatened with extinction, with the highest levels of threat in North America, the Palearctic and Australasia, as well as among gastropods. Pollution and modification of natural systems were identified as the most common threats to freshwater molluscs, leading to the identification of new conservation priority areas.
With the biodiversity crisis continuing unchecked, we need to establish levels and drivers of extinction risk, and reassessments over time, to effectively allocate conservation resources and track progress towards global conservation targets. Given that threat appears particularly high in freshwaters, we assessed the extinction risk of 1428 randomly selected freshwater molluscs using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, as part of the Sampled Red List Index project. We show that close to one-third of species in our sample are estimated to be threatened with extinction, with highest levels of threat in the Nearctic, Palearctic and Australasia and among gastropods. Threat levels were higher in lotic than lentic systems. Pollution (chemical and physical) and the modification of natural systems (e.g. through damming and water abstraction) were the most frequently reported threats to freshwater molluscs, with some regional variation. Given that we found little spatial congruence between species richness patterns of freshwater molluscs and other freshwater taxa, apart from crayfish, new additional conservation priority areas emerged from our study. We discuss the implications of our findings for freshwater mollusc conservation, the adequacy of a sampled approach and important next steps to estimate trends in freshwater mollusc extinction risk over time.
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