Almost a quarter of the world’s freshwater aquatic animals are at risk of extinction, a new global study has found.
James Cook University’s Dr Michael Grant was a co-author of the study which looked at how more than 23,000 species around the world were faring.
Dr Grant said the study looked at fishes, decapod crustaceans, such as crabs, crayfishes and shrimps, and odonates, such as dragon flies and damsel flies.
“Overall, 24 percent of these species are at high risk of extinction, with decapods having the highest percentage of species threatened – 30 percent, as compared to 26 percent for freshwater fishes and 16 percent for odonates,” he said.
Dr Grant said the most dangerous threats were pollution, dams, water extraction, agriculture and invasive species, with overharvesting also driving extinctions.
“Among the studied species, 54 percent of threatened species are considered to be affected by pollution, 39 percent by dams and water extraction, 37 percent by land use change and associated effects from agriculture and 28 percent by invasive species and disease.”
He said biodiversity was in decline globally with freshwater ecosystems being particularly affected, but assessments of freshwater fishes and invertebrates had received comparatively little investment, political will or attention, including from the mainstream conservation community.
“It seems like a case of out of sight, out of mind,” said Dr Grant.
Read the full study: One-quarter of freshwater fauna threatened with extinction.
