From Expert to Data-Driven Biodiversity Knowledge: Assessing ecosystem irreplaceability with IUCN Red List data for freshwater fish

Critical as they are for humans and nature, freshwater ecosystems are threatened—but the extent and depth of these threats are not well understood, especially if essential biodiversity data are lacking. Any policy aimed at protecting such ecosystems must first assess the threat factors and the potential harm, well before proposing conservation measures such as the creation and development of Protected Areas (PAs). These assessments must be done using a deep and sound knowledge of the actual and potential biodiversity variables. Freshwater ecosystems have been largely neglected in traditional PA design and management (Abell et al. 2007), be it for scarcity of biodiversity data, or for more perception-related reasons such as visibility and accessibility driving the allocation of conservation resources to more data-rich environments. In an effort to contribute to shifting this state of affairs, we have developed an irreplaceability index to identify the most relevant places to achieve conservation aims for freshwater fish, based on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, which, in turn, should be founded on available biodiversity data upon which expert knowledge is based (Le Saout 2013). However, we found large assessment gaps in the IUCN Red List for freshwater fish. These gaps may result from the non-systematic acquisition of primary biodiversity data, which could eventually be alleviated by coordinated policies promoting ecosystem surveys tailored at increasing the availability and spread of such data, while identifying, targeting and prioritizing hotspots. Obtaining valid conclusions from low-assessment areas such as South America, which are simultaneously biodiversity and endangerment hotspots (Collen 2014), is particularly troublesome. Building an irreplaceability index requires access to abundant, fine-scale biodiversity data. When combined with the assessment information available in the IUCN Red List, we can identify those areas where low assessment rates for highly irreplaceable rivers become keystones to protect freshwater biodiversity, and can therefore suggest actions for policy makers to take at both regional and local scales. In particular, we have thus identified those irreplaceable rivers that fall outside the current net of PAs. In a context of inadequate investment in biodiversity conservation (Juffe-Bignoli et al. 2016), our findings and the informatics-powered methods we propose, will hopefully help decision makers establish conservation priorities and allocate funds to preserve irreplaceable rivers and their fish fauna. Furthermore, the necessity of improving the IUCN Red List in low-assessed areas, requires synergies among IUCN, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and conservation scientists to achieve accurate and reliable assessments.

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Freshwater fish distribution in the Maghreb: a call to contribute

10.31219/osf.io/kx4gc ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Ford ◽

Amina Brahimi ◽

Lyas Baikeche ◽

Laura Bergner ◽

Miguel Clavero ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Freshwater Fish ◽

Fish Species ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Fish Distribution ◽

Freshwater Biodiversity ◽

Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽

Geographic Ranges ◽

Freshwater Fish Species ◽

Comprehensive Knowledge ◽

Corrected Data

In order to update the IUCN Red List of all freshwater fish species inhabiting the Maghreb region, comprehensive knowledge of their respective geographic ranges is essential. Here we present site-scale distribution records derived from all known sources for native and alien freshwater fish species distributed in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Corrected data compiled from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility plus author contributions and digitised literature data are presented as GIS maps, and the wider scientific and conservation communities are called upon to help fill knowledge gaps and maximise the value of this new database for a region in which freshwater biodiversity is undergoing a serious decline.

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Using publicly available data to conduct rapid assessments of extinction risk

10.1101/2020.12.14.413906 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michael O Levin ◽

Jared B Meek ◽

Brian Boom ◽

Sara M Kross ◽

Evan A Eskew

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Extinction Risk ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Red List ◽

Assessment Process ◽

Conservation Priorities ◽

Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽

Red List Species ◽

Data Deficient ◽

Biodiversity Information

The IUCN Red List plays a key role in setting global conservation priorities. Species are added to the Red List through a rigorous assessment process that, while robust, can be quite time-intensive. Here, we test the rapid preliminary assessment of plant species extinction risk using a single Red List metric: Extent of Occurrence (EOO). To do so, we developed REBA (Rapid EOO-Based Assessment), a workflow that harvests and cleans data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), calculates each species' EOO, and assigns Red List categories based on that metric. We validated REBA results against 1,546 North American plant species already on the Red List and found ~90% overlap between REBA's rapid classifications and those of full IUCN assessments. Our preliminary workflow can be used to quickly evaluate data deficient Red List species or those in need of reassessment, and can prioritize unevaluated species for a full assessment.

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Disentangling the impact of global change on freshwater biodiversity decline

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-18962 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jens Kiesel ◽

Tinh Vu ◽

Karan Kakouei ◽

Domisch Sami ◽

Fengzhi He ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Threatened Species ◽

Environmental Variables ◽

Large Scale ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Freshwater Ecosystems ◽

Red List ◽

Freshwater Biodiversity ◽

Hydrological Change ◽

Biodiversity Crisis ◽

The Impact

Freshwater ecosystems have higher proportions of extinct and threatened species than terrestrial and marine ecosystems, with populations of vertebrates declined by 83% between 1970 and 2018. The pressing question is: what are the main drivers for this decline? Here we investigate the reasons for the loss of freshwater biodiversity using globally available gridded datasets at 0.5&#176; spatial resolution on precipitation and temperature, land cover and land use, water use and dams as well as daily hydrological streamflow simulations from the ISIMIP initiative.Across the past 50 years, we constructed annual change maps of the environmental variables along the global river networks and calculated time-variant indicators of hydrologic alteration (IHA) to depict hydrological change. We then calculated normalized indicators (e.g. proportion of threatened species) describing the current freshwater biodiversity status through species data aggregation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN Red List) categories.By applying classification and regression trees (CART), we highlight the importance of environmental- and hydrological change on the freshwater biodiversity status based on IUCN Red List assessments on each grid cell globally. Our results reveal a large-scale spatial classification of the environmental variables and their potential impact on the ongoing freshwater biodiversity crisis.

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Conservation Status of Marine Biodiversity in Oceania: An Analysis of Marine Species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Journal of Marine Biology ◽

10.1155/2011/247030 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 2011 ◽

pp. 1-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Beth A. Polidoro ◽

Cristiane T. Elfes ◽

Jonnell C. Sanciangco ◽

Helen Pippard ◽

Kent E. Carpenter

Keyword(s):

Threatened Species ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Extinction Risk ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Marine Species ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Red List ◽

Marine Biodiversity ◽

Conservation Priorities ◽

Conservation Action

Given the economic and cultural dependence on the marine environment in Oceania and a rapidly expanding human population, many marine species populations are in decline and may be vulnerable to extinction from a number of local and regional threats. IUCN Red List assessments, a widely used system for quantifying threats to species and assessing species extinction risk, have been completed for 1190 marine species in Oceania to date, including all known species of corals, mangroves, seagrasses, sea snakes, marine mammals, sea birds, sea turtles, sharks, and rays present in Oceania, plus all species in five important perciform fish groups. Many of the species in these groups are threatened by the modification or destruction of coastal habitats, overfishing from direct or indirect exploitation, pollution, and other ecological or environmental changes associated with climate change. Spatial analyses of threatened species highlight priority areas for both site- and species-specific conservation action. Although increased knowledge and use of newly available IUCN Red List assessments for marine species can greatly improve conservation priorities for marine species in Oceania, many important fish groups are still in urgent need of assessment.

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Rapid Least Concern: towards automating Red List assessments

Biodiversity Data Journal ◽

10.3897/bdj.8.e47018 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Steven Bachman ◽

Barnaby Walker ◽

Sara Barrios ◽

Alison Copeland ◽

Justin Moat

Keyword(s):

Web Application ◽

Native Species ◽

Single Species ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Red List ◽

Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽

Batch Operation ◽

Occurrence Data ◽

Data Files ◽

Data Requirements

The IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM (hereafter the Red List) is an important global resource for conservation that supports conservation planning, safeguarding critical habitat and monitoring biodiversity change (Rodrigues et al. 2006). However, a major shortcoming of the Red List is that most of the world's described species have not yet been assessed and published on the Red List (Bachman et al. 2019Eisenhauer et al. 2019). Conservation efforts can be better supported if the Red List is expanded to achieve greater coverage of mega-diverse groups of organisms such as plants, fungi and invertebrates. There is, therefore, an urgent need to speed up the Red List assessment and documentation workflow. One reason for this lack of species coverage is that a manual and relatively time-consuming procedure is usually employed to assess and document species. A recent update of Red List documentation standards (IUCN 2013) reduced the data requirements for publishing non-threatened or 'Least Concern' species on the Red List. The majority of the required fields for Least Concern plant species can be found in existing open-access data sources or can be easily calculated. There is an opportunity to consolidate these data and analyses into a simple application to fast-track the publication of Least Concern assessments for plants. There could be as many as 250,000 species of plants (60%) likely to be categorised as Least Concern (Bachman et al. 2019), for which automatically generated assessments could considerably reduce the outlay of time and valuable resources for Red Listing, allowing attention and resources to be dedicated to the assessment of those species most likely to be threatened. We present a web application, Rapid Least Concern, that addresses the challenge of accelerating the generation and documentation of Least Concern Red List assessments. Rapid Least Concern utilises open-source datasets, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and Plants of the World Online (POWO) through a simple web interface. Initially, the application is intended for use on plants, but it could be extended to other groups, depending on the availability of equivalent datasets for these groups. Rapid Least Concern users can assess a single species or upload a list of species that are assessed in a batch operation. The batch operation can either utilise georeferenced occurrence data from GBIF or occurrence data provided by the user. The output includes a series of CSV files and a point map file that meet the minimum data requirements for a Least Concern Red List assessment (IUCN 2013). The CSV files are compliant with the IUCN Red List SIS Connect system that transfers the data files to the IUCN database and, pending quality control checks and review, publication on the Red List. We outline the knowledge gap this application aims to fill and describe how the application works. We demonstrate a use-case for Rapid Least Concern as part of an ongoing initiative to complete a global Red List assessment of all native species for the United Kingdom Overseas Territory of Bermuda.

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Assessing the Species in the CARES Preservation Program and the Role of Aquarium Hobbyists in Freshwater Fish Conservation

Fishes ◽

10.3390/fishes4040049 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 49

Author(s):

Jose W. Valdez ◽

Kapil Mandrekar

Keyword(s):

Freshwater Fish ◽

Wild Species ◽

Information Exchange ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Vital Role ◽

Red List ◽

Priority List ◽

In The Wild ◽

Conservation Organizations

Freshwater fish represent half of all fish species and are the most threatened vertebrate group. Given their considerable passion and knowledge, aquarium hobbyists can play a vital role in their conservation. CARES is made up of many organizations, whose purpose is to encourage aquarium hobbyists to devote tank space to the most endangered and overlooked freshwater fish to ensure their survival. We found the CARES priority list contains nearly six hundred species from twenty families and two dozen extinct-in-the-wild species. The major families were typically those with the largest hobbyist affiliations such as killifish, livebearers, and cichlids, the latter containing half of CARES species. CARES included every IUCN threatened species of Pseudomugilidae and Valenciidae, but only one percent of threatened Characidae, Cobitidae, and Gobiidae species. No Loricariidae in CARES were in the IUCN red list as they have not been scientifically described. Tanzania and Mexico contained the largest amount of species, with the latter containing the most endemics. Many species were classified differently than the IUCN, including a third of extinct-in-the-wild species classified as least concern by the IUCN. This vast disconnect exemplifies the importance of future collaboration and information exchange required between hobbyists, the scientific community, and conservation organizations.

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Regional Red List assessment of tree species in upper montane forests of the Tropical Andes

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605315000198 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 49 (3) ◽

pp. 397-409 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Natalia Tejedor Garavito ◽

Adrian C. Newton ◽

Sara Oldfield

Keyword(s):

Tree Species ◽

Expert Knowledge ◽

Extinction Risk ◽

Plant Species Richness ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Red List ◽

Conservation Strategies ◽

Tropical Andes ◽

Conservation Assessment ◽

Distribution Maps

AbstractThe Tropical Andes are characterized by a high level of endemism and plant species richness but are under pressure from human activities. We present the first regional conservation assessment of upper montane tree species in this region. We identified 3,750 tree species as occurring in this region, of which 917 were excluded because of a lack of data on their distribution. We identified a subset of 129 taxa that were restricted to higher elevations (> 1,500 m) but occurred in more than one country, thus excluding local endemics evaluated in previous national assessments. Distribution maps were created for each of these selected species, and extinction risk was assessed according to the IUCN Red List categories and criteria (version 3.1), drawing on expert knowledge elicited from a regional network of specialists. We assessed one species, Polylepis microphylla, as Critically Endangered, 47 species as Endangered and 28 as Vulnerable. Overall, 60% of the species evaluated were categorized as threatened, or 73% if national endemics are included. It is recommended that extinction risk assessments for tree species be used to inform the development of conservation strategies in the region, to avoid further loss of this important element of biodiversity.

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Red List assessments of East African chameleons: a case study of why we need experts

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605313001427 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 49 (4) ◽

pp. 652-658 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Angelique Hjarding ◽

Krystal A. Tolley ◽

Neil D. Burgess

Keyword(s):

Geographical Distribution ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Red List ◽

East African ◽

Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽

Extra Step ◽

Using Data ◽

Threatened Status ◽

Expert Data

AbstractThe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species uses geographical distribution as a key criterion in assessing the conservation status of species. Accurate knowledge of a species’ distribution is therefore essential to ensure the correct categorization is applied. Here we compare the geographical distribution of 35 species of chameleons endemic to East Africa, using data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and data compiled by a taxonomic expert. Data screening showed 99.9% of GBIF records used outdated taxonomy and 20% had no locality coordinates. Conversely the expert dataset used 100% up-to-date taxonomy and only seven records (3%) had no coordinates. Both datasets were used to generate range maps for each species, which were then used in preliminary Red List categorization. There was disparity in the categories of 10 species, with eight being assigned a lower threat category based on GBIF data compared with expert data, and the other two assigned a higher category. Our results suggest that before conducting desktop assessments of the threatened status of species, aggregated museum locality data should be vetted against current taxonomy and localities should be verified. We conclude that available online databases are not an adequate substitute for taxonomic experts in assessing the threatened status of species and that Red List assessments may be compromised unless this extra step of verification is carried out.

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African Biodiversity Challenge: Integrating Freshwater Biodiversity Information to Guide Informed Decision-Making in Rwanda

Biodiversity Information Science and Standards ◽

10.3897/biss.2.26367 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. e26367

Author(s):

Yvette Umurungi ◽

Samuel Kanyamibwa ◽

Faustin Gashakamba ◽

Beth Kaplin

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Natural Resources ◽

Economic Transformation ◽

Freshwater Ecosystems ◽

Data Availability ◽

Biodiversity Informatics ◽

Freshwater Biodiversity ◽

Biodiversity Data ◽

Albertine Rift ◽

Biodiversity Information

Freshwater biodiversity is critically understudied in Rwanda, and to date there has not been an efficient mechanism to integrate freshwater biodiversity information or make it accessible to decision-makers, researchers, private sector or communities, where it is needed for planning, management and the implementation of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). A framework to capture and distribute freshwater biodiversity data is crucial to understanding how economic transformation and environmental change is affecting freshwater biodiversity and resulting ecosystem services. To optimize conservation efforts for freshwater ecosystems, detailed information is needed regarding current and historical species distributions and abundances across the landscape. From these data, specific conservation concerns can be identified, analyzed and prioritized. The purpose of this project is to establish and implement a long-term strategy for freshwater biodiversity data mobilization, sharing, processing and reporting in Rwanda. The expected outcome of the project is to support the mandates of the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), the national agency in charge of environmental monitoring and the implementation of Rwanda’s NBSAP, and the Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resources Management (CoEB). The project also aligns with the mission of the Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) to enhance sustainable management of natural resources in the Albertine rift region. Specifically, organizational structure, technology platforms, and workflows for the biodiversity data capture and mobilization are enhanced to promote data availability and accessibility to improve Rwanda’s NBSAP and support other decision-making processes. The project is enhancing the capacity of technical staff from relevant government and non-government institutions in biodiversity informatics, strengthening the capacity of CoEB to achieve its mission as the Rwandan national biodiversity knowledge management center. Twelve institutions have been identified as data holders and the digitization of these data using Darwin Core standards is in progress, as well as data cleaning for the data publication through the ARCOS Biodiversity Information System (http://arbmis.arcosnetwork.org/). The release of the first national State of Freshwater Biodiversity Report is the next step. CoEB is a registered publisher to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and holds an Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) account on the ARCOS portal. This project was developed for the African Biodiversity Challenge, a competition coordinated by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and funded by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation which supports on-going efforts to enhance the biodiversity information management activities of the GBIF Africa network. This project also aligns with SANBI’s Regional Engagement Strategy, and endeavors to strengthen both emerging biodiversity informatics networks and data management capacity on the continent in support of sustainable development.

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Update of Ichthyofauna and its Conservation Status in the Aghien Lagoon, Côte d’Ivoire

Croatian Journal of Fisheries ◽

10.2478/cjf-2019-0019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 77 (4) ◽

pp. 253-262

Author(s):

Koffi Félix Konan ◽

Sonan Romuald Assi ◽

Koffi Charles Boussou ◽

Germain Gourène

Keyword(s):

Cote D'ivoire ◽

Côte D’Ivoire ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Fish Fauna ◽

Fish Population ◽

Iucn Red List ◽

Red List ◽

Cote D’Ivoire ◽

Côte D'ivoire ◽

Very High

Abstract This study focused on the diversity of fish fauna, its conservation status and its vulnerability in the Aghien freshwater lagoon (southeast of Côte d'Ivoire). For the fish data collection, two sampling approaches were used: experimental fishing and artisanal fishing. As a result, 80 species observed in this lagoon are distributed into 55 genera, 27 families and 10 orders. The best represented orders are the Perciformes, Siluriformes, Osteoglossiformes, Characiformes, Cyprinodontiformes and Pleuronectiformes. The Cichlidae, Mormyridae and Clupeidae represented the best diversified family. With an occurrence of 100%, the most frequent species are: Brycinus longipinnis, Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus, Pellonula leonensis, Schilbe intermedius and S. mandibularis. In the whole fish population, according to IUCN red list, four species where described as Near Threatened (Coptodon walteri, Marcusenius furcidens, Galeoides decadactylus and Cynoglossus senegalensis), four as Vulnerable (B. brevis, Rhexipanchax nimbaensis, Enteromius raimbaulti and Tilapia busumana) and one as Endangered species (Pseudotolithus senegalensis). These categories of species that have a conservation interest according to the IUCN Red List represent respectively 10.26% of the whole population. Fish population of the Aghien Lagoon are divided into seven classes ranging from “low” to “very high” vulnerability, regarding the vulnerability to stress due to fishing pressure.

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