Date: March 14, 2017
Source: Forschungsverbund Berlin
e.V. (FVB)
Many large aquatic vertebrates,
referred to as freshwater megafauna, cover long distances between their
breeding and feeding grounds. To ensure their safe passage, they are dependent
on free-flowing waters. However, this makes them vulnerable to the increasing
fragmentation of river catchments caused by damming. The Russian sturgeon, for
example, has lost 70 per cent of its spawning grounds in the Caspian Sea basin
and its entire Black Sea basin spawning grounds over the last 60 years due to
dam construction. The boom in dam construction also affects many other species,
such as the Amazonian manatee, the Ganges river dolphin and the Mekong giant
catfish -- these species are now classified as threatened.
"The fragmentation of
habitats is one of the central threats to freshwater megafauna, as well as
overexploitation" explained Fengzhi He. The IGB researcher is the lead
author of the study on the disappearance of large vertebrates from rivers and
lakes, published recently in WIREs Water. According to The International Union
for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, more than
half of the world's large-bodied vertebrates weighing more than 30 kg that live
in freshwater ecosystems are threatened.
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