Freshwater mussel conservation: A global horizon scan of emerging threats and opportunities

• Autor(a) principal: Aldridge, David C.
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Ollard, Isobel S., Bespalaya, Yulia, V, Bolotov, Ivan N., Douda, Karel, Geist, Juergen, Haag, Wendell R., Klunzinger, Michael W., Lopes-Lima, Manuel, Mlambo, Musa C., Riccardi, Nicoletta, Sousa, Ronaldo Gomes, Strayer, David L., Torres, Santiago H., Vaughn, Caryn C., Zajac, Tadeusz, Zieritz, Alexandra
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/1822/86792
• topic: conservation; diversity; ecosystem services; freshwater mussel; horizon scan; mussel health; threats; unionid; Ciências Naturais::Ciências Biológicas; Science & Technology

We identified 14 emerging and poorly understood threats and opportunities for addressing the global conservation of freshwater mussels over the next decade. A panel of 17 researchers and stakeholders from six continents submitted a total of 56 topics that were ranked and prioritized using a consensus-building Delphi technique. Our 14 priority topics fell into five broad themes (autecology, population dynamics, global stressors, global diversity, and ecosystem services) and included understanding diets throughout mussel life history; identifying the drivers of population declines; defining metrics for quantifying mussel health; assessing the role of predators, parasites, and disease; informed guidance on the risks and opportunities for captive breeding and translocations; the loss of mussel-fish co-evolutionary relationships; assessing the effects of increasing surface water changes; understanding the effects of sand and aggregate mining; understanding the effects of drug pollution and other emerging contaminants such as nanomaterials; appreciating the threats and opportunities arising from river restoration; conserving understudied hotspots by building local capacity through the principles of decolonization; identifying appropriate taxonomic units for conservation; improved quantification of the ecosystem services provided by mussels; and understanding how many mussels are enough to provide these services. Solutions for addressing the topics ranged from ecological studies to technological advances and socio-political engagement. Prioritization of our topics can help to drive a proactive approach to the conservation of this declining group which provides a multitude of important ecosystem services.