Quarter of freshwater animals face extinction: Research
Almost a quarter of freshwater animals, including crabs, crayfish, shrimp, damselfly and fish, are threatened of going extinct, according to a new, global study that was published on Wednesday.
The assessment, published in the scientific journal Nature, found that 24 percent of animals living in freshwater, such as ponds, streams, lakes, rivers and wetlands, are at high risk of going extinct.
Catherine Sayer, the Freshwater Biodiversity Lead at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the lead author of the study, said that freshwater habitats are home to 10 percent of all species on planet Earth. Sayer warned that those animals are a “key” factor for flood control, safe drinking water, and mitigating climate change and thus, need to be protected.
The researchers involved in the study examined nearly 23,500 animals on IUCN’s “Red List” of threatened species, finding that some of the “prevalent” threats to them include dams, pollution, agriculture, water extraction and invasive species, adding that overharvesting also contributes.
The species at risk were sorted as either vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.
The largest number of freshwater animals that are under threat are in Lake Titicaca in South America, Lake Victoria in Africa, Western Ghats in India and Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone, the study found. All of those spots feature one of the largest biodiversity in the world.
The large-scale study, featuring input from hundreds of scientists, was the biggest assessment of freshwater animals to date.
“Historically, the important role of freshwaters in safeguarding global biodiversity has been overlooked, and key differences in how these systems should be managed are only now being recognised,” the Director of Conservation at New Mexico BioPark Society, Tim Lyons, said in a statement.
“It is imperative that conservation actors work collaboratively to address the challenges of pollution, shortsighted habitat modification, and the spread of invasive species head on,” he added.
IUCN’s report that was released in Dec. 2023 found that nearly 25 percent of freshwater fish are at risk of extinction and that a minimum of 17 percent of those threatened by extinction are impacted by climate change.