Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020

Freshwater fish biodiversity is experiencing an alarming decline worldwide. Understanding the main factors behind its deterioration is a key step for ecosystem restoration. In this work, large-scale and long-term data were used to identify the causes of the decline of native species richness in Cast...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Valerio, Carlotta, Baquero, Rocío A., Gómez Nicola, Graciela, Garrido, Alberto, De Stefano, Lucia
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2022
País:España
Recursos:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositório:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/71985
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/71985
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:556.3
597.2/.5
Alien species
Fish richness
Hydrological alteration
Machine learning
Multiple stressors
Hidrología
Peces
2508 Hidrología
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network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020Valerio, CarlottaBaquero, Rocío A.Gómez Nicola, GracielaGarrido, AlbertoDe Stefano, Lucia556.3597.2/.5Alien speciesFish richnessHydrological alterationMachine learningMultiple stressorsHidrologíaPeces2508 HidrologíaFreshwater fish biodiversity is experiencing an alarming decline worldwide. Understanding the main factors behind its deterioration is a key step for ecosystem restoration. In this work, large-scale and long-term data were used to identify the causes of the decline of native species richness in Castilla-La Mancha. This region in central Spain covers part of six river basins belonging to four of the 11 biogeographical provinces for freshwater fish in the Iberian Peninsula. Firstly, we built a dataset that associates the presence of several fish species and a wide range of environmental variables (e.g. hydrological and hydromorphological indicators, land use classes, presence of alien fish species) at selected river sites for two different time periods (1980–2000 and 2001–2020). Secondly, we conducted an exploratory data analysis to identify possible temporal trends in the dataset. Finally, we applied the random forest algorithm to predict the response of different ecological guild-based metrics of fish richness to the selected variables. The exploratory data analysis revealed a decrease in native fish species richness in 74% of the area studied. There was no sustained temporal trend for stressor variables, except for the number of alien species, which increased in most river sites (63%). The models of the richness of native rheophilic, native intolerant, alien rheophilic, and alien limnophilic species performed satisfactorily. Magnitude of maximum discharge, presence of alien species, land use in the catchment area and altitude were the most important predictors of richness of native intolerant and rheophilic species. Alien limnophilic species proved to be sensitive to variables related to flow regime alteration, such as the presence of dams and the number of river flow reversals, while a less degraded habitat was found to be favourable to alien rheophilic species. The results suggest that the cumulative effect of persistent altered flow regimes and water pollution, coupled with a strong increase in the number of alien species, have led to the decline of native species in the area studied. The restoration of near-natural magnitudes of high flows when implementing environmental flows emerged as a key measure to restore ecosystem integrity. Starting from a long-term and large-scale dataset, this study provides new, quantitative insights into stressor–ecosystem relationships in rivers and could inform future environmental policy initiatives because it has identified the main factors leading to native fish decline and alien fish proliferation. Our findings emphasise the importance of considering metrics based on fish assemblage composition and ecological functional groups in order to disentangle the effects of stressors on fish communities.WileyUniversidad Complutense de Madrid20222022-08-0920222022-08-09journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/71985reponame:Docta Complutenseinstname:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)Inglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 Españahttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/719852026-06-02T12:44:21Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020
title Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020
spellingShingle Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020
Valerio, Carlotta
556.3
597.2/.5
Alien species
Fish richness
Hydrological alteration
Machine learning
Multiple stressors
Hidrología
Peces
2508 Hidrología
title_short Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020
title_full Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020
title_fullStr Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020
title_full_unstemmed Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020
title_sort Shedding light on the decline of Iberian freshwater fish species over the period 1980–2020
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Valerio, Carlotta
Baquero, Rocío A.
Gómez Nicola, Graciela
Garrido, Alberto
De Stefano, Lucia
author Valerio, Carlotta
author_facet Valerio, Carlotta
Baquero, Rocío A.
Gómez Nicola, Graciela
Garrido, Alberto
De Stefano, Lucia
author_role author
author2 Baquero, Rocío A.
Gómez Nicola, Graciela
Garrido, Alberto
De Stefano, Lucia
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Universidad Complutense de Madrid
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv 556.3
597.2/.5
Alien species
Fish richness
Hydrological alteration
Machine learning
Multiple stressors
Hidrología
Peces
2508 Hidrología
topic 556.3
597.2/.5
Alien species
Fish richness
Hydrological alteration
Machine learning
Multiple stressors
Hidrología
Peces
2508 Hidrología
description Freshwater fish biodiversity is experiencing an alarming decline worldwide. Understanding the main factors behind its deterioration is a key step for ecosystem restoration. In this work, large-scale and long-term data were used to identify the causes of the decline of native species richness in Castilla-La Mancha. This region in central Spain covers part of six river basins belonging to four of the 11 biogeographical provinces for freshwater fish in the Iberian Peninsula. Firstly, we built a dataset that associates the presence of several fish species and a wide range of environmental variables (e.g. hydrological and hydromorphological indicators, land use classes, presence of alien fish species) at selected river sites for two different time periods (1980–2000 and 2001–2020). Secondly, we conducted an exploratory data analysis to identify possible temporal trends in the dataset. Finally, we applied the random forest algorithm to predict the response of different ecological guild-based metrics of fish richness to the selected variables. The exploratory data analysis revealed a decrease in native fish species richness in 74% of the area studied. There was no sustained temporal trend for stressor variables, except for the number of alien species, which increased in most river sites (63%). The models of the richness of native rheophilic, native intolerant, alien rheophilic, and alien limnophilic species performed satisfactorily. Magnitude of maximum discharge, presence of alien species, land use in the catchment area and altitude were the most important predictors of richness of native intolerant and rheophilic species. Alien limnophilic species proved to be sensitive to variables related to flow regime alteration, such as the presence of dams and the number of river flow reversals, while a less degraded habitat was found to be favourable to alien rheophilic species. The results suggest that the cumulative effect of persistent altered flow regimes and water pollution, coupled with a strong increase in the number of alien species, have led to the decline of native species in the area studied. The restoration of near-natural magnitudes of high flows when implementing environmental flows emerged as a key measure to restore ecosystem integrity. Starting from a long-term and large-scale dataset, this study provides new, quantitative insights into stressor–ecosystem relationships in rivers and could inform future environmental policy initiatives because it has identified the main factors leading to native fish decline and alien fish proliferation. Our findings emphasise the importance of considering metrics based on fish assemblage composition and ecological functional groups in order to disentangle the effects of stressors on fish communities.
publishDate 2022
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2022
2022-08-09
2022
2022-08-09
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/71985
url https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/71985
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Wiley
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Wiley
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Docta Complutense
instname:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
instname_str Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
reponame_str Docta Complutense
collection Docta Complutense
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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