Thursday February 15, 2024
PhysOrg —
Surprising trends in the abundance and species richness of riverine fish across the globe have been unveiled in a new study.
Until now, it was a common scientific belief that increases in species richness and abundance in freshwater ecosystems were as a result of the recent improvement of water quality in historically industrialized regions.
The new research, led by academics at the University of Sheffield in collaboration with Illinois State University, the University of Tennessee and University of Washington, has since found the increase in river fish diversity is not as a result of ecosystem recovery, as previously thought, but as a result of the increasing dominance of non-native species.
The study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, uncovered an average increase in community abundance of 13% per decade and a 7% increase in species richness.