Fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages reveal extensive degradation of the world's rivers.

ABSTRACT: Rivers suffer from multiple stressors acting simultaneously on their biota, but the consequences are poorly quantified at the global scale. We evaluated the biological condition of rivers globally, including the largest proportion of countries from the Global South published to date. We gathered macroinvertebrate- and fish-based assessments from 72,275 and 37,676 sites, respectively, from 64 study regions across six continents and 45 nations. Because assessments were based on differing methods, different systems were consolidated into a 3-class system: Good, Impaired, or Severely Impaired, following common guidelines. The proportion of sites in each class by study area was calculated and each region was assigned a Köppen-Geiger climate type, Human Footprint score (addressing landscape alte

SUBMITTER: Feio MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10091732 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature