“Eye-Opening Study Reveals One in Four Freshwater Species Faces Extinction Threat”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 25% of species inhabiting rivers, lakes, and various freshwater habitats are at risk of extinction, as per new findings released on Wednesday.

“Grand rivers such as the Amazon might seem powerful, yet freshwater environments remain extremely delicate,” remarked study co-author Patricia Charvet, a biologist from Brazil’s Federal University of Ceará.

Freshwater ecosystems – which encompass rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, bogs, and wetlands – make up less than 1% of the Earth’s surface but sustain 10% of its animal species, stated Catherine Sayer, a zoologist with the International Union for Conservation of Nature in England.

The researchers assessed about 23,500 species of dragonflies, fish, crabs, and other organisms that rely entirely on freshwater ecosystems. They discovered that 24% of these species were endangered – categorized as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered – due to a combination of hazards from pollution, dams, water extraction, agriculture, invasive species, climate change, and other disturbances.

“Most species face not just a single threat contributing to their extinction risk, but multiple threats acting in concert,” noted Sayer, who was also a co-author of the study.

This assessment, featured in the journal Nature, represents the first instance the researchers have evaluated the global risks faced by freshwater species. Previous research has predominantly concentrated on terrestrial animals, such as mammals, birds, and reptiles.

Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, who did not participate in the study, referred to it as “a long-anticipated and significantly important paper.”

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“Practically every major river in North America and Europe has been extensively altered” through dam construction, jeopardizing freshwater species, he emphasized.

In South America, the expansive Amazon River system also contends with threats from deforestation, wildfires, and illegal gold mining, according to Charvet.

Unauthorized fires intended to clear forest land result in ash clouds contaminating the river, and unlicensed gold miners release mercury into the water, she explained.

Rivers and wetlands “accumulate everything that transpires around them,” she added. “If something catastrophic occurs, such as an acid or oil spill, it can endanger an entire species. These animals have nowhere else to relocate.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely accountable for all content.