Fish Ecology and Management Studies

Freshwater ecosystems hold a disproportionate share of Earth's biodiversity despite covering only a small fraction of its surface, yet rivers, lakes, and wetlands face mounting pressure from hydropower dams, water extraction, invasive species, and a shifting climate. Fish ecologists and conservation managers work to understand how these stressors alter species distributions, population dynamics, and the ecological processes that keep aquatic systems functional. A central challenge is determining how much water a river needs to sustain its native communities — the question of environmental flows — and how to balance that requirement against human demands for energy and irrigation. Researchers are also grappling with how climate change interacts with existing pressures like habitat fragmentation and overfishing to push freshwater species toward thresholds from which recovery becomes increasingly difficult.

Works

201,940

Total citations

3,278,022

Keywords

Freshwater BiodiversityConservation ChallengesFlow RegulationHydropower Dam ConstructionEnvironmental FlowsInvasive Species