Suchergebnisse

Identification of ecosystem services, i.e. the contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being, has proven instru-mental in galvanising public and political support for safeguarding biodiversity and its benefits to people. Here we synthe-sise the global evidence on ecosystem services provided and disrupted by freshwater bivalves, a heterogenous group of>1200 species, including some of the most threatened (in Unionida) and invasive (e.g.Dreissena polymorpha) taxa globally.Our systematic literature review resulted in a data set of 904 records from 69 countries relating to 24 classes of provision-ing (N=189), cultural (N=491) and regulating (N=224) services following the Common International Classification ofEcosystem Services (CICES). Prominent ecosystem services included (i) the provisioning of food, materials and medicinalproducts, (ii) knowledge acquisition (e.g. on water quality, past environments and historical societies), ornamental andother cultural contributions, and (iii) thefiltration, sequestration, storage and/or transformation of biological andphysico-chemical water properties. About 9% of records provided evidence for the disruption rather than provision ofecosystem services. Synergies and trade-offs of ecosystem services were observed. For instance, waterfiltration by fresh-water bivalves can be beneficial for the cultural service'biomonitoring', while negatively or positively affecting food consumption or human recreation. Our evidence base spanned a total of 91 genera and 191 species, dominated byUnionida (55% of records, 76% of species), Veneroida (21 and 9%, respectively; mainlyCorbiculaspp.) and Myoida(20 and 4%, respectively; mainlyDreissenaspp.). About one third of records, predominantly from Europe and the Amer-icas, related to species that were non-native to the country of study. The majority of records originated from Asia (35%),with available evidence for 23 CICES classes, as well as Europe (29%) and North America (23%), where research waslargely focused on'biomonitoring'. ...

Since historical times, the inherent human fascination with pearls turned the freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758) into a highly valuable cultural and economic resource. Although pearl harvesting in M. margaritifera is nowadays residual, other human threats have aggravated the species conservation status, especially in Europe. This mussel presents a myriad of rare biological features, e.g. high longevity coupled with low senescence and Doubly Uniparental Inheritance of mitochondrial DNA, for which the underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly known. Here, the first draft genome assembly of M. margaritifera was produced using a combination of Illumina Paired-end and Mate-pair approaches. The genome assembly was 2.4 Gb long, possessing 105,185 scaffolds and a scaffold N50 length of 288,726 bp. The ab initio gene prediction allowed the identification of 35,119 protein-coding genes. This genome represents an essential resource for studying this species' unique biological and evolutionary features and ultimately will help to develop new tools to promote its conservation. ; A.G.-d.-S. was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the grants SFRH/BD/137935/2018, EF (CEECIND/00627/2017) and MLL (2020.03608.CEECIND). This research was developed under ConBiomics: the missing approach for the Conservation of freshwater Bivalves Project No. NORTE-01-0145-FEDER- 030286, co-financed by COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020 and the European Union through the ERDF, and by FCT through national funds. Additional strategic funding was provided by FCT UIDB/04423/2020 and UIDP/04423/2020. Authors' interaction and writing of the article was promoted and facilitated by the COST Action CA18239: CONFREMU—Conservation of freshwater mussels: a pan- European approach. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Anthropogenic freshwater habitats may provide undervalued prospects for long-term conservation as part of species conservation planning. This fundamental, but overlooked, issue requires attention considering the pace that humans have been altering natural freshwater ecosystems and the accelerated levels of biodiversity decline in recent decades. We compiled 709 records of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionida) inhabiting a broad variety of anthropogenic habitat types (from small ponds to large reservoirs and canals) and reviewed their importance as refuges for this faunal group. Most records came from Europe and North America, with a clear dominance of canals and reservoirs. The dataset covered 228 species, including 34 threatened species on the IUCN Red List. We discuss the conservation importance and provide guidance on how these anthropogenic habitats could be managed to provide optimal conservation value to freshwater mussels. This review also shows that some of these habitats may function as ecological traps owing to conflicting management practices or because they act as a sink for some populations. Therefore, anthropogenic habitats should not be seen as a panacea to resolve conservation problems. More information is necessary to better understand the trade-offs between human use and the conservation of freshwater mussels (and other biota) within anthropogenic habitats, given the low number of quantitative studies and the strong biogeographic knowledge bias that persists. ; This publication is based upon work from COST Action CA18239, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). A.M.L. was financed by the Institute of Environmental Sciences Jagiellonian University (N18/DBS/000003) and K.N. by the Aragón Government. The authors acknowledge Jarosław Andrzejewski, Bartosz Czader, Anna Fica, Marcin Horbacz, Tomasz Jonderko, Steinar Kålås, Tomasz Kapela, Bjørn Mejdell Larsen, Maciej Pabijan, Katarzyna Pawlik, Ilona Popławska, Joanna Przybylska, Tomasz Przybył, Mateusz Rybak, Kjell ...