Conservation status of freshwater mussels in Europe: state of the art and future challenges
Top Cited Papers
- 4 January 2016
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Biological Reviews
- Vol. 92 (1), 572-607
- https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12244
Abstract
Freshwater mussels of the Order Unionida provide important ecosystem functions and services, yet many of their populations are in decline. We comprehensively review the status of the 16 currently recognized species in Europe, collating for the first time their life-history traits, distribution, conservation status, habitat preferences, and main threats in order to suggest future management actions. In northern, central, and eastern Europe, a relatively homogeneous species composition is found in most basins. In southern Europe, despite the lower species richness, spatially restricted species make these basins a high conservation priority. Information on fresh water mussels in Europe is unevenly distributed with considerable differences in data quality and quantity among countries and species. To make conservation more effective in the future, we suggest greater international cooperation using standardized protocols and methods to monitor and manage European freshwater mussel diversity. Such an approach will not only help conserve this vulnerable group but also, through the protection of these important organisms, will offer wider benefits to freshwater ecosystems.Keywords
Funding Information
- The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)
- ‘CONBI’, COMPETE (PTDC/AAC-AMB/117688/2010)
- ‘ECO-IAS’, COMPETE (PTDC/AAC-AMB/116685/2010)
- The Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection
- Department of Nature Conservation, The Federal Government of Upper Austria
- Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Republic of Belarus, Belarusian Committee of Ecology (288/73)
- Belarussian State University (444/50)
- Ministry of Education and Science Republic of Belarus (657/65)
- the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia (119-1193080-1231)
- State Institute for Nature Protection
- the Czech Science Foundation (13-05872S)
- ESF/MSMT (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/30.0040)
- Biotope Consultancy
- NCN, Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (NN304328836)
- Russian Foundation for Basic Research (15-04-05638_a, 14-04-98801)
- The Ural Branch of RAS (15-12-5-3, 15-2-5-7)
- President of the Russian Federation (MD-6465.2014.5)
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