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Science
Freshwater Science
Around the world, freshwater species and habitats are among the most endangered. Freshwater conservation planning recognizes the distinct nature of freshwater systems: the importance of dynamic hydrologic processes, of connectivity across multiple dimensions, and of threats that disproportionately affect aquatic systems.
In recognition of this urgent conservation need and special methodological considerations, WWF's Conservation Science Program is devoting increasing effort to freshwater projects at the global, continental, ecoregional and landscape scales.
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At the global scale, we have completed Freshwater Ecoregions of the World, a delineation of freshwater conservation units for the entire world and synthesis of biodiversity and threat information for each unit. This joint project with The Nature Conservancy is a companion to the Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World and Marine Ecoregions of the World endeavors. Delineation of freshwater units is driven primarily by fish zoogeography, and freshwater fishes, amphibians, and reptiles are the first taxonomic groups for which we have synthesized richness and endemism data. We have also completed a new global lakes and wetlands database (GLWD), in partnership with the Center for Environmental Systems Research, University of Kassel, Germany. This database, which is freely available, will help to improve global assessments. Finally, we are in the process of completing a new global hydrographic dataset and toolkit, HydroSHEDS (Hydrological data and maps based on SHuttle Elevation Derivatives at multiple Scales), which will allow conservation planners and managers around the world to do basic hydrological mapping and analyses.
Our global project builds on several continental scale assessments. We have completed conservation assessments for Latin America and the Caribbean (PDF, 590k), North America, and Africa and Madagascar. These assessments contain detailed analyses of both biodiversity and threats, and they identify priority ecoregions based on the integration of these indexes. The ecoregion maps for Latin America and the Caribbean and North America are being updated as part of our global project.
At the ecoregional scale, we have provided technical support to the development of multiple biodiversity visions. Freshwater ecoregional efforts include work in the Amazon, Guianas, Congo, Mekong, and Niger basins (PDF, 6.1 MB), the Southeast United States, the Chihuahuan Desert, and Lake Malawi (PDF, 3.0 MB). We have combined lessons derived from many of these projects into a sourcebook (PDF, 7.0 MB) for those undertaking similar efforts in the future.
Because many of the world's most important freshwater systems are poorly known scientifically, much of our work involves developing tools and approaches for addressing those data gaps. For instance, we used global hydrological models to develop scenarios for the impacts of climate change on river flows in western Mongolia, to help inform decisions about future hydropower development. We have also coupled HydroSHEDS data with hydrologic models to delineate and classify sub-watersheds in the southwest Amazon headwaters, the Guianas, and the Mekong River basin.
Effective conservation planning around the world will require addressing key scientific questions. We have outlined these questions for freshwater systems in a paper that was published in the October 2002 issue of Conservation Biology. Working with partners, we have also addressed the effects of tilapia aquaculture on native freshwater biodiversity, the ways that conservation biology may inform integrated basin management, prospects for monitoring freshwater systems towards the 2010 targets, and the problem of overfishing in freshwaters. Please see the Conservation Science Program's publications page< for a complete list of these and other papers.
The Conservation Science Program works in collaboration with WWF's Global Freshwater Programme for healthy freshwater systems. We also work with numerous partner organizations and researchers around the world. For more information about our freshwater science work, please send an inquiry to cspinfo@wwfus.org.
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