Thank you!We have emailed you a PDF version of the article you requested You can also addto your safe senders list to ensure you never miss a message from us IFLScience HomeAncient Chinese Poetry Reveals The 1,400-Year Decline Of World’s Only Freshwater PorpoiseComplete the form below to listen to the audio version of this article IFLScience needs the contact information you provide to us to contact you about our products and services You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time For information on how to unsubscribe, as well as our privacy practices and commitment to protecting your privacy, check out ourPrivacy Policy IFLScience HomeJoin for Exclusive FacebookemailStephen has a science degree with a major in physics, an arts degree with majors in English Literature and History and Philosophy of Science and a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication. Facebookemail EditedbyMaddy ChapmanMaddy Chapman Facebook emailMaddy is an editor and writer at IFLScience with a degree in biochemistry from the University of York A Yangtze finless porpoise hunting in Poyang Lake A study of 724 ancient poems has revealed how far the Yangtze finless porpoise once roamed within the mighty river allowing scientists to see how far its range has contracted and when that occurred This may help identify how much threat the porpoise is under and provide a stretch goal for restoring its ecosystem’s state Snow wrote of science and the arts as “two cultures” and bemoaned the fact that people engaged in one often knew little of the other He contrasted this with earlier times when figures such as Leonardo da Vinci (and himself) excelled in both the arts certainly have a great deal to learn from science Fossils are usually the only way scientists can identify a species’ previous range when people love an animal or plant enough to include sightings in their poetry and a team of conservationists have put that record to use Dr Zhigang Mei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences grew up near the Yangtze River where the porpoises are an important part of the local culture. The porpoise has the good fortune to have a face that makes it appear to humans to always be smiling the porpoises were considered to be positive spirits able to predict the weather and fish levels “Protecting nature isn’t just the responsibility of modern science; it’s also deeply connected to our culture and history,” Mei said in a statement making people realize the harmony and respect we should have between people and nature.” However, while art’s capacity to serve as a rallying call for the environment gives many artists a sense of porpoise (sorry it is more seldom acknowledged as a tool for scientific research The capacities attributed to the porpoises have elements of truth and they’re active on the surface of the water especially before thunderstorms when they’re really chasing after fish and jumping around,” Mei said.“ This amazing sight was hard for poets to ignore.” when Mei and co-authors tried to identify the porpoises’ past range based on poems they found the problem wasn’t a shortage of data but they possibility some poets were making things up (hard to believe “We had to figure out how accurate the poets were being Some might have been really focused on realism describing what they saw as objectively as possible exaggerating the size or behavior of things they saw,” Mei said we had to research each poet’s life and writing style to make sure the information we were getting was reliable.” It's hard to keep smiling when you've lost most of your territory but finless porpoises manage it.Image credit: Wang ChaoqunExactly half the poems included contained information about the location of the sighting References to the porpoise bloomed over time from just five during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) to hundreds in the 17th-19th Centuries this had more to do with changes in culture and poems being more likely to be preserved the poems revealed the porpoise’s range only contracted modestly until late in the Qing dynasty it occupies a third less of the main river than it once did and its range within the tributaries and surrounding lakes has fallen by 91 percent Further research may reveal how large porpoise collections grew before the river was changed “Our work fills the gap between the super long-term information we get from fossils and DNA and the recent population surveys It really shows how powerful it can be to combine art and biodiversity conservation,” Mei said The paper is published in Current Biology plants What Is A Dinosaur Tree? The Living Fossil Dinosaurs Once Munched On That's Still Around Today8 hours agolink to article animals Chatty Dolphins Might Know More Language Than Just Each Other's Names, Reveals New Study11 hours ago25link to article T. Rex Leather, Glow-In-The-Dark Gas Clouds, And Musical Sea Lions link to article The Five Most Common Headaches link to article © 2025 IFLScience. All Rights Reserved. RSS This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Microplastics are a growing global concern with much research looking at their transport in the environment and potential effects on ecosystems and human health One aspect of plastic waste which may have health implications is the presence of biofilms – a layer of microorganisms which collect on their surface When plastics end up in water bodies they can be transported over large distances taking their ‘plastisphere’ community of microbes with them. there remain research gaps around how this microbial community changes with environmental stressors and the extent to which pathogens potentially harmful to human and animal health are harboured on water-borne plastic. French researchers embarked on a seven-month mission on a boat traversing nine major European rivers from the sea to a point upstream of the first heavily populated city on each river They sampled water at four or five points along a salinity gradient on the rivers particulate matter and bacterial diversity They also collected microplastics using a special mesh trawl analysing these to identify the species present in the plastisphere their virulence and ability to form biofilms. To explore the bacterial colonisation of microplastics in the same waters a land-based group placed pristine polyethylene polyoxymethylene and nylon mesh in secured cylindrical cage structures which the scientists on the boat then collected a month later. The team extracted all microplastics in the study using alcohol and flame-sterilised forceps before immediately freezing them in liquid nitrogen until DNA extraction They carried out DNA sequencing of all the bacteria sampled and used an infrared spectrometer to analyse the composition of the sorted microplastics they recovered They looked at bacterial communities in each river separately paying particular attention to the colonisation of potentially harmful species such as those that may cause toxic algal blooms the scientists found that bacterial communities on microplastics were highly distinct when compared to free-living bacteria and those attached to organic particles in surrounding waters. their data also uncovered distinct communities on microplastics in freshwater and the sea Marine microplastics harboured significantly lower richness evenness and diversity in their bacterial communities than those from rivers They identified the potential pathogen genera Aeromonas Arcobacter and Prevotella in freshwater samples but not in the sea; while Vibrio1 was the dominant pathogen in the sea They found no pathogen transfer between the two. This evidence highlighted what the scientists described as a “strong selective pressure exerted between freshwater and marine environments,” representing a limit to the dispersal of microorganisms from freshwaters to the sea as part of the plastisphere. The potential risks of bacteria travelling on microplastics was underlined by the team recording the pathogen Shewanella putrefaciens on microplastics for the first time the salinity barrier identified in the study suggests that the chance of such pathogens travelling from rivers to the sea is low. The approaches used in the study recovered microplastics which would be typically expected in the watercourses accounting for 45% of what was found and polypropylene the second most recovered The researchers found the chemical composition of polymers did not significantly affect the plastisphere community although previous work has suggested a link2 The researchers suggesed this may be due to those studies looking at long-term colonisation rather than sampling directly from the environment. The latter’s jurisdiction over surface waters means that the new work provides relevant knowledge on biofilms and their potential risks. The study fills knowledge gaps in the so far limited and fragmented research on microbial communities on microplastics Additional research looking beyond bacteria at groups such as viruses and single-celled organisms as well as explorations of tide-dependent changes would help further inform future policy addressing plastic pollution This salt-water tolerant genus includes the species Vibrio cholerae – which causes cholera – and V parahaemolyticus – which may cause gastroenteritis. (2019) The composition of bacterial communities associated with plastic biofilms differs between different polymers and stages of biofilm succession “Science for Environment Policy”: European Commission DG Environment News Alert Service The contents and views included in Science for Environment Policy are based on independent peer reviewed research and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Commission Please note that this article is a summary of only one study Other studies may come to other conclusions. EU Environment newsletters deliver the latest updates about the European Commission’s environmental priorities straight to your inbox Freshwater ecosystems underpin all human social and economic activity They are vital for supporting the web of life on Earth and need to be valued They are also closely connected to other ecosystems along our coasts and in the ocean in addition to other partners and networks The work of UNEP on fresh water is led by the Freshwater Ecosystems Unit © 2025 UNEP Terms of Use Privacy Report Project Concern Report Scam Contact Us The golden mahseer is considered Endangered due to the impact of overfishing and dam building in its home in the rivers of the southern Himalayas. © topimages/ Shutterstock Freshwater ecosystems cover less than 1% of Earth’s surface New research reveals that damage to these environments is pushing freshwater animals to the edge of extinction with 24% of species in danger of being wiped out crab and dragonfly species could become extinct in the coming decades – and many more could follow A landmark assessment of the health of nearly 24,000 freshwater species found that just under a quarter are at risk of extinction almost 1,000 species are considered Critically Endangered with 200 having potentially been lost already These numbers may only represent the tip of the iceberg, with scientists lacking the information needed to properly understand the extinction risk of thousands of species. Catherine Sayer says that urgent action is needed to understand and protect these animals “Lack of data on freshwater biodiversity can no longer be used as an excuse for inaction,” she says “Freshwater landscapes are home to 10% of all known species on Earth and key for billions of people’s safe drinking water flood control and climate change mitigation and must be protected for nature and people alike.” The findings of the study were published in the journal Nature While fresh, clean water is vital for all life on land, freshwater ecosystems are some of the most threatened on Earth. Freshwater environments are being put under pressure as demand for food It’s estimated that an area the size of India – a staggering 3.4 million square kilometres – of wetland has been lost since 1700 The Woodville Karst cave crayfish is found only in one area of Florida where it faces threats such as pollution and habitat erosion The loss of wetlands harms far more than just the animals and plants that live there, as it also limits our ability to fight climate change and stop flooding Freshwater sources are also suffering from a cocktail of different challenges. An increase in water abstraction and dams on rivers are reducing the available habitat for wildlife The animals that persist in these reduced habitats are then impacted by sewage freshwater environments are significantly understudied compared to the oceans Dr Topiltzin Contreras MacBeath says that this needs to change if we are to ensure that freshwater species have the best chance of survival “It is essential that freshwater species data are actively included in conservation strategies and water use management to support healthy freshwater ecosystems,” Topiltzin says “Increased investment in measuring and monitoring freshwater species is needed to ensure conservation action and water use planning is based on the latest information.” The sedgling is a Vulnerable species of Eurasian damselfly due to the drainage of its habitat While around 10% of all species depend on freshwater, the study was particularly concerned with four groups that are intimately linked to it – the decapods, odonates, molluscs and fishes Decapods are a large group of crustaceans that include crabs plenty of others live in rivers and streams across the world where around 30% are threatened with extinction The odonates are the group of insects that contains dragonflies and damselflies While they might be most recognisable as airborne predators these animals spend most of their lives in freshwater as growing nymphs This makes them vulnerable to habitat loss with more than half of threatened species affected by the conversion of wetlands to farmland A similar proportion are affected by logging which removes the hunting grounds and shelter they rely on as adults While conservation data was readily available for freshwater decapods, fishes and odonates, a lack of information meant the study was unable to include molluscs in its analysis. This is the group that not only contains snails, but also other invertebrates such as freshwater mussels and oysters. Previous research focusing on molluscs suggests that around a third are at risk of extinction, which would likely increase the overall proportion of threatened freshwater species. The vast and often interconnected nature of freshwater environments means that reversing these declines is not easy. Co-operation between different stakeholders and nations will be vital to give threatened crabs, dragonflies and other freshwater wildlife a fighting chance. Protecting our planetWe're working towards a future where both people and the planet thrive. Hear from scientists studying human impact and change in the natural world. A new project to kickstart conservation for some of the world’s rarest fishes is making a splash Some of the world’s largest and most unusual fishes could be wiped out The first State of the World’s Migratory Species report found that countries aren’t doing enough to save threatened species streams and springs are in danger of going dry as we take water out of the ground faster than it can be replaced Receive email updates about our news, science, exhibitions, events, products, services and fundraising activities. We may occasionally include third-party content from our corporate partners and other museums. We will not share your personal details with these third parties. You must be over the age of 13. Privacy notice Map Map We use cookies to give you the best online experience We use them to improve our website and content and to tailor our digital advertising on third-party platforms You can change your preferences at any time Open menuFreshwater alga could be the next superfood that feeds the worldA microalga rich in nutrients could be cultivated sustainably with minimal environmental footprint to help build food security and combat climate change. A green alga that grows in lakes and rivers could be the next ‘superfood’ - helping scientists to tackle global food security challenges while promoting environmental sustainability Chlorella Vulgaris is a freshwater microalga rich in protein which requires extensive land and water resources it can be cultivated sustainably with minimal environmental footprint The microalga can be incorporated into food products to enhance their nutritional value Chlorella is a promising nutraceutical ingredient As consumer interest in health-conscious and eco-friendly products grows Chlorella Vulgaris could be one of the superfoods that redefine the future of food innovation Our study underscores the critical role of applied research in addressing global food security challenges while promoting environmental sustainability Publishing their findings in the Journal of Food Science scientists at the University of Birmingham believe that challenges remain in optimizing large-scale production and improving consumer acceptance and Fakhteh Soltani -emphasise the need for advancements in cultivation techniques and sensory improvements to enhance its appeal Co-author Dr Helen Onyeaka commented: “As consumer interest in health-conscious and eco-friendly products grows “We found that Chlorella not only meets growing demand for sustainable food sources but also offers substantial health and nutrition benefits By overcoming production challenges through technological advancements we can pave the way for Chlorella’s widespread adoption.” Chlorella has been used as a food supplement and adding the substance to food products can enhance their taste the researchers note that overcoming existing challenges and optimising production methods will be crucial for the microalga’s successful adoption and widespread use in the food industry The scientists recommend that future research should focus on improving strains and addressing issues to fully realize Chlorella's potential as a sustainable and nutritious food source Their study recommends that industrialising Chlorella production involve the development of new culture systems to increase yield and reduce costs – these processes should involve different bioreactors and ultrasonication can increase nutrient bioavailability while pulsed electric fields may enhance digestibility economically Sensory evaluations and consumer testing are necessary to mask unwanted tastes Increasing awareness and developing sustainable production methods can expand Chlorella's use in the food industry A nutrient-dense alternative to traditional food sources Chlorella boasts high levels of protein (43–58% dry weight) and essential vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B vulgaris offers significant environmental advantages helping to capture carbon dioxide and cleanse wastewater Health benefits include anti-tumour properties potential for preventing Alzheimer's disease and positive effects on major depressive disorder For more information, please contact Press Office The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 universities institutions Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries ‘Chlorella vulgaris as a food substitute: Applications and benefits in the food industry’ - Chiao-An Wang and Fakhteh Soltani is published by the Journal of Food Science Helen's research interests include microbial responses to environmental stress use of natural preservatives in food processing quality and spoilage and antimicrobial resistance Phone: +44 (0) 121 414 5292Email: h.onyeaka@bham.ac.ukDr Taghi MiriAssistant Professor (Lecturer) Phone: +44 (0) 121 414 9175Email: t.miri@bham.ac.ukGo to previous itemGo to next itemRelated newsRelated CoursesUndergraduate Postgraduate Undergraduate Undergraduate Postgraduate Ice melting from glaciers around the world is depleting regional freshwater resources and driving global sea levels to rise at ever-faster rates through an international effort involving 35 research teams glaciers have been losing an average of 273 billion tonnes of ice per year since the year 2000 – but hidden within this average there has been an alarming increase over the last 10 years glaciers – excluding the continental ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica – spanned 705,221 sq km and held an estimated 121,728 billion tonnes of ice they have lost approximately 5% of their total volume with regional losses ranging from 2% on the Antarctic and Subantarctic Islands This corresponds to an annual loss of 273 billion tonnes of ice the amount of ice being lost jumped by 36% in the second half of the study period (2012–2023) compared to the first half of the study (2000–2011) Glacier mass loss over the whole study period was 18% higher than that from the Greenland Ice Sheet and more than double that from the Antarctic Ice Sheet The research which was published today in the journal Nature was conducted as part of the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise Glambie is a major research initiative coordinated by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) hosted at the University of Zurich in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and Earthwave Ltd to generate a community estimate of glacier mass loss globally standardisation and analysis of different data from field measurements and from a wealth of different types of optical By combining different types of data from these multiple sources Glambie produced an annual time series of glacier mass change for all glacier regions globally from 2000 to 2023 “We compiled 233 estimates of regional glacier mass change from about 450 data contributors organised in 35 research teams,” explained Michael Zemp “Benefiting from the different observation methods Glambie not only provides new insights into regional trends and year-to-year variability but we could also identify differences among observation methods This means that we can provide a new observational baseline for future studies on the impact of glacier melt on regional water availability and global sea-level rise.” who hosted a large workshop at Earthwave in Edinburgh to discuss findings with all the participants “Bringing together so many different research teams from across the globe in a joint effort to increase our understanding and certainty of glacier ice loss has been extremely valuable This initiative has also fostered a stronger sense of collaboration within the community.” glaciers collectively lost 6542 billion tonnes of ice contributing 18 mm to global sea-level rise glaciers lost 273 billion tonnes of ice per year equivalent to an annual sea-level rise of 0.75 mm The rate of glacier ice loss has increased significantly from 231 billion tonnes per year in the first half of the study period to 314 billion tonnes per year in the second half glaciers rank as the second-largest contributor to global sea-level rise following ocean warming related thermal expansion They surpass the contributions of the Greenland Ice Sheet glacier melt represents a significant loss of regional freshwater resources the 273 billion tonnes of ice lost annually amounts to what the entire global population consumes in 30 years assuming three litres per person and day,” noted glaciologist Prof especially for local communities in Central Asia and the Central Andes where glaciers dominate runoff during warm and dry seasons almost one-quarter of the glacier contribution to sea-level rise originates from Alaska.” “The research is the result of sustained efforts by the community and by space agencies over many years to exploit a variety of satellites that were not initially specifically designed for the task of monitoring glaciers globally “This legacy is already producing impact with satellite missions being designed to allow operational monitoring of future glacier evolution, such as Europe’s Copernicus CRISTAL mission which builds on the legacy of ESA’s CryoSat.” The research was primarily funded by the Science for Society element of ESA’s FutureEO programme, with additional support from the International Association for Cryospheric Sciences and various institutional partners It was conducted by the Glambie team under the leadership of the WGMS and of the University of Edinburgh and over 30 other research teams from around the world ESA Earth Observation Applications Scientist “We take great pride in supporting this vital research through our ESA Science for Society programme element as it brings together multiple estimates of glacier mass loss from different satellites and in situ observations through a community driven approach “These findings are not only crucial for advancing our scientific understanding of global glacier changes but also provide a valuable baseline to help regions address the challenges of managing scarce freshwater resources and contribute to developing effective mitigation strategies to combat rising sea level.” Notably, the study marks an important milestone in preparation for this year’s United Nations’ International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation and the Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025–2034) GlaMBIE Team (2024): Community estimate of global glacier mass changes 2000–2023 A new study by Dr Izzy Bishop and collaborators from the environmental charity Earthwatch Europe has outlined the criteria they used to develop the first global citizen science monitoring programme for water quality - called Freshwater Watch - based on standardized methodologies supporting the Agenda 2030 indicator 6.3.2 and the EU’s Water Framework Directive The programme ensures robust quality control and training enabling citizen scientists to support regulatory monitoring and decision-making processes effectively Key findings from over 80 use cases across four biogeographical regions highlight the potential for citizen scientists to contribute to water monitoring and management Laboratory and field experiments validated the chemical and optical methods used ensuring the reliability and transferability of data The study revealed consistent seasonal and spatial trends in macronutrient concentrations with nitrate and phosphate levels showing increases in areas of agricultural intensification and industrial land use with nitrate concentrations peaking in spring and autumn and phosphate levels highest in summer and autumn the observations made by citizen scientists are being used by local and regional stakeholders to manage freshwater ecosystems effectively This study demonstrates the significant potential for scaling citizen science-based monitoring programmes to contribute to a global assessment of water quality Article UCL profile: Izzy Bishop Freshwater Watch Working to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and nature WWF® and ©1986 Panda Symbol are owned by WWF You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience Freshwater fish populations that dwell nearer the poles are outperforming their equatorial counterparts Large-bodied migratory species such as Atlantic salmon are thriving as warming temperatures opens up new habitats at the poleward edge of their ranges was based on a dataset of over 10,000 time series and included over 600 species of fishes. Climate change has emerged as a key threat to biodiversity leading to broad-scale shifts in distributions of marine and terrestrial species as they attempt to track thermally suitable habitat the climate responses of freshwater species are comparatively unexplored Co-author Professor Martin Genner explained: “A common biological response to climatic warming in marine and terrestrial habitats is that populations are increasing at the poleward side of species ranges and populations are declining at the equatorward side of species ranges The team linked a multicontinental database of riverine fish population abundance time series collected from 1958 to 2019 to temperature data from the same period They found that observed population trends were consistent with expected patterns from climatic warming and that the trends were more pronounced in time series covering the longer time periods of over 30 years The responses consistent with climate change were most evident in species with larger body sizes Species following this trend include brown trout and coarse fish species familiar to many anglers positive abundance responses to warming were more likely at higher altitudes where conditions tend to be cooler Professor Genner said: “These findings indicate that projected future warming will likely lead to widespread shifts in riverine community structure including abundance declines at the trailing edge of species distributions.” Now the team aims to understand more about the importance of climate change in affecting freshwater fish population sizes relative to other stressors He concluded: “Our study has shown how warming waters are impacting freshwater river fishes that are both rich in biodiversity and are traditionally important to cultures across the world “We hope that shining a light on how climate change can affect freshwater fishes will lead to positive actions to enable their conservation and sustainable use “We need to learn more about how the impacts of climate change can be lessened through conservation strategies ‘Climate warming drives population trajectories of freshwater fish’ by Timothy M More social media 2015 - 2023JPEG An international team of scientists using observations from NASA-German satellites found evidence that Earth’s total amount of freshwater dropped abruptly starting in May 2014 and has remained low ever since. Reporting in Surveys in Geophysics, the researchers suggested the shift could indicate Earth’s continents have entered a persistently drier phase satellite measurements showed that the average amount of freshwater stored on land—that includes liquid surface water like lakes and rivers plus water in aquifers underground—was 1,200 cubic kilometers (290 cubic miles) lower than the average levels from 2002 through 2014 one of the study authors and a hydrologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center “That’s two and a half times the volume of Lake Erie lost.” JPEG The map at the top of this page shows the years in which the satellite data indicate terrestrial water storage hit a 22-year minimum at each location The decline in global freshwater began with a massive drought in northern and central Brazil followed shortly by a series of major droughts in Australasia Warmer ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific from late 2014 into 2016 culminating in one of the most significant El Niño events since 1950 led to shifts in atmospheric jet streams that altered weather and rainfall patterns around the world Rodell and team report that 13 of the world’s 30 most intense droughts observed by GRACE occurred since January 2015 They suspect that global warming might be contributing to the enduring freshwater depletion Global warming leads the atmosphere to hold more water vapor which results in more extreme precipitation said NASA Goddard meteorologist Michael Bosilovich While total annual rain and snowfall levels may not change dramatically long periods between intense precipitation events allow the soil to dry and become more compact That decreases the amount of water the ground can absorb when it does rain “The problem when you have extreme precipitation,” Bosilovich said “is the water ends up running off,” instead of soaking in and replenishing groundwater stores freshwater levels have stayed consistently low since the 2014-2016 El Niño while more water remains trapped in the atmosphere as water vapor “Warming temperatures increase both the evaporation of water from the surface to the atmosphere and the water-holding capacity of the atmosphere increasing the frequency and intensity of drought conditions,” he noted While there are reasons to suspect that the abrupt drop in freshwater is largely due to global warming it can be difficult to definitively link the two a hydrologist and remote sensing scientist at Virginia Tech who was not affiliated with the study “There are uncertainties in climate predictions,” Werth said “Measurements and models always come with errors.” It remains to be seen whether global freshwater will rebound to pre-2015 values Considering that the nine warmest years in the modern temperature record coincided with the abrupt freshwater decline “We don’t think this is a coincidence and it could be a harbinger of what’s to come.” NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using data from Rodell, Matthew, et al. (2024) Artist’s rendering of GRACE-FO by NASA/JPL-Caltech The amount of freshwater stored on land and underground has plummeted in the past decade which might indicate that Earth’s continents have entered a persistently drier phase with differing expressions on different continents The past eight years have been the warmest in the global record Metrics details Here we present the results of a multi-taxon global freshwater fauna assessment for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species covering 23,496 decapod crustaceans finding that one-quarter are threatened with extinction with overharvesting also driving extinctions We also examined the degree of surrogacy of both threatened tetrapods and freshwater abiotic factors (water stress and nitrogen) for threatened freshwater species Threatened tetrapods are good surrogates when prioritizing sites to maximize rarity-weighted richness but poorer when prioritizing based on the most range-restricted species they are much better surrogates than abiotic factors although global priority regions identified for tetrapod conservation are broadly reflective of those for freshwater faunas given differences in key threats and habitats meeting the needs of tetrapods cannot be assumed sufficient to conserve freshwater species at local scales the efficacy of using abiotic surrogates for freshwater biodiversity remains untested To improve availability of information for use in the conservation and management of freshwater species we examined the results of the most comprehensive multi-taxon global freshwater fauna assessment to date on the IUCN Red List to summarize the extinction risk key habitats and primary drivers of decline of freshwater decapod crustaceans fishes and odonates (hereafter ‘freshwater species’) to test whether it is appropriate to rely on predominantly terrestrial tetrapod data or freshwater abiotic data when making conservation decisions on freshwater biodiversity at a global scale we investigated whether threatened tetrapods (amphibians mammals and reptiles) and two widely used hydrological variables (water stress representing the ratio of total water demand to available renewable supplies; and water quality representing eutrophication) are effective surrogates for these threatened freshwater species We were unable to include freshwater molluscs in our analysis because only half of the known species globally are currently assessed for the IUCN Red List meaning their inclusion would introduce regional and taxonomic biases we highlight the implications of this omission from our dataset below The numbers above each column refer to the total numbers of species assessed and the best estimates of the proportion of species threatened (Methods) The black lines represent the best estimates of the proportion of species threatened Red List categories are as follows: extinct (EX) near threatened (NT) and least concern (LC) Source data Proportion of threatened freshwater species (decapod crustaceans fishes and odonates; combined and individually) extinct freshwater species (combined) and threatened tetrapods (combined) affected by each threat The darker cells indicate a greater proportion of species affected by the threat Threats are coded following the IUCN Threats Classification Scheme (version 3.3) and combined for presentation as follows (the value of the highest hierarchical level is indicated; all subsequent levels are included): pollution (9); dams and water management (7.2); agriculture (2.1 2.2 and 2.3); invasive species and disease (8.1 8.5 and 8.6); logging (5.2 and 5.3); urban development (1); hunting and fishing (5.1 and 5.4); energy production and mining (3); climate change and severe weather (11); human intrusions and disturbance (6); other ecosystem modifications (7.3); transportation (4); fire and fire suppression (7.1); problematic native species (8.2); aquaculture (2.4); and geological events (10) For the number of species: threatened freshwater species n = 4,190 threatened odonates n = 686 and threatened tetrapods n = 7,112 fishes and odonates; combined and individually) and extinct freshwater species (combined) using each wetland habitat The darker cells indicate a greater proportion of species using the habitat Habitats are coded following the IUCN Habitats Classification Scheme (version 3.1) as follows: permanent rivers (5.1); permanent lakes (5.5); seasonal rivers (5.2); permanent pools (5.7); bogs and marshes among others (5.4); seasonal pools (5.8); springs and oases (5.9); karst (5.18); seasonal lakes (5.6); other wetlands (5.3 For the number of species: threatened freshwater species n = 4,255 threatened fishes n = 3,071 and threatened odonates n = 700 threatened species include those assessed as critically endangered (including those flagged as possibly extinct and possibly extinct in the wild) Extinct freshwater species include those assessed as extinct or extinct in the wild also being frequently affected by invasive species and disease (33%) with the latter predominantly linked to targeted harvesting and 8 tests from a single study using terrestrial surrogates and freshwater targets yielded median SAI = 0.38 The SAI approach is more appropriate in addressing the extent to which areas selected for surrogates capture targets than approaches based on spatial congruence All SAI values for the abiotic factors, representing water quantity and quality, are negative, meaning performance is worse than expected from random solutions (Extended Data Fig. 6) The effectiveness is equally bad for both conservation strategies very poor surrogates for threatened freshwater species This suggests that relying on these surrogates for conservation and management decisions could lead to suboptimal or even harmful outcomes and conservation strategies that rely on abiotic indicators should be re-evaluated Important consideration should additionally be given to tackling overharvesting given that this is considered a particularly prominent threat in driving freshwater species extinctions distribution of species within their ranges will not be uniform and the disproportionate importance of some areas and/or habitat types needs to be considered when planning action on the ground our results suggest that setting targets around non-living nature will not be sufficient to protect and conserve living nature and may be harmful in terms of its opportunity cost and displacement of threats to more important places for freshwater biodiversity The dataset will also form the basis of (multi-)species conservation planning processes across the globe limiting our ability to provide new data to update assessments vital to track the changing status of freshwater biodiversity supporting evidence-based management and conservation actions and processes to feed these results back into assessment efforts some freshwater decapod species have been assessed or reassessed since these global assessment efforts were first completed updated Red List assessment figures are provided below to reflect the version of the dataset used in this analysis the assessed species represent 84% of the formally described species in all three taxonomic groups (see the ‘Missing species’ section below for a description of the gaps in coverage) These groups were selected for assessment because they cover both vertebrates and invertebrates are not restricted to particular continents and are groups for which there was thought to be a reasonable level of existing information such that their comprehensive assessment would provide a good indication of the status of freshwater fauna globally This freshwater species dataset was compared with that of the tetrapods: amphibians (class Amphibia; 7,468 species) mammals (class Mammalia; 5,973 species) and reptiles (class Reptilia; 10,222 species) We worked with species experts and members of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) to compile data Each assessment then underwent two reviews at least one independent scientist familiar with each species reviewed the assessment to ensure the data presented were correct and complete and that the Red List criteria had been applied appropriately Once each assessment had passed this first stage of the review staff from the IUCN Red List Unit reviewed the assessments to ensure that the Red List criteria had been applied appropriately and the documentation standards had been met Once each assessment had passed this second stage of the review they were considered finalized and set for publication on the IUCN Red List website The preliminary Red List assessments of 1,577 freshwater fish species used in this analysis had undergone only the first step of the review process described above at the time of analysis with only seven species (0.5%) changing Red List category before publication as a result of the second stage of review We expect the remaining 207 species (13%) with preliminary assessments to have completed the assessment process outlined above by October 2024 we diverged only to follow well-justified taxonomic standards as recommended by the relevant IUCN SSC Specialist Group We were not able to revisit new descriptions for regions or families after the end of the original regional sub-projects the final species lists are not fully consistent with any single release of either of the above taxonomic sources with level 8 HydroBASINS as the default resolution (mean sub-basin area of 576 km2) Assessors are recommended to use higher-resolution level HydroBASINS (that is levels 10 and 12) for species with restricted distributions All known past, current and future threats to a species were coded using the IUCN Threats Classification Scheme (version 3.3; https://www.iucnredlist.org/resources/threat-classification-scheme) Where known, species habitats were coded using the IUCN Habitats Classification Scheme (version 3.1; https://www.iucnredlist.org/resources/habitat-classification-scheme) Species were assigned to all habitat classes in which they are known to occur Although we made an extensive effort to complete assessments for all freshwater fishes and odonates along with limitations with the published freshwater decapod data 3,804 freshwater fishes (21% of the formally described species) 169 odonates (3% of the formally described species) and 622 freshwater decapods (19% of the formally described species) were omitted from the study The odonates are the most comprehensively assessed of the three freshwater groups with the few omitted species being new descriptions reflecting the geographical distribution of the order overall The effect on our analyses is likely to be an underestimate of the number of threatened species and lower surrogacy levels than reported here Eighteen per cent of freshwater fishes (2,634 species) 29% of odonates (1,830 species) and 39% of freshwater decapods (1,042 species) were assessed as data deficient Although we made extensive efforts to map the current known distribution of each species this is missing or incomplete for some species Polygon map availability for all freshwater species was as follows: freshwater decapods (94%) freshwater fishes (95%) and odonates (77%) Polygon map availability for threatened freshwater species was as follows: freshwater decapods (89%) freshwater fishes (96%) and odonates (87%) Polygon map availability for data deficient freshwater species was as follows: freshwater decapods (93%) freshwater fishes (92%) and odonates (77%) Polygon map availability for threatened tetrapod species was as follows: amphibians (100%) Species missing maps generally had older Red List assessments where the supporting data requirements were lower or only had non-polygon spatial data (that is It should be noted that species occurrence is unlikely to be spread evenly or entirely throughout the area depicted in species distribution maps with gaps expected in areas without suitable habitat it is probable that species with assessments older than 10 years are more likely to be assessed in a higher threat category today indicating a potential underestimation of the extinction risk in these groups To capture the uncertainty in the proportion of species threatened with extinction that is introduced by data deficient species we report three values for percentage threatened as follows We used the following formula as the midpoint of the proportion of species threatened with extinction: We used the following formula to calculate the lower estimate of the proportion of species threatened with extinction: VU and EX are the number of species in each corresponding Red List category and N is the total number of species assessed This formula assumes data deficient species are not threatened we used the following formula to calculate the upper estimate of the proportion of species threatened with extinction: DD and EX are the number of species in each corresponding Red List category This formula assumes that all data deficient species are threatened we did not use scope and severity to distinguish the relative importance of threats to individual species and all coded threats were included in the analysis We recommend future reassessments to include these codes such that major threats can be distinguished from trivial threats in analyses based on the proportion of the population affected The threats analysis presented here focuses on threatened species plus on extinct and extinct in the wild freshwater species Threats data availability for threatened species for each taxonomic group was as follows: freshwater decapods (97%) Eighty-two per cent of extinct and extinct in the wild freshwater species had threats coded Species without threats data either faced no known major threats faced unknown threats or had no threats data coded because they have older Red List assessments where the supporting data requirements were lower We first analysed habitat use at the highest level of the IUCN Habitats Classification Scheme we analysed habitat use within habitat code 5 ‘Wetlands (inland)’ Habitat data availability for threatened species for each taxonomic group was as follows: freshwater decapods (99%) Wetland-specific habitat data availability for all species for each freshwater taxonomic group was as follows: freshwater decapods (100%) freshwater fishes (99%) and odonates (99%) All extinct and extinct in the wild freshwater species had habitats coded Species without habitat data either had habitats coded as ‘unknown’ or had no habitat data coded because they have older Red List assessments in which the supporting data requirements were lower We used chi-squared tests to assess whether any threats were recorded more for extinct species than would be expected based on threats recorded for threatened species whether any habitats were recorded more for threatened species than would be expected based on habitats recorded for all species and whether any habitats were recorded more for extinct species than would be expected based on habitats recorded for threatened species probably extant (code 2) or possibly extinct (code 4) reintroduced (code 2) or assisted colonization (code 6) we excluded ranges coded as presence code 4 (possibly extinct) All spatial mapping and subsequent analyses were conducted on a global 0.5 × 0.5 latitude–longitude grid (approximately 50-km resolution; WGS84) We converted all polygon range maps (including HydroBASIN-based maps) tagged with presence origin and seasonality codes as described above to these grids to have a consistent format for analysis across all taxonomic groups We mapped the distribution of species as a count of the number of species ranges overlapping each grid cell A surrogate is selected as a representative of conservation planning simplifying the process of monitoring and conserving biodiversity Its effectiveness hinges on how well the surrogate can reflect the presence abundance and diversity of species in a given area Here we used species accumulation curves to measure this effectiveness by comparing the species accumulation curves of surrogates with those of the target group We performed the analyses on two main global conservation strategies: (a) maximizing rarity-weighted richness (that is the aggregate importance of each grid cell to the species occurring there) of threatened species and (b) maximizing inclusion of the most range-restricted threatened species The first strategy prioritizes areas containing many threatened species with highly restricted ranges globally whereas the second prioritizes essential areas for the most globally range-restricted threatened species using the additive benefit function (ABF) and the core-area zonation (CAZ) algorithms for strategy a and strategy b The algorithm for the ABF (strategy a) focuses on ranking areas by the sum of the proportion of the overall range size of all species found within a specific grid cell (that is a quantity similar to weighted species endemism and endemism richness) The grid cells that contain many species occurring exclusively in that cell or in only a few other cells are given the highest priority areas are prioritized based on the maximum proportion of the global range size of all species within a specific grid cell The algorithm assigns the highest priority to cells that contain the greatest proportions of the ranges of the most range-restricted species surrogate and random curves based on multiple target species-surrogate species combinations We used 100 sets of random terrestrial grid-cell sequences to generate 95% confidence intervals around a median random curve We ran five iterations of each spatial prioritization algorithm for each taxonomic group and optimal and surrogate curves were summarized using the median and 95% confidence intervals across the five iterations We derived the SAI of surrogate effectiveness83 which quantifies the rate of inclusion of target biodiversity units across areas selected optimally based on the targets themselves where s is the area under the surrogate curve the optimal and the surrogate curves coincide (perfect surrogacy); if SAI is between 1 and 0 the surrogate curve is above the random curve (positive surrogacy); if SAI = 0 the surrogate and random curves are the same (no surrogacy); and if SAI < 0 the surrogate curve is below the random curve (negative surrogacy) We used the following descriptors to define SAI performance: 0.01–0.19 as very poor this does not mean that 50% of targets are represented and 50% of targets are not represented we reported the median and 95% confidence intervals based on the five target and surrogate curve iterations and 100 random curve iterations Nitrogen levels in water around the world are highly correlated with population density sanitation practices and agricultural activities Here the nitrogen layer was predicted globally and provides valuable information about nitrogen concentrations in areas where no previous observations have been made We rasterized the baseline water stress and the nitrogen layers to a 0.5 × 0.5 latitude–longitude grids (approximately 50-km resolution; WGS84) to match the species rasters we excluded cells with missing water stress data across the world’s land (12% of cells excluded) We found that 44% of the world’s cells with water stress data had no threatened freshwater species but these cells were still included in the analysis we excluded cells missing nitrogen data across the world’s land Among the remaining cells with nitrogen data but again these were retained in the analysis we organized sites (grid cells) in the species matrix from those with high abiotic values to low abiotic values for ranking cells We generated five random terrestrial grid cell sequences for constructing the surrogate curves so we randomly changed the rank order only between those cells that have the same values Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked 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Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13178145 (2024) Download references We thank the IUCN Red List assessors (Supplementary Note 1); N Vishwanath for their contributions to coordinating the IUCN Red List assessment efforts for freshwater fishes; and J Hart for assistance in processing the nitrogen data layer for the surrogacy analysis We acknowledge funding and support for the global assessment efforts for freshwater fishes and odonates from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University; Asian Development Bank; Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment; Auckland Zoo; California Academy of Sciences; Câmara Municipal de Vila do Conde; Center for Species Survival New Mexico BioPark Society; Comitato Italiano IUCN; Comité Français de l’UICN; Conservation International; Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund; Department of Fisheries Malawi; Dirección General de Diversidad Biológica del Ministerio del Ambiente de Perú; Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Environment Agency Abu Dhabi; European Union; Federazione Italiana dei Parchi e delle Riserve Naturali (Federparchi); Fonds Pacifique; Global Center for Species Survival Indianapolis Zoo; Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos von Humboldt; IBAT; International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation; IUCN; IUCN’s Bureau Regional de l’Afrique Centrale et Ouest; IUCN Moroccan National Committee; IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands; IUCN SSC; IUCN Tunisian National Committee; IUCN Water and Nature Initiative; John D MacArthur Foundation; JRS Biodiversity Foundation; Junta de Andalucia; Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum National University of Singapore; Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries; Mandai Wildlife Group; MAVA Foundation; Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare; Missouri Botanical Garden We acknowledge funding for this analysis and manuscript from the Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation; the Global Environment Facility (GEF); and the support of the IUCN GEF Project Agency The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN The designation of geographical entities in this paper do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN concerning the legal status of any country or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos Oxford University Museum of Natural History Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture and College of Science and Engineering Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Durrel Institute for Conservation and Ecology (DICE) Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers National Research University (TIIAME NRU) Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Genética Ambiental — UNDAV Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research Department of Evolutionary Genetics & Humboldt University Berlin Thaer-Institute for Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences Mott MacDonald Environment and Social Division (ENS) Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity Tervuren and KU Leuven (Leuven University) Mindanao State University–Iligan Institute of Technology conceived the original idea and curated the data secured the principal funding for the analysis and manuscript are affiliated with commercial companies (Elimia but their contributions to this paper were made in a voluntary capacity The other authors declare no competing interests Nature thanks Anthony Ricciardi and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Threatened species include those assessed as Critically Endangered or Vulnerable (including those flagged as Possibly Extinct and Possibly Extinct in the Wild) Habitats are coded following the IUCN Habitats Classification Scheme (version 3.1) and combined for presentation as follows (value of highest hierarchical level is indicated all subsequent levels are included): wetlands (5); forest (1); artificial (combined) (14 13); shrubland (3); grassland (4); rocky areas (6); savanna (2); caves & subterranean (7); and desert (8) The following habitats are not shown: introduced vegetation (16); other (17); and unknown (18) Number of species: threatened freshwater species n = 4,236; and threatened tetrapods n = 7,108 Values and curves are shown for two alternative conservation strategies: a) maximises rarity-weighted richness and b) maximises inclusion of the most range-restricted species See Methods for a full explanation of each strategy Surrogate effectiveness is measured using the Species Accumulation Index (SAI): values range from −∞ to 1 values between 1 and 0 indicating positive surrogacy and values less than 0 indicating negative surrogacy with lower and upper confidence intervals in brackets Blue lines are the optimal curves (accumulation of target diversity based on target priority areas); red lines are the surrogate curves (accumulation of target diversity based on surrogate priority areas); and grey lines are the random curves (accumulation of target diversity based on random selection of areas) based on 100 randomisations) are shown in lighter shading around curves; most are too small to be visible Values and curves are shown for two alternative conservation strategies: 1) maximises rarity-weighted richness and 2) maximises inclusion of the most range-restricted species See Methods for a full explanation of each strategies and values of water stress based on 100 randomisations) shown in lighter shading around curves; most are too small to be visible This file contains Supplementary Note 1 and Supplementary Table 1 Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08375-z Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain. Nutrient trends in European water bodiesPlease select a resource that has a preview image available The average nitrate concentration in European groundwater is fluctuating around the same level and there is no clear trend (Figure 1) but more representative time series starting in 2000 follows the longer one closely is the main driver for nitrate in groundwater Status of nitrates in rivers in European countriesLoading chart...Rivers that drain land with intense agriculture or a high population density generally have the highest nitrate concentrations the largest proportion of river sites with average nitrate concentrations exceeding 5.6mgNO3-N/l (25%) was found in Lithuania and Switzerland had a high proportion (more than 32%) of sites with concentrations exceeding 3.6mgNO3-N/l There has been a significant decrease in river nitrate concentrations at 49% of the monitoring sites since 1992 An an increase is shown at 12% of the sites Germany and Slovakia had the highest proportion of significantly decreasing trends (82-100%) Spain and Switzerland had similar proportions of significantly increasing and decreasing trends while Estonia and Lithuania had the highest proportion of significantly increasing trends (44% and 59% contributing to the pattern seen in the European time series Other country time series show different patterns This indicator shows concentrations of phosphate and nitrate in rivers total phosphorus in lakes and nitrate in groundwater bodies The indicator can be used to illustrate geographical variations in current nutrient concentrations and temporal trends Large inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus to water bodies from waste water and agricultural areas can lead to eutrophication This causes ecological changes that can result in a loss of aquatic biodiversity (reduction in ecological status) and can have negative impacts on the use of water for human consumption and recreation Annual mean concentrations are used as a basis in the indicator analyses The aggregation to annual mean concentrations is done by the EEA unless the country has reported aggregated data only Automatic quality control procedures are applied both to the disaggregated and aggregated data excluding data failing the tests from further analysis focusing on suspicious values having a major impact on the country time series and on the most recently reported data Such values are removed from the analysis and checked with the country only complete series after inter/extrapolation are used This is to ensure that the aggregated time series are consistent Inter/extrapolation of gaps up to three years are allowed to increase the number of available time series At the beginning or end of the data series missing values are replaced by the first or last value of the original data series The selected time series are aggregated to country and European level by averaging across all sites for each year Absolute and relative Sen slopes are summarized across Europe and countries by averaging For the trend analysis the same time series as for the time series analysis are used Nutrient conditions vary throughout the year depending on the annual average concentrations should ideally be based on samples collected throughout the year Using annual averages representing only part of the year introduces some uncertainty but it also makes it possible to include more sites which reduces the uncertainty in spatial coverage the majority of the annual averages represent the whole year Nitrate concentrations in groundwater originate mainly from anthropogenic activities as a result of agricultural land use Concentrations in water are the effect of a multidimensional and time-related process which varies from groundwater body to groundwater body and is less quantified To properly evaluate the nitrate concentration in groundwater and its development closely-related parameters such as ammonium and dissolved oxygen should be taken into account The indicator is meant to give a representative overview of nutrient conditions in European rivers This means it should reflect the variability in nutrient conditions over space and time Countries are asked to provide data on rivers lakes and important groundwater bodies according to specified criteria The datasets for groundwater and rivers include almost all countries within the EEA but the time coverage varies from country to country It is assumed that the data from each country represents the variability in space in their country it is assumed that the sampling frequency is sufficiently high to reflect variability in time the representativeness will vary between countries Each annual update of the indicator is based on the updated set of monitoring sites This also means that due to changes in the database including changes in the QC procedure that excludes or re-includes individual sites or samples and retroactive reporting of data for the past periods which may re-introduce lost time series that were not used in the recent indicator assessments the derived results of the assessment vary in comparison to previous assessments Waterbase contains a large amount of data collected over many years Ensuring the quality of the data has always been a high priority suspicious values or time series are sometimes detected and the automatic QC routines exclude some of the data Through the communication with the reporting countries the quality of the database can be further improved Using annual average values provides an overview of general trends and geographical patterns in line with the aim of the indicator The concentration of nitrate is expressed as milligrams of nitrate per litre (mgNO3/l) for groundwater and milligrams of nitrate-nitrogen per litre (mgNO3-N/l) for rivers The concentration of phosphate in rivers is expressed as milligrams of phosphate-phosphorus per litre (mgPO4-P/l) and total phosphorus in lakes is expressed as milligrams of phosphorus per litre (mgP/l) The river sites are assigned to different concentration classes to visualise the distribution (percentage) of data in the dataset At first, the satellite image of Lake Titicaca which sits high in the Andes Mountains on the border between Bolivia and Peru yellows and greens along its coastlines. The colours graphically represent pollution – much of it raw sewage and farm runoff – flowing into the lake from surrounding communities. The satellite image is part of the Freshwater Ecosystems Explorer a groundbreaking data platform developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners that shows the health of millions of lakes The online site is designed to shine a spotlight on the state of the planet’s freshwater ecosystems and the reserves they hold which experts say are under mounting pressure from climate change pollution and a host of other threats. “Fresh water is fundamental to life on this planet and the website is enabling access to what is vital information,” said Sinikinesh Jimma head of UNEP’s Marine and Freshwater Branch “The more people know about the state of their local freshwater bodies the more they can do to protect and restore them.” Jimma made the comments just ahead of World Water Day which falls on March 22 and is designed to raise awareness about the importance of better managing freshwater resources the day will focus on the preservation of glaciers which are in retreat in many places around the world. Want to check out the health of a lake, river or aquifer near you? You can begin with a quick introduction to the Freshwater Ecosystems Explorer, which draws on data from a range of sources, including satellites. Once you’re ready, you can dive into the explorer proper where you’ll find detailed information on the extent and state of freshwater bodies around the world. Many of those challenges have been laid bare by the Freshwater Ecosystems Explorer which charts any body of water on the Earth’s surface larger than 30 metres by 30 metres It offers what experts call an unprecedented level of detail tracking not only pollution but also the size of freshwater bodies some over the course of decades. It shows, for example, how years of drought led to the near-calamitous shrinking of South Africa’s reservoir Theewaterskloof Dam, which supplies the city of Cape Town with drinking water. It also reveals how a surge in rainfall in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland "The explorer highlights how robust data can help countries manage their freshwater resources in a more holistic “That is crucial to safeguarding this most precious of resources for generations to come.” Not all news was bad, though. The explorer has charted the rebound of several bodies of water, including Iran’s Lake Urmia where an effort to unblock its feeder rivers have caused water levels to rise in a lake once thought near dead. That was part of a larger trend that has seen countries revive many freshwater bodies, including some of the world’s most-polluted urban rivers. Restoring freshwater ecosystems and other inland water bodies is a key aim of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework a landmark 2022 agreement to halt and reverse the decline of the natural world. The Freshwater Ecosystems Explorer was developed by UNEP the European Commission Joint Research Centre and Google The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework The planet is experiencing a dangerous decline in nature. One million species are threatened with extinction, soil health is declining and water sources are drying up. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework sets out global targets to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 It was adopted by world leaders in December 2022 To address the drivers of the nature crisis UNEP is working with partners to take action in landscapes and seascapes Editor's note: The story was updated on 19 March 2025 to reflect accurately the name of the reservoir supplying Cape Town with water. Area and population affected during at least one quarter of the year by water scarcity conditions in the EU measured by the water exploitation index plusPlease select a resource that has a preview image available Freshwater resources are essential for human health, nature and the functioning of economies and societies. However, across the EU, these resources are threatened by multiple pressures. To address this, the Water framework directive requires Member States to promote the sustainable use and the long-term protection of available water resources The Water exploitation index plus (WEI+) measures water consumption as a percentage of renewable freshwater resources at river basin or subunit levels This detailed approach reveals local water scarcity conditions that broader annual WEI estimates at European or country levels may not reveal WEI+ values above 20% indicate that water resources are under stress and therefore water scarcity conditions prevail while values above 40% signal water stress is severe and the level of freshwater use may be unsustainable Figure 1 shows the percentage of EU territory and population affected in at least one of the four quarters of the year by water scarcity conditions (Seasonal WEI+ above 20%) about 30% of the EU territory and 34% of the population are affected each year water scarcity conditions affected 34% of the population and 40% of the EU land area Climate change is expected to intensify seasonal fluctuations of freshwater availability in Europe. Drought events are also likely to further increase in frequency, intensity, and impact. Given these factors and a worsening trend since 2010, a reduction in water scarcity by 2030 appears unlikely (Figure 1). Worst seasonal water scarcity conditions for European countries in 2022 measured by the water exploitation index plus (WEI+)Please select a resource that has a preview image available Cyprus and Malta faced the most significant water scarcity conditions of the EU Member States on the seasonal scale (seasonal WEI+ >40%) Spain and Romania experienced water scarcity particularly during spring and summer Malta is experiencing the permanent water scarcity conditions partly due to its natural hydro-climatic conditions Türkiye is the most severely challenged (Figure 2) water scarcity conditions intensify between April and September in most countries This is caused by a combination of dry weather reduced flows and increased abstractions for irrigated agriculture and other socio-economic activities during these periods Certain river sub-basins were affected by seasonal water scarcity in 2022. Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Netherland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Slovakia (seasonal WEI+ >20%; see detailed information on seasonal WEI+ at Subunit scale) were all effected The WEI+ provides a measure of total water consumption as a percentage of the renewable freshwater resources available for a given territory and period The difference between water abstractions and the water returned to the environment by economic sectors before or after use is referred to as 'water consumption’ The WEI+ is an advanced geo-referenced version of the WEI endorsed by the Water Directors in 2012 as part of the overall indicator set for water scarcity and drought a technical working group established under the Water Framework Directive's Common Implementation Strategy proposed the implementation of a regional ‘WEI+’ This would use two different optional formulas based on the landscape conditions of river basins no human intervention or human intervention with hydrological cycle The regional WEI+ is calculated according to the following formula: WEI+=(abstractions-returns)/renewable freshwater resources Renewable freshwater resources are calculated as ‘ExIn+P-Eta±ΔS’ for natural and semi-natural areas (free of human intervention) and as ‘OUTFL+(abstraction-return)±ΔS’ for densely populated areas ΔS=change in water storage (lakes and reservoirs) Change water storage in lakes and reservoirs is computed as ΔS =(P+INFL)-(Eta+OUTFL) INFL=Inflow in lakes and reservoir from upstream area For further clarification on the methodological implementation together with the data sources, see the WAT001_Conceptual model of WEI+ computation.pdf The WEI+ results are classified into 10% intervals for mapping purposes, ranking between 0 and 40, with a 20% WEI threshold is used to estimate the area and population affected by water scarcity at subunit scale for the EU-27. It is important to note that there is no formally agreed-upon threshold for identifying areas experiencing water scarcity in the EU. Following the computation and classification of the WEI values, bar and pie charts are produced, together with static and dynamic maps to illustrate the extension of the WEI values over Europe. Climate data and streamflow data have been integrated from Waterbase — Water Quantity database, Eurostat database (env_wat_res and env_watres_rbd) with the gap filling from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) Lisflood model. The JRC Lisflood data cover hydro-climatic variables for Europe in a homogeneous way for the years 2000-2022 on a monthly scale. Once the data series are complete, changes in water storage (ΔS) and outflow are computed for each spatial scale, including WFD subunit, river basin district, country level for Eionet Member countries, and EU-27 level. The primary data source for observed variables of the WEI formula is WISE SoE Water Quantity, which are reported annually by Eionet member countries at various spatial and temporal scales. Additionally, Eurostat data on annual water resources and abstraction is included in the indicator's computation. If data is missing at the subunit scale but available at the country level, annual country-level data is disaggregated to the catchment scale of Ecrins to ensure a homogeneous monthly baseline, while reported data on monthly resolution from the subunit or river basin scale is included directly in the computation of the WEI+. The purpose of developing the WAT001 indicator is to provide a European overview of seasonal water scarcity in river basins. However, gaps in the database significantly hinder this objective, as WISE SoE and Eurostat datasets show large gaps in both temporal and spatial coverage across Europe. To address these gaps, both water abstraction and renewable water resources components are supplemented with gap-filling methods. If the reported data is not available for renewable water resources, Copernicus data (Lisflood-JRC) is used to compute total outflow at the subunit, river basin, or country level, and to estimate changes in water storage of lakes and reservoirs. Machine learning has recently been used to fill gaps in water abstraction data for agriculture. For industry, cooling water, and public water supply, gap filling follows the statistical method outlined in the Eurostat EDAMIS report. The details of the gap filling methods per indicator variable can be seen in WAT001_Conceptual model of WEI+ computation_10 10 2024.pdf Monitoring data on lakes and reservoirs are incomplete. Using the modelled data may mask the actual volume of water stored in, and water flow in and out from reservoirs. Thus, the impact of the residence time, between water storage and use is unknown. Water returns are largely based on return coefficients, which are estimated using various surrogate data. Furthermore, the return coefficients could not be estimated at finer spatial scales than the country. This creates uncertainty in the quantification and distribution of water returns from economic sectors, thus also leading to uncertainty with regard to the ‘water consumption component. Due to inconsistencies in the data for OUTFL and ΔS, the change in water storage variable could not be included in the WEI+ computation for some subunits and RBDs e.g. Romania. Subunits and River Basin Districts (RBDs) where ΔS is excluded are marked as 'changeInWaterStorageNOTINCLUDED' in the final dataset. There is a significant break in the time series of water abstraction data for Kosovo, which causes spikes in the Water Exploitation Index (WEI) values for this country. Spatial data for subunits and river basins are not available for Türkiye and the Western Balkan countries. Therefore, the WEI+ could only be computed at the country level for these Eionet countries. Countries may report historical data during the current reporting period to WISE SoE or Eurostat. In such cases, previously gap-filled data are replaced with the reported data, which may change the country-specific or European-level overview. As a result, some differences may appear in parts of the indicator assessment. Due to the aggregation procedure used, slight differences exist in some cases between subunit, river basin district, and country levels for total renewable water resources and water use. Justification for indicator selection The EU’s new circular economy action plan explicitly addresses water stress and contains provisions for improving resource efficiency in the context of water resource management. The new Water Reuse Regulation, aims at enhancing the use of reclaimed water in agriculture by setting out minimum requirements for water reuse. The replacement of freshwater abstractions with reclaimed water may decrease the pressure to surface water and groundwater. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) promotes sustainable farming that ensures affordable, safe, and high-quality food, while protecting natural resources, enhancing biodiversity, and supporting rural communities. It also supports investments in water conservation, irrigation upgrades, and farmer training. The European Green Deal aims to decouple economic growth from resource use by promoting a clean, circular economy with reduced environmental impact, while the Farm to Fork Strategy, as part of the Green Deal, targets sustainable food systems, where clean and sufficient water is an essential natural resource. The new Climate Adaptation Strategy focuses on faster and more systemic climate adaptation and international cooperation for climate resilience. One of its main objectives is to support the reduction of water use and by promoting the wider use of drought management plans as well as sustainable soil management and land-use. The recast Drinking Water Directive requires the assessment of the current level of leakages in water infrastructure and the implementation of measures for their reduction. The requirement covers at least water suppliers supplying more than 10 000 m3 per day or serving more than 50 000 people. The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims at restoring freshwater ecosystems (“at least 25,000 km of free-flowing rivers"). In this regard, the EU Biodiversity Strategy emphasises the WFD requirement to review water abstraction and impoundment permits to implement ecological flows and achieve good status or potential of all surface waters and good status of all groundwater by 2027 at the latest. There are no specific quantitative targets directly related to this indicator. However, the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC) requires Member States to promote the sustainable use of water resources based on the long-term protection of available water resources, and to ensure a balance between abstraction and the recharge of groundwater, with the aim of achieving good groundwater status and good ecological status or potential for surface waters. WEI+ values are given as percentages, i.e. water use as a percentage of renewable water resources. Share of total annual water abstraction by source in the 27 EU Member States 2000-2022Please select a resource that has a preview image available Freshwater plays an important role in European societies and economies, meeting demands for drinking, food, energy, industry, transport, and ecosystems. It is essential for human consumption, energy, agriculture, industry, transport, and ecosystems. The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) aims to promote sustainable water use prevent further deterioration of water resources and protect and enhance the status of aquatic ecosystems Freshwater demand in the 27 EU Member States (EU-27) is met largely by abstraction from surface waters (rivers, reservoirs, and lakes) and groundwater. Monitoring changes in water abstraction from these resources is key to tracking progress towards meeting the objectives of the WFD and the European Green Deal Total freshwater abstraction per year in the EU-27 decreased by 19% from 242,000 million m³ in 2000 to 197,000 million m³ in 2022 the relative contributions of surface and groundwater have changed Surface water accounted for 80% of abstraction and groundwater for 20% in 2000 while surface water accounted for only 74% and groundwater for 26% in 2022 The increase in water abstraction from groundwater can largely be attributed to increasing demand in public water supply (18%) across Europe and in the agriculture sector (17%) Groundwater accounted for 62% of the total public water supply and 33% of agricultural water demands during 2022 in the EU-27 Furthermore, seasonal variability in surface water availability is changing. Due to climate change, the availability of surface water in the spring and summer months has been reduced. This is when agricultural demand is the highest, particularly in southern Europe, and increases the pressure on the more stable groundwater Notable achievements have been made in decreasing overall water abstraction in the EU in the last 23 years. However, further measures are required to enhance water resource use and adapt to climate change. This will assist the EU in becoming more resilient to uncertainties in water availability while also meeting the overall objectives of the WFD and the European Green Deal Explore water abstraction by source at the country level. Water abstraction by economic sector in the 27 EU Member States Abstraction for cooling in electricity generation remained the largest contributor in the EU-27 to total annual water abstraction (34%) in 2022 This is followed by abstraction for agriculture (29%) public water supply (21%) and manufacturing (15%) Construction and mining and quarrying each accounted for only 1% of total abstraction while abstraction declined in some sectors it increased in public water supply (+10%) and construction (+2%) and agriculture (+3%) have also shown an increasing trend Explore water abstraction by economic sector at the country level This indicator monitors water abstraction from groundwater and surface water overall as well as for specific economic sectors: cooling in electricity generation Water abstraction is presented as million m³ of water abstracted by economic sector from surface water and groundwater Economic sectors are defined in line with NACE (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Communities) sections: It takes into account the gross volume of water abstracted and excludes water returns from the economy back to the environment The purpose of the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) is — inter alia — to promote sustainable water use based on the long-term protection of available water resources The EU’s new circular economy action plan explicitly addresses water stress and contains provisions for improving resource efficiency in the context of water resource management The new Water Reuse Regulation aims at enhancing the use of reclaimed water in agriculture by setting out minimum requirements for water reuse The replacement of freshwater abstractions with reclaimed water may decrease the pressure to surface water and groundwater caution is needed regarding the impacts of water reuse on ecological flows as treated outflows of urban wastewater treatment plants can be a significant share of the existing river flow The common agricultural policy (CAP) aims to achieve the production of affordable safe and good-quality food by implementing environmentally sustainable farming that protects natural resources and landscapes addresses climate change risks and stimulates the growth of rural communities and economies the CAP supports investments in water conservation upgrading irrigation infrastructure and training farmers to improve irrigation techniques This indicator provides information to support the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) for CAP implementation which was established by the European Commission The CMEF includes different sets of indicators on a range of agricultural issues such as a set of impact indicators measuring the impact of policy interventions the European Green Deal sets out the European Commission’s focus on decoupling economic growth from resource use where resources are used more efficiently and the pressures on the environment are decreased which focuses on making food systems more sustainable is an integral part of the European Green Deal The new Climate Adaptation Strategy focuses on faster and more systemic climate adaptation and international cooperation for climate resilience One of its main objectives is to support the reduction of water use by raising the water-saving requirements for products and by promoting the wider use of drought management plans as well as sustainable soil management and land use The recast Drinking Water Directive requires the assessment of the current level of leakages in water infrastructure and the implementation of measures for their reduction The requirement covers at least water suppliers supplying more than 10,000 m³ per day or serving more than 50 000 people The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims at restoring freshwater ecosystems (“at least 25,000 km of free-flowing rivers") the EU Biodiversity Strategy emphasises the WFD requirement to review water abstraction and impoundment permits to implement ecological flows and achieve good status or potential of all surface waters and good status of all groundwater by 2027 at the latest The following uncertainties are related to the data sets used for the indicator: · The reported volumes of water abstracted do not account for unauthorised or unregistered self-abstraction Slovenia) do not report abstraction for agricultural activities other than irrigated crop production (e.g Poland) use dual irrigation/drainage systems (i.e drainage during wet seasons and submerged irrigation in dry seasons by raising water tables in rivers or groundwater) It is not clear if the reported agricultural abstraction volumes account for these practices · Water abstraction for public water supply is associated with high degrees of uncertainty particularly in tourism hotspot destinations because of double counting arising from water also being used by tourists at their origins · Gap filling the data on water abstraction for agriculture electricity cooling and manufacturing had to be performed because of large gaps in the database for those variables that are associated with high degrees of uncertainty the data used in this indicator assessment may largely deviate from the national data that countries collect See the additional clarification on the data gap filling methods Water abstraction by sector is given as millions of cubic meters (million m3) and water abstraction from surface water and groundwater as percentage Metrics details Consumption behaviours exert pressure on water resources both locally and globally through interconnected supply chains hindering the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and 12 (Responsible consumption and production) it is challenging to link hotspots of water depletion across spatial scales to final consumption while reflecting intersectoral competition for water we estimated the global exceedance of regional freshwater boundaries (RFBs) due to human water withdrawal at a 5-arcmin grid scale using 2015 data enabling the identification of hotspots across different spatial scales we used average estimates from 15 global hydrological models and 5 environmental flow requirement methods We further attributed the hotspots of exceedance to final consumption across 245 economies and 134 sectors via the multi-region input–output model EMERGING Our refined framework revealed previously unknown connections between regional hotspots and consumption through international trade we found that 24% of grid-level RFB exceedance (718 km3 yr−1; 95% confidence interval of 659–776 km3 yr−1) was outsourced through trade with the largest flows (52 km3 yr−1; 95% confidence interval of 47–56 km3 yr−1) from water-stressed South and Central Asia to arid West Asia The demand for cereals and other agricultural products dominated global consumption-based RFB exceedance (29%) while the exports of textiles and machinery and equipment exacerbated territorial exceedance in manufacturing hubs within emerging economies Our methodology facilitates the tracing of global hotspots of water scarcity along supply chains and the assignment of responsibilities at finer scales the introduction of uncertainties through the use of a single hydrological model for RFB estimation the neglect of seasonal variations in EFR estimates or a focus only on agricultural products when assessing the impact of consumption on RFB exceedance we linked the consumption of various goods and services in one country to specific areas such as cities river basins and nations where RFBs are exceeded providing a comprehensive assessment of the impact of consumption on freshwater systems across different spatial levels Such insights can facilitate the tracing of global water depletion hotspots along the supply chain and the assignment of responsibilities at finer scales Global RFB exceedance in 2015 at a 5-arcmin grid scale The colour map is shown on the log10 scale Note that the figure includes only those economies with populations over 1 million The colour code at the bottom of the figure applies to c only a,b, Intersector flows of global RFB exceedance from production to consumption (a) and global RFB exceedance flows embodied in trade by region (b) in 2015. Labels S1–S17 are defined in the legend in Fig. 2 The largest exceedance flows occurred from water-stressed South and Central Asia for the production of exports to arid West Asia Myanmar and Turkey embodied RFB exceedances of 6.3 East Asia and North America are mutual primary trade partners Sino–American trade was almost balanced in terms of net exceedance: China caused 24.3 km3 of exceedance in the United States through imports whereas the United States caused 25.0 km3 of exceedance in China This indicates that emerging economies dominate the net exporters (with the exception of Spain) whereas developed economies dominate net importers of RFB exceedances For water-scarce countries heavily reliant on imports it is crucial to consider the freshwater boundary of the supplying countries when implementing virtual water import strategies This would help to avoid exacerbating RFB exceedance elsewhere and reduce the risk of introducing food and water crises through imports Adopting these strategies holds promise for mitigating human impacts on freshwater systems thereby contributing to the achievement of SDGs 6 and 12 we did not consider the impact of human interactions such as water diversion projects or water storage the RFB exceedance was evaluated for only one year without accounting for temporal variations or the potential impacts of future climate change The GWS for grid cell k (GWSk) is calculated as follows: where RFBk is the freshwater boundary of grid cell k on an annual scale and wwk is the annual water withdrawal A negative value indicates RFB exceedance and a positive value indicates withdrawal within the RFB As only exceedance was considered in this study the GWS for was counted as 0 for positive values We calculated RFBs using a bottom-up approach allocating different proportions of mean monthly flows (MMFs) to meet EFRs in different flow seasons This estimation starts at a grid cell (5 arcmin) scale and can be aggregated to obtain freshwater boundaries at different spatial scales (basin which shows that the ensemble mean approach helps to reduce model uncertainties compared with the use of a single model the total national water withdrawal in country r includes household water withdrawal ${{{\rm{ww}}}}_{{r}}^{{\rm{H}}}$ and water withdrawal for economic sectors i where ${\sum }_{k}{{\rm{ww}}}_{k\in r}$ is the water withdrawal in country r aggregated by water withdrawal of grid cell k belonging to country r and Rhw,r is the proportion of household water withdrawal in country r where ${{{\rm{ww}}}}_{r}^{{{\rm{ai}}}}$ is the water withdrawal of agriculture-related sectors ai in country r; ${{{\rm{ww}}}}_{r}^{{\rm{a}}}$ is the national total water withdrawal of irrigation/livestock ${{{\rm{wi}}}}_{r}^{{{\rm{ai}}}}$ is the blue water footprint intensity of crop products/farm animals and ${p}_{r}^{{{\rm{ai}}}}$ is the total production for 204 agricultural and 206 animal products in country r Then we multiplied the water withdrawal intensity and output value of the corresponding sectors of EMERGING to obtain the raw water withdrawal volume of the 80 sectors and constrained sectoral water withdrawal by the grid-scale total national water withdrawal volume for manufacturing and electricity: where ${{{\rm{wi}}}}_{{r}{{\rm{EXIOBASE}}}}^{{{\rm{mi}}}}$ is the water withdrawal intensity of manufacturing-related sectors mi in country r; ${w}_{{r}{{\rm{EXIOBASE}}}}^{{{\rm{mi}}}}$ is the water withdrawal of sectors mi in country r ${x}_{{r}{{\rm{EXIOBASE}}}}^{{{\rm{mi}}}}$ is the output of sectors mi from EXIOBASE 3 in country r ${{{\rm{ww}}}}_{r}^{{{\rm{mi}}}}$ is the water withdrawal of manufacturing-related sectors mi in country r; ${{{\rm{ww}}}}_{r}^{{\rm{m}}}$ is the national total water withdrawal of manufacturing/electricity and ${x}_{{r{\rm{EMERGING}}}}^{{{\rm{mi}}}}$ is the output value of the corresponding sectors from EMERGING in country r the raw national water withdrawal of service sectors was constrained by the sectoral water withdrawal by the grid-scale total national water withdrawal volume for the domestic sector: where ${{{\rm{wi}}}}_{{r}{{\rm{EXIOBASE}}}}^{{{\rm{si}}}}$ is the water withdrawal intensity of service-related sectors si in country r; ${w}_{{r}{{\rm{EXIOBASE}}}}^{{{\rm{si}}}}$ is the water withdrawal of sectors si in country r ${x}_{{r}{{\rm{EXIOBASE}}}}^{{{\rm{si}}}}$ is the output of sectors si from EXIOBASE 3 in country r ${{{\rm{ww}}}}_{r}^{{{\rm{si}}}}$ is the water withdrawal of service-related sectors si in country r; ${{{\rm{ww}}}}_{r}^{{\rm{D}}}$ is the national total water withdrawal of the domestic sector URr is the urbanization rate of country r; ${{{\rm{wi}}}}_{{r}{{\rm{EXIOBASE}}}}^{{{\rm{si}}}}$ is the water withdrawal intensity calculated by EXIOBASE 3 and ${x}_{{r}{{\rm{EMERGING}}}}^{{{\rm{si}}}}$ is the output value of the corresponding sectors from EMERGING in country r To construct the RFB exceedance inventory, we allocated the grid-scale exceedance values to 8 main economic sectors, aggregated the grid-scale sectoral exceedances to the national scale and expanded the initial 8 sectors into 134 subsectors and household (Supplementary Fig. 9) which provides global irrigated water withdrawal for major crops at 5-arcmin resolution for 2015 The RFB exceedances for the eight main sectors gi in grid cell k where ${{{\rm{ww}}}}_{k}^{{{\rm{gi}}}}$ is the water withdrawal of one of the eight main sectors gi in the exceeding grid cell k edible fruits and electricity align directly with the economic sectors in the EMERGING MRIO model These four sectors together account for 88% of global RFB exceedance maximally preserving the grid-scale characteristics of RFB exceedance where $\hat{{d}_{r}}={{{\rm{GWS}}}}_{r}/{x}_{r}$ is the RFB exceedance intensity in diagonal matrix form representing the RFB exceedance of each sector per unit of output in country r; GWSr is the RFB exceedance of country r by sector (that is the RFB exceedance inventory estimated in the above section) which is aggregated from the grid-scale RFB exceedance (I − Arr)−1 is the Leontief inverse matrix where I is the unit matrix and Arr is the technical coefficient matrix ${\hat{y}}_{r}\,$ is the final consumption of country r and ${\hat{e}}_{{rs}}$ is the export of the final products from country r to other countries The worldwide exceedance due to the consumption of sector i by country s includes exceedances caused by the domestic production for domestic consumption of product i and exceedances caused by foreign production to meet the consumption of country s includes exceedances caused by household water withdrawal and to meet the final consumption towards product i Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article Environmental and social footprints of international trade Blue water footprint linked to national consumption and international trade is unsustainable Regional carrying capacities of freshwater consumption—current pressure and its sources Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade Burden shifting of water quantity and quality stress from megacity Shanghai Global impacts of energy demand on the freshwater resources of nations Global unsustainable virtual water flows in agricultural trade Zhao, X. et al. 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Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14843563 (2025) Download references This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFE0113000 the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72074136 the Major Grant in National Social Sciences of China (23VRC037 the Taishan Scholar Youth Expert Program of Shandong Province (NO the China Scholarship Council PhD programme (S.H.) and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region These authors contributed equally: Siyu Hou Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen (ESRIG) Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling Department of Agricultural Economics and Management Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action Institute of Engineering Hydrology and Water Resources Management The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction supervised and coordinated the overall research; all authors participated in the writing and revision of the paper The authors declare no competing interests Nature Water thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-025-00420-z a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research For best viewing experience of this website Please enter a place name in the search bar your friends and family safe at the beach with links to Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Met Office advice Enjoy the beach but be aware that the wind may affect your control of direction • Beginner paddleboarders/kayakers should go on the water with an instructor or a more experienced person Tide times and heights are from Stackpole Quay tidal station which is 2.6 miles away. 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Contains ADMIRALTY® tidal data: © Crown Copyright and database right After provisionally the warmest May Day on record in the UK higher than average temperatures will subside over the weekend High pressure brings further fine and settled weather this week Patchy cloud clears this evening leaving a settled evening with some late sunshine Rather chilly beneath clear skies overnight with a frost developing in places and with light winds With light winds and plenty of strong sunshine it will begin to feel quite warm The remainder of the week will see high pressure dominating Dry across the vast majority of the UK with clear or sunny spells but also some patchy cloud Cloud will likely thicken across the far north and northwest during the weekend with some outbreaks of rain for a time There is also a small risk of some heavy showers in the far south or southwest high pressure will be dominant across the UK This will bring predominantly fine and dry weather for the majority of places Temperatures are likely to be slightly above normal for the time of year although there is a chance of some cold nights Fairly typical weather for the time of year is most likely through this period fine and dry weather is more likely to dominate although this will be interspersed with occasional spells of rain and showers with a risk of heavy rain and thunderstorms in places temperatures will most likely be near to or slightly above average Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment University of Waterloo provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA University of Waterloo provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR View all partners along a river or on a bay for some much-needed rest and relaxation while for others it’s a time to cruise the lake or enjoy the thrill of water-skiing Over the last decade, there’s been a strong growth in the sale of new and pre-owned motorboats, and in particular, wake boats that are designed to generate large wakes While recreational boating is a multi-billion-dollar industry in Canada and enjoyed by many — including me — there has been increasing concern among cottage owners and other advocacy groups about the impact of the wakes generated by these boats There is increasing evidence that boat wakes erode the shoreline, disrupt aquatic ecosystems, degrade water quality and pose a safety hazard to those at the shoreline or also on the water In Ontario’s cottage country, boat wakes represent a significant portion of total wave energy Except for lakes where motorboats are restricted, the energy generated by wakes is greater than the energy of the waves generated by winds. The exact amount depends on the size, shape and depth of the body of water, but recent research I conducted with colleagues suggests wakes can account for up to 90 per cent of the total wave energy in small lakes with widths up to five kilometres The water is more murky than ever before and the constant large waves makes it unsafe for my kids to swim at times.” Wakes not only represent an increase in the number of waves but they are also responsible for waves of greater height and energy particularly those generated by wake boats the greater the wake energy at the shoreline lake arms and in bays due to the types and frequency of boating in those areas There is limited impact along rocky shorelines but change can occur where the shorelines are muddy or sandy and the water is shallow Just like large storm waves, wakes can erode the shoreline and uproot and undermine shoreline vegetation. The resuspension of bottom sediment and organic material can also degrade water quality and clarity, leading to the development of algae blooms and hypoxia and the dispersion of contaminants “We have boats that are enhanced for sale surfing and our lake is not wide enough or deep enough to handle the energy generated by the wakes that are produced by these boats We have parts of our lake that are less than 20 metres wide and less than eigth feet deep and these boats are generating cut-outs on the bottom of the lake bed which of course stirs up silt from the floor bed and harms water clarity.” A cottager on Fairy Lake The turbulence can also disturb loon nests and fish spawning in shallow water by destroying nests, washing away eggs and displacing juvenile fish “It is not a coincidence we have not had loons nesting on our point for 10 years since our channel became a busy wake-surfing mecca.” A cottager on Lake Joseph residents and cottage owners also raised concerns that wakes cause damage to shoreline infrastructure and docked vessels leading to greater maintenance and repair costs Large wakes can make it difficult for smaller slower boats to navigate safely who may be knocked off balance or even swept out by larger waves While studies suggest that wakes represent a significant portion of the wave energy on small lakes there has been little actual documentation of impacts and we discovered that there was little direct evidence of erosion Most examples were extreme and highlighted potential hotspots of shoreline change associated with boat wakes “Our shoreline has eroded approximately six feet in the last 10 years causing trees and shoreline to collapse into the lake.” A Lake Joseph cottager Most respondents to the survey identified boat operation, the experience of the operators and use of the lake by other users (for example, those fishing, swimming and relaxing) as the primary issues associated with wakes and boating in general. This is consistent with another recent study that found no evidence of shoreline erosion but an increase in sediment resuspension and phosphorus availability Further study is needed to determine when and where boat wakes are a physical and/or ecological stressor rather than simply being a disturbance to the peaceful cottage country scene There is no doubt that the debate over the impact of boat wakes will continue this summer but hopefully it won’t make our time on the dock this summer too rocky led by the University of Sheffield found that food webs are becoming less complex in warmer Warming water temperatures and increased nutrient levels are putting freshwater ecosystems at serious risk Scientists previously thought warming temperatures caused by climate change and increased nutrient levels due to pollution might offset each other’s impact on aquatic life a new study has shown warming waters and nutrient overload is a dangerous combination threatening our rivers and lakes. conducted by an international team of scientists from the University of Sheffield University of Oxford and University of Savoie Mont Blanc and the French National Research Institute for Agriculture analysing the complex relationships between fish species. This simplification means shorter food chains and an ecosystem with a degraded functioning Top predators are particularly vulnerable to these changes but they are essential to the functioning and the stability of ecosystems Less than three per cent of the water on our planet is fresh yet freshwater habitats are home to almost 10 per cent of all known animals and almost half of all known fish species Freshwater ecosystems not only help to maintain water quality of the land and sea but also allow wildlife such as eels and salmon to travel vast distances to complete their life cycles and act as conveyor belts transporting nutrients that make soil good for growing food. The far reaching impact of the need to reduce pollution levels in our rivers was felt globally when the Olympic open water swimming events such as the triathlon due to take place in the Seine river in Paris had to be postponed due to harmful bacterial levels The study highlights that this need is even more urgent with the rising impacts of warming of climate change but it also suggests that reducing pollution levels is a promising path to mitigate the impacts of climate change Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Sheffield and co-first author of the study said: “The eyes of the world have been on the Seine River this summer due to the Olympic Games The challenges faced in Paris demonstrate how important it is to reduce the pollution levels in our rivers and lakes not only for our own health but for the health of our ecosystems wetlands and underground water supplies store and clean the water that's crucial for people and wildlife From providing drinking water to providing essential resources to terrestrial and marine ecosystems “These vital ecosystems also protect us from flooding filter pollution and support countless plants and animals.” Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Oxford and co-first author of the study, said: “Lake and river creatures are like the kidneys of our planet They clean water and prevent blooms of poisonous algae and bacteria Keeping them safe is keeping us safe. “Climate change and pollution are not isolated problems for our rivers and lakes Our study has found they interact in complex ways that threaten the balance of life in our waters. “By reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving water quality we can help safeguard the health of our rivers and lakes for future generations.” Postdoctoral Research Associate at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture Food and the Environment and co-first author of the study, said: “This important research has shown what a dangerous combination warming waters caused by climate change and increased nutrient levels caused by pollution are. “More positively this study shows that if we can reduce the pollution in our lakes and rivers it will better protect them against the effects of climate change and warmer waters.” View the full paper published in the journal Ecology Letters The University's cross-faculty research centres harness our interdisciplinary expertise to solve the world's most pressing challenges. Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. The Independent's journalism is supported by our readers When you purchase through links on our site Billions of people around the world rely on freshwater resources that have been dwindling in recent years I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice NASA says the world’s critical freshwater resources have been “abruptly” depleting over the past decade Billions of people rely on freshwater sources for drinking water and power generation. Around the world, 70 percent is used for agriculture. At least 10 percent of animals live exclusively in freshwater environments scientists warned shortages would affect more than half its future population by 2050 if governments failed to act The loss of freshwater may signify a shift, indicating Earth’s continents have entered a persistently drier phase An international team of scientists identified the depelation using NASA-German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites By analyzing the data they collected from their observations they found evidence of the abrupt drop in May 2014 measurements showed that the average amount of freshwater on land was 290 cubic miles lower than average levels between 2002 and 2014 “That’s two and a half times the volume of Lake Erie lost,” Matthew Rodell, a hydrologist at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin is the largest watershed in the world containing more than 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and around 84 percent of North America’s surface fresh water The satellites measure fluctuations in Earth’s gravity on a monthly time scale revealing changes in water mass both on and under the ground The decline reported in the study began with widespread drought in Brazil that was followed by other major droughts in the Americas They noted that one of the most El Niño events since 1950 - a climate pattern that causes the Pacific jet stream to shift south and east leading to warmer and drier conditions in the northern US - altered weather and rainfall patterns around the world in the mid-2010s and 13 of the world’s most intense droughts observed by the satellites have occurred since January 2015 Climate change may be contributing to this depletion although it is difficult to definitively link the drop in freshwater to global warming as there are uncertainties in climate projections Climate change results in more extreme weather events Long stretches between intense precipitation allows soil to dry and become more compact lessening the amount of water it is able to absorb when it does rain “The problem when you have extreme precipitation,” NASA Goddard meteorologist Michael Bosilovich said “is the water ends up running off,” instead of soaking in and replenishing groundwater stores “Warming temperatures increase both the evaporation of water from the surface to the atmosphere increasing the frequency and intensity of drought conditions,” he noted This year is forecast to be Earth’s warmest on record, and much of the US has been in drought conditions over the last few months. Rodell noted the nine warmest years in the modern temperature record coincided with the decline. “We don’t think this is a coincidence, and it could be a harbinger of what’s to come.” Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies NASA warns","description":"Billions of people around the world rely on freshwater resources that have been dwindling in recent years The world has mismanaged its freshwater reserves for decades, hampering progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a planet-wide agreement to halt and reverse nature loss The framework contains 23 targets designed to safeguard the natural world and that come due in 2030. “Rivers are some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet,” said Sinikinesh Beyene Jimma interim Head of UNEP’s Marine and Freshwater Branch “Given the importance of rivers and other freshwater ecosystems for food security resilience building and the world’s biodiversity their sustainable use and management is critical to ensure essential ecosystem services continue and meet the commitments of the Global Biodiversity Framework.” As representatives from 196 countries discuss the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework this week at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Cali there is growing recognition of the value of fresh water and the need to account for it in both national and local policy and financial decisions. Here are five ways countries can leverage freshwater to meet their global biodiversity and sustainability goals Implement water-related nature-based solutions with the help of communities that live along its banks Sirajganj in Bangladesh is creating a green corridor to enhance biodiversity around the city’s river Currently, 122 million people around the world rely on untreated, potentially unsafe surface water. By 2030, 4.8 billion people could face risks to health and livelihoods if water quality monitoring does not improve Effective monitoring and reporting are essential to protect human health and implement global water-focused biodiversity targets Prime examples of that come from Sierra Leone and Zambia which are integrating citizen-science data into national water quality monitoring bridging data gaps and connecting affected communities with authorities responsible for water protection. Embrace Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge   highlights the use of this traditional knowledge through monitoring and evaluation of changes in freshwater ecosystems. Tap into new tools for managing freshwater   Embrace integrated water resource management The coordinated management of freshwater ecosystems including through a process known as integrated water resource management can build resilience to climate-related disasters the European Union and UNEP are helping communities to build boreholes rehabilitate shallow wells for irrigation and introduce highly efficient drip irrigation for crops This holistic approach is designed to help stretch out available water resources and prevent displacement. More than 90 per cent of “natural” disasters are related to water in some way Experts say embracing integrated water resource management is critical to reducing the frequency and magnitude of these calamities. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework   About the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration       The UN General Assembly has declared 2021–2030 a UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Led by the UN Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and reverse the loss and degradation of ecosystems worldwide covering terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems the UN Decade draws together political support and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration Farmers of Maitollem water body, Curtorim harvesting fresh water lake fish on Sunday. MARGAOFarmers cultivating the fields at the Maitollem in Curtorim village were all in smiles as they harvested moderate fresh water fish from the water body on Sunday. Farmers descended into the lake waters early Sunday morning with fishing nets to harvest fish such as catla, catfish, kilapi, chicalo, pitol, etc. Fresh water fish lovers headed to Maitollem near the Carmel Chapel, President of Maitollem farmers Association Shubert D’Costa said the farmers have netted fresh water fish from the water body in moderate quantities. He thanked the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, South Goa for lending help and assistance by providing fish for breeding. This is the third fresh water lake harvested by the farmers’ association in the last fortnight. Copyrights 2020 Fomento Media, Goa- All rights reserved. Three reasons we missed Labor’s landslideThe polls overestimated Labor “defectors” to the Coalition and a swing among undecided voters in the final days was hard for pollsters to pick up SaveLog in or to save articleShareCopy link Share via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe As a pollster who has worked on elections in Australia and Britain for several years now I’ve been on both sides of surprise results but every election is an opportunity to teach you lessons Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you. The largest global assessment of freshwater animals on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to date has revealed that 24% of the world’s freshwater fish crayfish and shrimp species are at high risk of extinction according to an analysis published in Nature The IUCN co-authored study recommends targeted action to prevent further extinctions and calls for governments and industry to use this data in water management and policy measures The largest global assessment of freshwater animals on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ to date has revealed that 24% of the world’s freshwater fish The IUCN co-authored study recommends targeted action to prevent further extinctions and calls for governments and industry to use this data in water management and policy measures. The study found that at least 4,294 species out of 23,496 freshwater animals on the IUCN Red List are at high risk of extinction The greatest number of threatened species are found in Lake Victoria Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone and the Western Ghats of India These areas are home to some of the highest freshwater biodiversity in the world including many species found nowhere else on Earth. Underground water systems around the world have been found to contain more threatened species than expected North America is home to a high number of threatened crayfish such as the daisy burrowing crayfish (Fallicambarus jeanae) in Arkansas fifteen fish species from Lake Lanao in the Philippines were declared Extinct on the IUCN Red List. impacts over half of all threatened freshwater animals Freshwater ecosystems are further degraded by land conversion for agricultural use water extraction and the construction of dams Overfishing and the introduction of invasive alien species have had a particularly strong role in driving extinctions was declared Extinct this year due to habitat loss through the construction of dams and weirs and the introduction of invasive alien species in southern Spain. The paper found that although the threatened freshwater animals studied tend to live in the same areas as threatened amphibians they face different threats due to their specific habitats Conservation action must therefore be targeted to these species. “Although they live side by side in the Western Ghats conservation action for tigers and elephants will not help the Critically Endangered humpbacked mahseer (Tor remadevii) which is threatened by habitat loss due to river engineering projects and sand and boulder mining Active protection of the river and tributaries where the humpbacked mahseer lives is essential to its survival in addition to fishing regulations and banning the introduction of further invasive alien species,” said Dr Rajeev Raghavan South Asia Chair of the IUCN SSC Freshwater Fish Specialist Group and a co-author on the paper. The study also revealed that areas with high water stress (where there is high demand and low supply) and areas with more eutrophication (where an excess of nutrients in the water leads to overgrowth of algae and plants) are not home to higher numbers of threatened species than areas with lower water stress and less eutrophication. “This shows that water stress and eutrophication are not good indicators for locating threatened species and should not be used to guide conservation it is essential that freshwater species data are actively included in conservation strategies and water use planning and management to ensure their practices support healthy freshwater ecosystems,” said Dr Topiltzin Contreras MacBeath Co-Chair of the IUCN SSC Freshwater Conservation Committee “Increased investment in measuring and monitoring freshwater species is needed to ensure conservation action and water use planning is based on the latest information.” crayfishes and shrimps are at the highest risk of extinction of the groups studied followed by 26% of freshwater fishes and 16% of dragonflies and damselflies. This global freshwater fauna assessment is the result of over 20 years of work by more than 1,000 experts from around the world. “As the IUCN Red List celebrates its 60th anniversary it is a stronger barometer of life than ever Lack of data on freshwater biodiversity can no longer be used as an excuse for inaction,” said Catherine Sayer IUCN’s Freshwater Biodiversity Lead and lead author on the paper. “Freshwater landscapes are home to 10% of all known species on Earth and key for billions of people’s safe drinking water and must be protected for nature and people alike The IUCN World Conservation Congress this October will guide conservation for the next four years as the world works to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets by 2030 This information will enable policy makers and actors on the ground to plan freshwater conservation measures where they are most needed.” Worldwide Worldwide, Climate Action Coalition Worldwide, Climate Action Coalition, Energy Worldwide, Finance, Policy Worldwide, Policy Worldwide, Hydrogen Sign up to receive free and essential industry news and updates © 2025 Climate Action. All Rights Reserved. | Terms and conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy Metrics details Water stress is an urgent issue in many regions worldwide particularly in southern European countries This study reveals the consequences of decreased freshwater flow on marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea due to climate change and escalating water demands A 41% reduction in river flow may result in a 10% decline in marine primary productivity and a 6% decrease in biomass of commercial fish and invertebrate species Regional reductions could be as high as 12% and 35% disrupting coastal and marine ecosystems and their related socio-economic sectors The findings emphasize the importance of considering nutrient load changes in water management strategies and incorporating marine ecosystem requirements into environmental flow requirements for freshwater bodies source-to-sink management approaches are crucial for sustainable water resource utilization This trend has been particularly noticeable in southern Europe where the agricultural and tourism sectors are the most important water consumers but are also vital to the regional economy The importance of freshwater flow to coastal ecosystems is acknowledged by long-standing EU legislation including the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) (Council Directive 91/271/EEC) and the Water Framework Directive (WFD which recognise the concept of e-flow as also applicable to the receiving marine/coastal environments a Time series of freshwater flow in the reference (REF) scenario (blue line) and in the extreme (EXT) water reduction scenario (yellow line) b Percentage change of the freshwater flow in the EXT scenario for all the rivers included in the modelling setup (colour of the circle) and mean flow value for the individual rivers (size of the circle) The thin black line shows the 150 m isobath while the orange polygons indicate the regions averaged for the different sub-basins Figure created by the authors using Matlab Percentage reduction for the biogeochemical indicators in the extreme (EXT) scenario compared with the reference (REF) simulation for the different regions (whole Mediterranean Aegean Sea and Northwestern Mediterranean) Error bars indicate the inter-annual variability in the differences as areas little impacted show similar values in both scenarios while the bigger differences happen in the most impacted regions These results show that the negative impacts of the EXT water-reduction scenario including both the reduction of water flow and the total loads of nutrients are substantially more important for marine ecosystems than those of the NUTS scenario where only the water flow is reduced This suggests that nutrient loads must be accounted for when analysing water flow reduction in the marine environment we aim to focus on selected few ecosystem state indicators particularly those directly linked to fisheries activities such as commercial fish and invertebrate species’ biomasses (see “Methods”) Percentage reduction for the commercial species biomass (fish and invertebrates) in the extreme (EXT) scenario compared with the reference (REF) simulation for the different regions (whole Mediterranean had extremely low values for that year within the range of the expected flow in the tested EXT scenario comparing the difference in fish productivity between 2022 and the REF years (2015–2018) in the Adriatic should suitably reproduce the effects of scenario differences provided by the model in that area Fishing density (boats/km2) from the EMODNet dataset (2015–2018) versus the % change in biogeochemical conditions (a: Chla and b: PPR) and commercial species biomasses (c: fish and d: invertebrates) Increases in biological indicators are designated with yellow dots and decreases with red dots such biomass losses could easily lead to disruptions in the structure and functions of coastal and marine ecosystems annihilating the current efforts of fisheries management to reduce overfishing and destabilise even more the fisheries sector the potential impacts of this important loss in biomass would easily go beyond a mere reduction in fisheries landings disrupting coastal and marine ecosystems and damaging the viability of the fisheries sector as well as related economic sectors and coastal communities The outcomes derived from the Blue2MF simulations suggest that a substantial decrease in freshwater inflow can significantly impact the Mediterranean marine ecosystems This study reveals that the magnitude of these changes varies across regions depending on their geomorphology and freshwater inputs but an important decline in marine primary productivity can be expected in turn affecting the higher trophic levels are also the most intensively fished areas likely to be highly affected by the runoff reduction with a substantial decrease in marine productivity and available fisheries resources This has the potential to disrupt the regional ecosystems and severely affect the fisheries sector and the associated economic activities of the coastal communities Our results underscore the urgent need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to water resource management within the European Union We acknowledge that the selected EXT scenario (considering no changes in nutrient concentrations) represents a simple and potential worst-case outcome derived from climate change and increasing water demand and that this exercise is not a detailed projection of what could occur in the coming decades The limitations of the tested scenario stem as well from the assumptions of unaltered fishing effort and external (e.g. which would unavoidably impact fish productivity in the future Another important uncertainty source lies in the assumed nutrient concentrations in the rivers (e.g. the future freshwater nutrient load will be between those two extremes exact numbers derived from our analysis should not be considered as a quantitative assessment of potential future conditions in the Mediterranean Sea but rather as a likely order of magnitude of the impacts on the marine ecosystems and it is used with the aim of raising awareness on the need to consider them as resulting from an unbalanced and unsustainable management of freshwater which could ultimately impact local marine waters and ecosystems it is crucial to adopt a holistic perspective from source to sea that considers the needs of multiple social sectors while ensuring the resilience and conservation of ecological resources and services in freshwaters This requires the implementation of sustainable practices towards adaptation that balances human activities with the preservation of all water resources and aquatic ecosystems Future research should address the likely reductions of water and nutrients under sustainable practices considering the direct impacts of climate change on nutrient delivery pathways and marine hydrodynamics (e.g. the underlying hydrodynamic model used in the Blue2MF framework has been designed to represent the whole oceanic basin While their relatively high spatial resolution of 9 km permits to represent the complexity of oceanic structures at mesoscale its ability to address local impacts (e.g. specific estuaries or specific parts of coastal regions) is limited This limitation should be considered in future investigations using appropriate modelling tools such as coupled models of different resolutions or of variable mesh resolution The findings of this study emphasise the need for proactive measures to mitigate the potential negative impacts of reduced freshwater inflow on marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea and wherever water availability is at threat These measures should include the development and implementation of adaptive management strategies ensuring their long-term resilience and the preservation of the vital services they provide to both the environment and society Blue2MF is constituted of different components summarised below Those different modelling components are linked to each other either offline (i.e. the results of one model are the inputs to the next) or online (i.e. the atmospheric conditions) are identical to all models to ensure consistency in the tested scenarios The freshwater flux and nutrient loads at the land / sea interface are used as inputs by the hydrodynamic and biogeochemical ocean model very small rivers (mean flow < 5 m3/s) or those that seasonally disappear are not included in the modelling framework This implies the elimination of a number of rivers particularly on the northern African coast but the nutrient loads from those rivers are not strongly relevant for the marine ecosystems except maybe very close to the estuarine outlet (which is beyond the hydrodynamic model resolution describing the ocean biogeochemistry (nitrate detritus) and the lower trophic levels of the ecosystem (3 phytoplankton functional types phytoplankton biomass) fields generated by the coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model where functional groups substitute for individual species and the number of functional groups is generally fixed the index permits the describe functional group evenness which represents the biomass distribution across functional groups (maximum evenness is achieved when all functional groups have equal biomass) The reference scenario (REF) is compared with alternative scenarios that consider a reduction in freshwater only (constant nutrient total loads NUTS) and of both freshwater and nutrient loads (EXT) reaching the river outlet The alternative scenarios described below represent a situation where freshwater is extracted from the catchment and used before it reaches the marine environment the Representative Concentration Pathways RCP 8.5 emission scenario is considered The estimation of the future river flows is set on a 30 yr window around the year that global warming reaches 4 oC above preindustrial temperature For models that have a warming of 4 oC later than 2085 The period 1981–2010 is then used as a reference to obtain the relative change in monthly mean river streamflow The river flow in the 30-year ENSEMBLE mean is around 91% of the REF value with both positive and negative streamflow changes for individual river outlets However, as our aim is to test the impacts of an extreme flow reduction scenario, we reduced the values on the ENSEMBLE mean by an additional 50% (91–50%), i.e., a 41% flow level of the 2008–2018 level, for every outlet in the Mediterranean Sea (Fig. 1) This extreme ‘low flow’ scenario is constrained such that the total reduction in individual rivers streamflow compared to the reference scenario cannot exceed the upper threshold of 90% as we assumed that it is unlikely to deplete a river completely While this study adopts an extreme approach it is data-driven (based on the ENSEMBLE mean) aiming to maintain the nonlinear behaviour of the river streamflow dynamics into the Mediterranean Sea which could make streamflow decline more severe than estimated in the ENSEMBLE scenario we assume direct abstraction of the flowing waters and no alteration of the chemical properties of the remaining river flow This scenario ('low flow' + constant nutrient concentration) is named the EXT scenario in the context of this investigation A major assumption in this EXT freshwater scenario is the sustained nutrient concentrations in flowing waters (which implies a reduction in the nutrient loads) when water is withdrawn from rivers for terrestrial use a portion of it typically returns to the rivers with a different chemical composition leading most likely to an increase in nutrient concentration The exact nutrient concentration in the reduced flow scenario is challenging to calculate but it must be constrained by a minimum (i.e. the value in the EXT scenario) and a maximum (corresponding to a situation in which water flow is reduced but total nutrient loads remain unchanged) we used a second water-reduction scenario (NUTS) in which water flow is reduced in the same amount as in the EXT but total loads of nutrients to the sea are kept constant as in REF The impacts on the biogeochemical conditions of the Mediterranean Sea of this NUTS scenario are presented in the main text (‘Impacts on the biogeochemistry section’) The marine models within Blue2MF (biogeochemical and HTL) are forced with the EXT and NUTS freshwater scenarios during the period 2008–2018 (see Fig. 1a) and ecological variables are extracted for the period 2015–2018 to minimise any drift from the initial conditions while removing the potential effects of eutrophication (maximum chlorophyll-a threshold) further supporting the use of OPFish as a proxy for potential fish productivity The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available at figshare with the identifier (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.26840299) and from the corresponding author on reasonable request The numerical 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Sci. 2, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00079 (2015) Historical changes of the Mediterranean Sea ecosystem: modelling the role and impact of primary productivity and fisheries changes over time Changes of nitrogen and phosphorus loads to European seas LISFLOOD—Distributed Water Balance and Flood Simulation Model—Revised User Manual; OPOCE: Luxembourg Simulating the temporal and spatial dynamics of the North Sea using the new model GETM (general estuarine transport model) Plume spreading test case for coastal ocean models Recent regional changes in nutrient fluxes of European surface waters EURO-CORDEX: new high-resolution climate change projections for European impact research Why the 2022 Po river drought is the worst in the past two centuries Future global streamflow declines are probably more severe than previously estimated Mesoscale productivity fronts and local fishing opportunities in the European Seas The chlorophyll-a gradient as primary Earth observation index of marine ecosystem feeding capacity Satellite-based indicator of zooplankton distribution for global monitoring Download references We are grateful to our colleagues at the Ocean and Water unit for their valuable contributions to the research and ideas presented in this paper We would also like to acknowledge the support of the European Commission Directorate General of Environment (DG ENV) for their continuous support in the development of the Blue2 Modelling Framework developed the freshwater flow modelling; B.G. developed the freshwater nutrients modelling run the hydrodynamic-biogeochemical simulations run the high trophic level model simulations organised the information and drafted the paper and figures All authors contributed to the final drafting of the manuscript Nature Communications thanks Barbara Robson and the other anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54979-4 Metrics details A two-decade-long accumulation of freshwater in the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort Gyre has recently started to be released Here we use satellite observations and model simulations to show that changes in wind regimes and sea ice declines are causing freshwater to accumulate close to the export gateways to the North Atlantic This emerging buffer zone plays an important role in modulating the propagation of freshwater into the subpolar North Atlantic we use a combination of satellite observations and model simulations to show that the Arctic Ocean freshwater system entered a new state recently While the Beaufort Gyre was releasing freshwater a buffer zone north of Greenland was accumulating freshwater Our results suggest that this buffer zone plays a crucial role in modulating the propagation of Arctic low-salinity anomalies to the SPNA The Beaufort Gyre region and buffer zone are indicated in a–c with black and magenta lines Other main geographic areas mentioned in the text are labelled in c: EEB causing the accumulation of freshwater in this region a, The change in dynamic ocean topography (DOT) obtained from satellite observations23 The sea level pressure (SLP) anomaly in 2019–2022 relative to the long-term mean of 1980–2022 The simulated sea surface height (SSH) change we found that the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort Gyre has started to release freshwater after accumulating it for an unusually prolonged period while a buffer zone situated close to the Arctic export gateways has shown an emerging ability to accumulate freshwater With the contraction of the Beaufort Gyre and the strengthening of the cyclonic circulation mode of the Arctic Ocean anomalous freshwater has shifted into this buffer zone The propagation of the Arctic freshwater anomaly to the North Atlantic was delayed in the buffer zone under the recent wind conditions Given the anticipated increase in the ocean’s sensitivity to winds due to sea ice decline the role of the buffer zone in modulating the propagation of freshwater to the North Atlantic warrants greater attention the buffer zone contains 25% more dye tracer in the control simulation compared with the wind-perturbation simulation this portion of the dye tracer has exited the Arctic Ocean the buffer zone can influence the time it takes for the Arctic fresh cold surface water to transit into the North Atlantic the estimate based on hydrography observations now covers the period of 2003–2021 These observational estimates together with model results are used to illustrate the changes in Beaufort Gyre FWC over the past two decades satellite altimeter data can be interpreted as a metric for assessing FWC in the Arctic basin mass changes may play a relatively large role so changes in sea surface height have less correspondence with changes in FWC We define vertically integrated FWC (in metres) within a water column as where S represents ocean salinity, Sref is the reference salinity, which is set to the mean salinity of the Arctic Ocean (34.8)37 D represents the depth of the 34.8 isohaline and z represents the vertical coordinate By integrating the vertically integrated FWC over an area one obtains the volumetric FWC (in cubic metres) they consistently show the temporal changes in the Beaufort Gyre FWC Trajectory shifts in the Arctic and Subarctic freshwater cycle Freshwater and its role in the Arctic Marine System: sources and physical and biogeochemical consequences in the Arctic and global oceans The large-scale freshwater cycle of the Arctic A review of Arctic–Subarctic ocean linkages: past changes Stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: a review and synthesis Arctic freshwater impact on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: status and prospects The Great Salinity Anomaly in the Northern North-Atlantic 1968–1982 Propagation of the ‘Great Salinity Anomaly’ of the 1990s around the northern North Atlantic Ocean circulation causes the largest freshening event for 120 years in eastern subpolar North Atlantic Mechanisms behind the temporary shutdown of deep convection in the Labrador Sea: lessons from the Great Salinity Anomaly years 1968–71 How much Arctic fresh water participates in the subpolar overturning circulation Analysis of the Beaufort Gyre freshwater content in 2003–2018 A synthesis of the upper Arctic Ocean circulation during 2000–2019: understanding the roles of wind forcing and sea ice decline Rapid change in freshwater content of the Arctic Ocean Western Arctic Ocean freshwater storage increased by wind-driven spin-up of the Beaufort Gyre and location between 2003 and 2014 from satellite observations Biophysical consequences of a relaxing Beaufort Gyre Recent state transition of the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort Gyre Two circulation regimes of the wind-driven Arctic Ocean The Arctic Oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields The cyclonic mode of Arctic Ocean circulation Retreat of the cold halocline layer in the Arctic Ocean Atlantic-origin water extension into the Pacific Arctic induced an anomalous biogeochemical event Stronger variability in the Arctic Ocean induced by sea ice decline in a warming climate: freshwater storage Labrador Sea freshening linked to Beaufort Gyre freshwater release The Finite Element Sea Ice-Ocean Model (FESOM) v.1.4: formulation of an ocean general circulation model Phc: a global ocean hydrography with a high quality Arctic Ocean JRA-55 based surface dataset for driving ocean–sea-ice models (JRA55-do) Arctic sea ice decline significantly contributed to the unprecedented liquid freshwater accumulation in the Beaufort Gyre of the Arctic Ocean Arctic sea ice decline preconditions events of anomalously low sea ice volume export through Fram Strait in the early 21st century Intensification of the Atlantic Water supply to the Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait induced by Arctic sea ice decline Arctic sea surface height variability and change from satellite radar altimetry and GRACE ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3B Monthly 3-Month Gridded Dynamic Ocean Topography Version 1 (NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center The role of sea ice and other fresh-water in the Arctic circulation Wang, Q. FESOM model data used in the study on the buffer zone for great salinity anomaly. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10409535 (2023) Download references This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) within the EPICA project with grant no 03F0889A (Q.W.) and by the AWI INSPIRES programme (Q.W.) Open access funding provided by Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research contributed to the interpretation of the results and improving the paper Nature Geoscience thanks John Toole and the other reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team Normalized wind curl over the Canada Basin Change in dynamic ocean topography (DOT) obtained from satellite observations Sea level pressure (SLP) anomaly in 2004-2009 relative to the long-term mean of 1980-2022 Sea level pressure (SLP) anomaly in 2014-2019 relative to the long-term mean of 1980-2022 Sea level pressure (SLP) anomaly in 2019-2022 relative to the long-term mean of 1980-2022 SLP anomaly in 2019-2022 in case the perturbation shown in (c) is added (b) is obtained by adding (c) to (a) in the area indicated by the black circles The wind perturbation associated with this SLP perturbation (shown by arrows) is used in the perturbation simulation to reveal the impacts of winds on the ocean Beaufort Gyre dye tracer at the end of 2022 in the historical control simulation which corresponds to the atmospheric circulation condition in (a) which corresponds to the atmospheric circulation condition in (b) Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01592-1 Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science ‘Acid rain’ has caused the decline of many sensitive species in the UK’s lakes rivers and streams ever since the Industrial Revolution when we began burning fossil fuels Ecological researchers at Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with policy and academic partners it shows how wildlife in lakes and streams responds to air pollution policies that curb acid rain Their data justified stricter global air pollution legislation in 2012 and today continues to help the UK government set air pollution limits that protect nature the research now provides a valuable picture of aquatic wildlife’s health in the face of this accelerating threat. emissions of the pollutants that cause acid rain have plummeted since the 1970s - by 98% for sulphur dioxide and 78% for nitrogen oxides in the UK When these emissions enter lakes and rivers in rainfall they turn the waters toxic to many species. But freshwater ecosystems have been slow to improve in response to this dramatic clean up Alan Hildrew (Emeritus Professor of Ecology School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences) has studied damaged freshwater ecosystems since the 1970s. Hildrew helped establish the UK Acid Water Monitoring Network a valued resource for environmental policymakers and managers since 1988 Its data reveal how nature responds - or not - to changes in pollution. Today, Queen Mary’s River Communities Group, led by Professor Iwan Jones expands on the acidification work that Hildrew began in the ‘70s enriching the unique dataset that supports a brighter future for biodiversity. Alan Hildrew co-established the UK Acid Water Monitoring Network in 1988, now called the UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network and coordinated by UKCEH chemists and environmental managers from Queen Mary UCL and Marine Scotland investigate the chemical and ecological impact of acid deposition across 23 sensitive lakes and streams Iwan Jones’s research team has led Queen Mary’s contribution since 2020. Using established methods the group samples and identifies a wide spectrum of species expanding the programme’s datasets yet further The UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network provides policymakers with evidence to help evaluate the impacts of emissions reductions policy on freshwater ecosystems and set new targets The Environment Agency describes its datasets as of “the highest quality” for this purpose. Defra used the consortium’s research to argue for tighter limits on acidifying pollutants under the Gothenburg Protocol This landmark UN Treaty and major environmental success story was subsequently revised in 2012 The researchers’ discovery that acidic waters trigger hard-to-reverse damage in food webs strengthened Defra’s call for even more ambitious targets. the Environment Agency has contracted Jones’s River Communities Group to conduct ecological monitoring for the Network The UK Government uses the data to determine whether current pollution limits under the National Emission Ceilings Regulations are safe appropriate as they do not damage the Network’s sensitive ecosystems. acid rain is probably at its lowest levels since the early stages of the Industrial Revolution This is thanks to the ambitious policies set by the UN and which are supported by the UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network’s data. This dramatic change is making a difference to nature the Network reported that 19 of its 23 sites have become far less acidic the greater the recovery of the lake or stream Other scientists have reported similar improvements in North America and north-western Europe These changes “serve as a demonstration of what can be achieved where there is a common international resolve to mitigate an environmental problem.” (UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network Not all of the UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network’s 23 sites are in a healthy state Several barriers may be hindering straightforward recovery Among these is climate change. the Network’s data help paint a picture of freshwater biodiversity in the face of a changing climate. The researchers have installed temperature loggers and level gauges to investigate climate change’s impacts on the sites giving the Network increasing pertinence to wider biodiversity policies climate change policies and Net Zero strategies. the Forestry Commission’s research agency understand the impacts of commercial forestry on upland waters and led to more protective practices by the forestry sector. Long-term ecological monitoring allows policymakers and environmental managers to understand the effects of their actions to develop effective policies and practices. the UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network can help reveal its shifting influence on nature to support biodiversity and climate change policies The UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network welcomes collaboration with partners in policy, management and research. Please contact Professor Iwan Jones for opportunities so that's an achievement that won't be missed by us but we know we've got three more games to keep building on that." Is the Queensland boss the right man to lead Australia forward And will Joe Schmidt be tempted to stick around for Rugby World Cup 2027 Former England prop Perry Freshwater will be on the move in the Top 14 at the end of this season, with a French media story claiming he will swap Perpignan for a stint with Paul Gustard’s Stade Francais L’Equipe have reported that scrum coach Freshwater the ex-Leicester front-rower who won the 2009 Top 14 with Perpignan as a player is poised to leave the Catalan club for a Parisian adventure began his post-playing career helping English-speaking players to settle at Perpignan but has been in charge of the club’s scrum since 2016 window.scriptsToInit.push('BrightCoveEmbeddedScrollVideo.init("6366341740112");'); A L’Equipe report read: “Stade Francais has a reinforcement for its staff for next season the Parisian club has reached an agreement with the English technician “The former England prop will bring his knowledge of the scrum as he has done in Perpignan since 2016 following his playing career “Freshwater recently confirmed his departure to his management after reaching an agreement with Stade Francais The latter also announced on Monday the recruitment of Mathieu Blin as a consultant until the end of the season to take care of the scrum before the arrival of Freshwater.” After reaching last season’s semi-final with a second place finish, Stade have been in free fall this season and last weekend’s 19-46 home loss to leaders Bordeaux left them 13th in the 14-team league Irishman Davidson had been told earlier this season that his contract would not be renewed at the end of the 2024/25 campaign Go behind the scenes of both camps during the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 2021. Binge watch exclusively on RugbyPass TV now Join free and tell us what you really think Is the Queensland boss the right man to lead Australia forward Northampton Saints found a way of beating the fabled Jacques Nienaber blitz and inflicting another 'horrific' Champions Cup loss on the Leinster giants Warren Gatland forged a sense of togetherness in his 2013 Lions but faced personal 'vitriol' after leaving out a legend A hard read this time Nick but as always backed by observations One of the big problems in coaching Australia seems to be speaking nicely but carry a big stick I think Les will do the nicely bit and add some variation to play but the Wallabies can easily slip back into old habits unless they are held to account Schmidt has a reputation that anyone in rugby could appreciate Not sure the current players will give Les that understanding when tough decisions need to be taken I suspect he will be a bit like Ewen McKenzie The saving grace will be that the ARU are not the soft and useless bunch Ewen had to deal with Les will also have the support of Qld and the hatred of NSW and since NSW seem to heading in their standard direction of failure BTW he needs to dramatically improve Qld D and not just Ryan Not shutting the Drua down early by utilising an umbrella(?) D and letting them run is always a recipe for disaster Wasn’t the 3 option a 50/50 hard for a breakout season 10 to go all the way and claim the title for his team Let them/him build over the next few seasons Noting the scrum too after you said that JGP did have a bit of a quite game for his standards Can Les give the Wallabies the Kiss of Life?',1);"> The very predictable and inevitable let’s bag Less Kiss article from the hasbeen Welsh analyst trying to get his other mate and employer the failed pommie Lancaster a job in Australia so that the hasbeen welshman can score some employment off him Try and spend more time trying to help your own country instead of constantly undermining them by supporting your former employer NZ rugby Yeap nip them in the bud that’s just one guys opinion which I’m sure would have been more widely known if true (points by quarter) that they just need to run these guys into the ground and cross their fingers they get through Is that how they started off winning Champs do you know This is the same line up they’ve gone with in previous games right Surely because he doesn’t have the same cohesion Sam and Jordie seemed to have a good combo going though I doubt it would have looked any different than when Jordie was on the park myself To think that the best in Europe will not be able to keep up with Aus because Aus play in SRP This is the B & I Lions we are talking about playing against Aus the #8 team on the rankings I suppose upsets do happen but how can anyone see anything less than a 3-0 to the Lions No national team made up of SRP players will be able to match the Lions on a rugby field imho If they were playing basketball maybe but not rugby They didn’t seem to have any trouble accruing points in the second half GD Sorry to hear this In the end it all came down to whether Leinster could convert that penalty to points and then Pollock pilfered the ball after going to ground lol Yes it is possible to recover your lost Bitcoin with the assistance of professional recovery experts Regardless of how long your Bitcoin has been stolen or the circumstances surrounding its loss they can help you retrieve it all just like they helped me recover my scammed $624,000 USD back to me within 48 hours they has the expertise to assist you in recovering your lost funds contact them on: Recoveryeagles009@gmail.com Have you ever fallen victim to a Bitcoin investment scam or had your assets stolen To hire a recovery expert who can help you get your assets back Don’t know where you are getting the idea that the Europeans are going to be any better than Taniela Tupou or Angus Bell at scrummaging tbh Yeah boss If the Wallabies force the Lions into playing a fast game I think the Wallabies have the edge with experience at high pace but it is easier to slow down a game than to speed it up Tizzano Conan Porter and Barrett all start in their strongest XV for that game starting Baird over McCarthy would have been a better move too Also unlikely that Byrne or even Frawley are Prender-gassed on the outside by Pollock either Saints were long shots to make up 6 8 & 9 pt deficits on the three teams ahead for bottom spot in the play offs even before Saturday and if Dowson has any smarts particularly with the injuries they’re also carrying Pretty likely that Saints first XV atm has Threeman in the centre with back 3 of Furbs Great to see you recognise that Leinster were at full strength Yes I’d think they’d prefer a England/Saints type match up Really I must say it didn’t seem as though Snyman was really all though and I wondered why he wasn’t just bringing his enthusiasm in off the bench like normal I could imagine him feeling more comfortable in that role Metrics details As freshwater lakes undergo rapid anthropogenic change long-term studies reveal key microbial dynamics evolutionary shifts and biogeochemical interactions yet the vital role of viruses remains overlooked leveraging a 20 year time series from Lake Mendota we characterized 1.3 million viral genomes across time Double-stranded DNA phages from the class Caudoviricetes dominated the community We identified 574 auxiliary metabolic gene families representing over 140,000 auxiliary metabolic genes including important genes such as psbA (photosynthesis) pmoC (methane oxidation) and katG (hydrogen peroxide decomposition) which were consistently present and active across decades and seasons Positive associations and niche differentiation between virus–host pairs Inorganic carbon and ammonium influenced viral abundances underscoring viral roles in both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ interactions Evolutionary processes favoured fitness genes reduced genomic heterogeneity and dominant sub-populations This study transforms understanding of viral ecology and evolution in Earth’s microbiomes Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Codes used in this project are available via GitHub at https://github.com/AnantharamanLab/TYMEFLIES_Viral Biogeochemistry goes viral: towards a multifaceted approach to study viruses and biogeochemical cycling Virocell metabolism: metabolic innovations during host–virus interactions in the ocean IMG/VR v4: an expanded database of uncultivated virus genomes within a framework of extensive functional Microbial oceanography and the Hawaii Ocean Time-series programme Overview of the US JGOFS Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS): a decade-scale look at ocean biology and biogeochemistry Interannual dynamics and phenology of bacterial communities in a eutrophic lake Genome-wide selective sweeps and gene-specific sweeps in natural bacterial populations Ecogenomics of virophages and their giant virus hosts assessed through time series metagenomics Modeling the fitness consequences of a cyanophage-encoded photosynthesis gene Ecology of inorganic sulfur auxiliary metabolism in widespread bacteriophages Energy limitation of cyanophage development: implications for marine carbon cycling Photosynthesis genes in marine viruses yield proteins during host infection Carrying photosynthesis genes increases ecological fitness of cyanophage in silico Large freshwater phages with the potential to augment aerobic methane oxidation Transfer of photosynthesis genes to and from Prochlorococcus viruses Prevalence of viral photosynthesis genes along a freshwater to saltwater transect in Southeast USA Prevalence and evolution of core photosystem II genes in marine cyanobacterial viruses and their hosts Ecology and evolution of viruses infecting uncultivated SUP05 bacteria as revealed by single-cell- and meta-genomics Sulfur oxidation genes in diverse deep-sea viruses and ecologically distinct marine Thaumarchaeota viruses that encode amoC nitrification genes Oxygen minimum zones harbour novel viral communities with low diversity Species invasions shift microbial phenology in a two-decade freshwater time series Rohwer, R. R. et al. Two decades of bacterial ecology and evolution in a freshwater lake. Nat. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01888-3 (2025) CheckV assesses the quality and completeness of metagenome-assembled viral genomes Comparative metagenomics of microbial traits within oceanic viral communities Auxiliary metabolic gene functions in pelagic and benthic viruses of the Baltic Sea Virus-associated organosulfur metabolism in human and environmental systems CpeT is the phycoerythrobilin lyase for Cys-165 on β-phycoerythrin from Fremyella diplosiphon and the chaperone-like protein CpeZ greatly improves its activity Viruses inhibit CO2 fixation in the most abundant phototrophs on earth Phage auxiliary metabolic genes and the redirection of cyanobacterial host carbon metabolism Radical scavenging and singlet oxygen quenching activity of marine carotenoid fucoxanthin and its metabolites Viral burst size of heterotrophic prokaryotes in aquatic systems Bacterial growth rate and marine virus–host dynamics Competition for nutrients and light: testing advances in resource competition with a natural phytoplankton community Methane-derived carbon flows into host–virus networks at different trophic levels in soil Long-term seasonal and temporal changes of hydrogen peroxide from cyanobacterial blooms in fresh waters Culturing the ubiquitous freshwater actinobacterial acI lineage by supplying a biochemical ‘helper’ catalase Prevalence of psbA-containing cyanobacterial podoviruses in the ocean Host-hijacking and planktonic piracy: how phages command the microbial high seas The neutral theory of molecular evolution in the genomic era Howard-Varona, C. et al. Phage-specific metabolic reprogramming of virocells. ISME J. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-019-0580-z (2020) Virion-associated restriction endonucleases of chloroviruses The DNA methylation landscape of giant viruses A systematics for discovering the fundamental units of bacterial diversity Structural basis for the recognition and cleavage of polysialic acid by the bacteriophage K1F tailspike protein EndoNF Proposed acquisition of an animal protein domain by bacteria Novel alternatives to antibiotics: bacteriophages In situ field experiment shows Lyngbya majuscula (cyanobacterium) growth stimulated by added iron Interactions between organic and inorganic carbon sources during mixotrophic cultivation of Synechococcus sp Nitrogen assimilation and nitrogen control in cyanobacteria Rohwer, R. R. & McMahon, K. D. Lake iTag measurements over nineteen years, introducing the limony dataset. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.04.502869 (2022) Phage puppet masters of the marine microbial realm Rohwer, R. R. & McMahon, K. D. Lake Mendota Microbial Observatory temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and conductivity data, 2006-present. Environmental Data Initiative https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/7E533C197ED8EBD27777A89A2C8D7DFE (2022) Magnuson, J. J., Carpenter, S. R. & Stanley, E. H. North temperate lakes LTER: physical limnology of primary study lakes 1981 - current. Environmental Data Initiative https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/316203040EA1B8ECE89673985AB431B7 (2021) Magnuson, J., Carpenter, S. & Stanley, E. North temperate lakes LTER: high frequency water temperature data - Lake Mendota Buoy 2006 - current. Environmental Data Initiative https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/8CEFF296AD68FA8DA6787076E0A5D992 (2020) Robertson, D. Lake Mendota water temperature secchi depth snow depth ice thickness and meterological conditions 1894 - 2007. Environmental Data Initiative https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/F20F9A644BD12E4B80CB288F1812C935 (2016) Magnuson, J. J., Carpenter, S. R. & Stanley, E. H. Lake Mendota multiparameter sonde profiles: 2017 - current. Environmental Data Initiative https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/5F15BF453851987FC030B2F07A110B21 (2021) Rohwer, R. R. & McMahon, K. D. Lake Mendota microbial observatory secchi disk measurements 2012-present. Environmental Data Initiative https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/3B650E19D28CBC7B9ED631F0A7878033 (2022) Magnuson, J., Carpenter, S. & Stanley, E. North temperate lakes LTER: chlorophyll - Madison Lakes area 1995 - current. Environmental Data Initiative https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/F9C2E1059BCF92F138E140950A3632F2 (2022) Magnuson, J. J., Carpenter, S. R. & Stanley, E. H. North temperate lakes LTER: phytoplankton - Madison Lakes area 1995 - current. Environmental Data Initiative https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/43D3D401AF88CC05C6595962BDB1AB5C (2022) Magnuson, J., Carpenter, S. & Stanley, E. North temperate lakes LTER: zooplankton - Madison Lakes area 1997 - current. Environmental Data Initiative https://doi.org/10.6073/PASTA/D5ABE9009D7F6AA87D1FCF49C8C7F8C8 (2022) metaSPAdes: a new versatile metagenomic assembler IMG/M v.5.0: an integrated data management and comparative analysis system for microbial genomes and microbiomes annotation and curation of microbial viruses and evaluation of viral community function from genomic sequences vRhyme enables binning of viral genomes from metagenomes Metagenomic compendium of 189,680 DNA viruses from the human gut microbiome Using MCL to extract clusters from networks dRep: a tool for fast and accurate genomic comparisons that enables improved genome recovery from metagenomes through de-replication Reference Sequence (RefSeq) database at NCBI: current status Camargo, A. P. et al. Identification of mobile genetic elements with geNomad. Nat. Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01953-y (2023) iPHoP: an integrated machine learning framework to maximize host prediction for metagenome-derived viruses of archaea and bacteria MetaPop: a pipeline for macro- and microdiversity analyses and visualization of microbial and viral metagenome-derived populations Zhou, Z. et al. TYMEFLIES vMAGs and related properties. Figshare https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/TYMEFLIES_vMAGs_and_related_properties/24915750 (2023) Download references a Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility is supported by the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy operated under contract number DE-AC02-05CH11231 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering visualization of results and content organization P.Q.T.) reviewed the results and edited and approved the manuscript Nature Microbiology thanks Timothy Ghaly, Andrew Millard and David Pearce for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available a Binned/unbinned scaffold percentage after binning by vRhyme and bin member number frequency for all bins (vMAGs) Only bin member numbers with frequencies > 1% are shown in the bar plot Numbers of scaffolds and numbers of bins are labeled accordingly b Length and completeness change after binning and CheckV quality to viral genome length distribution Viral scaffold or/and vMAG (viral genome) numbers are labeled accordingly “Viral scaffolds”: total viral scaffolds before binning; “vMAGs+unbinned scaffolds”: vMAGs and unbinned scaffolds after binning; “vMAGs”: vMAGs after binning; “Binned scaffolds (within vMAGs)”: binned scaffolds (the scaffolds that are in the vMAGs) after binning; “Unbinned scaffolds”: unbinned scaffolds after binning Statistical significance was assessed using two-sided t-tests for the indicated comparisons with p-values indicating significance between comparisons d The rarefaction curve of species-level vOTU numbers Ten replicates with a random starting sample were made to generate error bars The left bar plot represents the AMG cluster presence ratio pattern among all AMG cluster and species combinations The x-axis indicates the size category of species and the number of AMG cluster and species combinations The y-axis indicates the fractions of four quartiles of AMG cluster presence ratios The right scatter plot represents the AMG cluster count fraction (the percentage of one AMG cluster being encountered among all AMG clusters within a species) to the mean AMG cluster presence ratio (the percentage that one AMG cluster appears among all members within a species) across all species This scatter plot used the AMG cluster and species combinations of the 1st quartile (75-100%) of AMG cluster presence ratio category (the highest presence ratio) with the species size in the 4th quartile (the largest species size) which was shown as the connection by dash lines High occurrence AMG clusters (distributed > 400 metagenomes) were colored red b Seasonal distribution of high occurrence AMG clusters (distributed > 400 metagenomes)) across metagenomes The percentage indicates the AMG cluster containing metagenome number over the total metagenome number in each season Unclassified hosts were not depicted and low abundance families (with abundance < 5% in all eight AMG clusters) were integrated into a group named “Others” and total species and AMG abundance across 20 years for psbA- (a) ahbD-containing (d) viruses are summarized high occurrence species were picked according to the occurrence across 20 years high abundance AMGs were picked according to the non-zero mean relative abundance across 20 years and the abundance for each year was represented by the season with the highest/second to the highest species abundance in each year (Late Summer for psbA Species and AMGs were colored in blue and orange Star-labeled AMGs indicate the overlap of the high occurrence species and high abundance AMG in subpanels a The abundance values (for both species and AMGs) were normalized by 100 M reads/metagenome only species with ≥ 20 occurrences out of 471 metagenomes were included in the analysis; for pmoC- and katG-containing viruses only species with ≥ 5 occurrences out of 471 metagenomes were included in the analysis The species and AMG abundance percentage calculation was based on the total occurrence-filtered viral species a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01876-7 Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research Geneva, 6 November 2024 –Climate change is taking a toll on the six countries of the Caucasus, causing glaciers to shrink and impacting river flows, finds a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report launched ahead of the UNFCCC COP29 Glaciers have already retreated by an average of 600 metres over the past century, while more than 11 billion tonnes of freshwater — previously stored in ice — has been lost since the year 2000, according to the second edition of the Caucasus Environment Outlook (CEO-2) report The publication focuses on the ecoregion covering Armenia as well as regions of the Islamic Republic of Iran The new report includes 20 maps to visualize environmental trends Water is increasingly becoming an unevenly distributed resource - river flows in most countries are expected to drop 20% by 2100 river flow already plummeted 26% in Armenia and by 20% in Azerbaijan annual flow at the closing section of the Kura river — which spans Türkiye groundwater withdrawals have doubled in Armenia since 2000 and shot up by 400% in Azerbaijan With reduced snow and glacier cover in the mountains the report’s authors expect freshwater supply to further substantially decrease in the coming decades calling for innovative solutions and transboundary data sharing and monitoring Average temperatures in the region could rise by up to 3.6°C by the end of the century compared to the 1970–2000 baseline, under an IPCC upper-medium scenario, with the fastest warming seen in mountainous regions Glacial melting already poses a severe flood hazard and raises the need for constant monitoring Illustrating the impacts of climate change in the region triggered by intense rainfall and glacial melt caused significant destruction and the loss of at least 24 lives in the village of Shovi the need to slash emissions and adapt to climate change is laid bare,” said UNEP’s Europe Office Director “UNEP’s 2024 Emissions Gap Report recently revealed that while the 1.5-degree goal is still within reach current policies are taking us towards a global catastrophic temperature rise of 3.1 degrees Celsius. In the Caucasus the CEO-2 report doesn’t just sound the alarm It provides valuable guidance to help mitigate climate impacts for people and the environment.” the report’s authors state that climate change and adaptation measures should be integrated into policies and legislation Urban planning should also take the environment into account to a greater extent while transboundary water basin management plans should be drawn up While increased heatwaves are foreseen across the region the number and duration of extremely hot days and heatwaves during the summer months in Azerbaijan is already significant air temperatures reached at least 35°C and above in the country’s capital This figure rose to 365 days in total during the 1991–2020 period often caused by a combination of heavy rains poses a further growing environmental threat and reduces arable land for rural livelihoods large proportions of land in Türkiye are under severe strain from erosion with around 71% of agricultural lands and 59% of rangelands affected the potential exists for environmental strides to be made the report finds that an opportunity exists for governments and the private sector to ensure cost-efficient renewable energy greatly expands and serves as substitute for polluting energy sources over the next decade the protected land area in the Caucasus region has been increasing For example, Azerbaijan protects over 9% of its territory while just under 11% of Georgia is protected rising from a little over 6% over the same period such as revitalizing vineyards against soil erosion or improving grazing methods exist across the Caucasus ecoregion — a term for an area with similar climate and natural features Other pathways for adapting to climate change can be found in UNEP’s ADAPT: Solutions from the South Caucasus publication. “Environmental and socioeconomic processes in the Caucasus countries are highly similar each country independently seeks solutions to problems whereas joint efforts would yield better results,” said Dmitry Koryukhin a young scientist from the Caucasus involved in the report. The publication was co-authored by more than 30 leading national and regional experts from the six countries along with 40 international and national reviewers and features insights from young and early-career scientists from the Caucasus. UNEP will now support the development of Georgia’s national climate adaptation plan A Regional Adaptation Dialogue in the South Caucasus will furthermore be held in April 2025 to discuss region-wide solutions. The UN Environment Programme is the leading global voice on the environment It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations For more information and to arrange interviews, please contact:Alejandro Laguna, Head of Communication, UNEP Europe OfficeNews and Media Unit views and stories from the front lines of conservation A new study is ringing alarm bells for freshwater species finding nearly a quarter are at risk of extinction. The study, from researchers at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), named dams, farms, invasive species and pollution as responsible for the decline, Julia Jacobo reported for ABC News. The findings are “alarming,” Catherine Sayer “We have about a quarter of species which are on their way to extinction if we don’t do anything to stop it,” she said which assessed more than 23,000 freshwater species lakes and wetlands cover less than 1 percent of Earth’s surface yet support at least 10 percent of the planet’s species Freshwater ecosystems also provide critical benefits including flood control as well as sustaining local livelihoods and providing food and water to communities It’s estimated that monitored populations of freshwater species have fallen by 84 percent and nearly one-third of freshwater ecosystems have been lost since 1970 due to human activities that degrade habitats and decrease water quality rivers and ponds are easy to overlook," said Stephanie Wear who leads Conservation International's Moore Center for Science they are essential to keeping these waterways healthy and supporting billions of people It's critical that we take this news seriously and act to protect freshwater habitats for the wildlife that benefit our own well-being." For example, a Conservation International project in Mexico is providing a blueprint for how people can work with nature to create a more sustainable future an ancient wetland system of lakes and canals built by the Aztecs to grow crops are also the only home to the endangered axolotl this ecosystem has been drained and polluted; Conservation International is helping restore it by supporting farmers’ transition to pesticide-free farming and helping install biofilters to clean the water so these wetlands can thrive into the future Read the full story from ABC News here Mary Kate McCoy is a staff writer at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also, please consider supporting our critical work Several southern EU countries rely on desalination to fulfil the demand for fresh water for drinking and agriculture the process is expensive and energy-intensive It also produces large amounts of concentrated sea solution and chemicals Technological improvements are making desalination cheaper and more sustainable we need to protect and restore the water cycle and ensure that it is used efficiently by encouraging reuse reducing water leakages and cutting abstractions Watch the latest Water Matters video below to discover more or read more on Euronews What if we saw water differently? EU taxonomy for sustainable activities Desalination EU Environment newsletters deliver the latest updates about the European Commission’s environmental priorities straight to your inbox. Nearly a quarter of animals living in rivers lakes and other freshwater sources are threatened with extinction according to new research published Wednesday “Huge rivers like the Amazon can appear mighty, but at the same time freshwater environments are very fragile,” said study co-author Patricia Charvet, a biologist at Brazil's Federal University of Ceará Freshwater habitats – including rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, bogs and wetlands – cover less than 1% of the planet’s surface, but support 10% of its animal species, said Catherine Sayer, a zoologist at the International Union for Conservation of Nature in England The researchers examined around 23,500 species of dragonflies crabs and other animals that depend exclusively on freshwater ecosystems They found that 24% were at risk of extinction – classified as vulnerable endangered or critically endangered – due to compounding threats from pollution “Most species don’t have just one threat putting them at risk of extinction but many threats acting together,” said Sayer is the first that time researchers have analyzed the global risk to freshwater species Previous studies have focused on land animals including including mammals Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm called it “a long-awaited and hugely important paper." “Almost every big river in North America and Europe is massively modified" through damming the vast Amazon River ecosystem also faces threats from deforestation Illegal fires to clear forest result in waves of ash polluting the river and unlicensed gold miners dump mercury into the water Rivers and wetlands “concentrate everything that happens around them," she said There’s nowhere else for these animals to go.” The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Below you’ll find the latest features highlighting the upcoming events here on the Isle of Wight If you would like to promote an event to OnTheWight readers, find out more Our Travel section is the place to check for fast and accurate travel updates from all the ferry companies we’ll also let you know about road closures and diversions Below are articles relating to Isle of Wight travel climate change and biodiversity,” said Dianna Kopansky global political commitments for sustainable water management have never been higher including through the passing of a water resolution at the last UN Environment Assembly in February but they are not being matched by required finance or action are halting further loss and show that reversing degradation is within reach Widespread degradationA reported 90 countries are experiencing the degradation of one or more freshwater ecosystems over-abstraction and climate change contribute to degradation of freshwater ecosystems.Influenced by climate change and land use river flow has decreased in 402 basins worldwide – a fivefold increase since 2000 A much smaller number is gaining in river flow.Loss of mangroves due to human activities (e.g. aquaculture and agriculture) poses a risk to coastal communities and climate due to their water filtration and carbon sequestering properties Significant decreases of mangroves were reported in Southeast Asia though the overall net rate of deforestation has leveled off in the last decade.Lakes and other surface water bodies are shrinking or being lost entirely in 364 basins worldwide A continued high level of particles and nutrients in many large lakes can lead to algal blooms and low-oxygen waters primarily caused by land clearance and urbanization the construction of reservoirs contributes to a global net-gain in permanent water Low levels of water quality monitoringThe poorest half of the world contributes under 3 per cent of global water quality data points including only 4,500 lake quality measurements out of almost 250,000 This reveals an urgent need to improve monitoring capacity.Lack of data on this scale means that by 2030 over half of humanity will live in countries that have inadequate water quality data to inform management decisions related to address drought impacts from wastewater effluents and agricultural runoff.Where good data are available it shows that freshwater quality has been degrading since 2017 the signs are not promising.Report authors recommend the expansion and development of routine government-funded monitoring programmes as well as incorporating citizen science into such national programmes and exploring the potential of satellite-based Earth observation and modelled data products to help fill the data gap Inadequate progress on water resources management in over 100 countriesBalancing competing needs for sustainable water use from society and the economy requires the implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM) across sectors at all levels and across borders by 2030.47 countries have fully reached or almost reached IWRM 63 countries need to accelerate implementation while 73 countries have only limited capacity for IWRM the world will only achieve sustainable water management by 2049 This means that by 2030 at least 3.3 billion people in over 100 countries are likely to have ineffective governance frameworks to balance competing water demands.Solutions include unlocking finance through revenue raising and cost recovery arrangements investments in infrastructure and management greater institutional capacity and better monitoring networks NOTES TO EDITORS About the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) UNEP is the leading global voice on the environment informing andenabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. About UN-Water UN-Water coordinates the UN’s work on water and sanitation. It is comprised of UN Members States and international organizations working on water and sanitation issues. UN-Water’s role is to ensure that Members and Partners ‘deliver as one’ in response to water-related challenges.For more information, please contact: News and Media Unit Support independent journalism, starting from less than $2 a week. By continuing, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy It looks like your email isn't registered yet—let’s get you set up We've sent a code to the below email. Where were Peter Dutton’s quiet Australians? Even in the days before his party’s devastating election loss the opposition leader maintained the public polls didn’t gel with what he was seeing from the private researchers contracted by the Liberal Party Dutton hinted on the campaign trail that he had seen internal numbers that were far more promising for the Coalition. “Well, if you have a look at conversations we’re having and what we’re seeing in seats around the country at the moment, including outer-metropolitan electorates, there’s a very different conversation going on,” he said on April 26. “There are a lot of quiet Australians out there.” With such a decisive swing away from the Liberals — so far they’ve only picked up 39 seats against Labor’s 85 — it begs the question: was Dutton being dishonest about the internal polling Liberal sources told Crikey they believed it was the latter. “Changing from CT to Freshwater was disastrous Another said the party’s internal polling was held extremely tightly during the campaign and the federal director of the Liberal Party among the few people who would have been privy to it. But news.com.au reported this morning some insiders claimed Dutton’s political adviser Jamie Briggs had cautioned Freshwater Strategy’s pollster Michael Turner “about research in the seat of Dickson because it might spook the leader” The research was considered a critical piece of intelligence that needed to be kept out of the media so that the party’s opponents wouldn’t be able to take advantage of it. and it’s because they know I talk to people like you,” a Coalition senator told Crikey earlier in the campaign. It’s unknown what the contract would have cost, but some Liberals have said it’s in the “millions of dollars” It’s understood the contract was paid for by donations to the federal campaign. The Liberal Party parted ways with its usual research firm CT Group Rumours from inside the Liberal Party suggested that the break came after CT led polling for the Yes campaign in the Voice to Parliament referendum. Freshwater Strategy, which also does polling for The Australian Financial Review, is directed by Turner, a former CT pollster. Turner acknowledged in a column for the AFR on Sunday that his firm had “underestimated” Labor’s strength The polling overestimated how many Labor voters would “defect” to the Coalition “particularly those who voted No at the Voice referendum” for all the noise about the preference flows being different in a way that would substantially benefit Coalition performance it appears that the outcome simply did not materialise The primary vote collapse for the Coalition was too much for any benefit from additional preference flows,” Turner continued Given that all pollsters seem to have underestimated the swing to Labor and everyone’s fieldwork would have been over the earlier days in that week it strongly suggests that there was a late swing among ‘soft’ or undecided voters in the final days that was very hard for pollsters to pick up.” “We spent millions of dollars on it and will be keen to know what went wrong.” This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 14 Life Below Water, SDG 13 Climate Action, and SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation lakes and wetlands have crucial roles in global biogeochemical cycles and in supporting human wellbeing through a variety of ecosystem services freshwater biodiversity is in steep decline and freshwater habitats are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of global change given their physical isolation or fragmentation often in already heavily exploited and human-modified landscapes The potential consequences from global change factors such as climate warming pollution and species invasions are serious but freshwaters are also relatively understudied and insufficiently prioritised compared to terrestrial and other aquatic ecosystems we invite submissions of papers that will help deepen our ecological understanding of contemporary freshwater ecosystems and the threats they face from global change We encourage submission of studies that focus on natural freshwaters We are particularly interested in studies that provide insight into the effects of global change factors on freshwater populations as well as multidisciplinary studies involving earth and environmental science in which the focus is on freshwater biodiversity Extreme drought-heatwave events reduce alpha diversity and disrupt the community network structure of aquatic plankton in the Yangtze River according to an analysis using the environmental DNA approach Groundwater N pollution in China displayed an overall decline since 2016 while persistent pollution has lingered owing to long-term legacy N machine learning and decision tree-heatmap analysis The anammox and denitrification bacteria tend to co-occur in aquatic ecosystems suggesting that anammox should be included in nitrogen budgets according to a global meta-analysis of 136 peer-reviewed articles and virus–host interactions change dynamically in response to increasing lake salinity as the climate warms according to metagenomic sequencing in a lake on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Plankton species richness and individual density and bird diversity decreased where water-surface photovoltaic systems were installed according to a field survey in the Yangtze River basin China during the winter and summer of 2022 It is unclear whether stream detritivore diversity enhances decomposition across climates Here the authors manipulate litter diversity and examine detritivore assemblages in a globally distributed stream litterbag experiment finding a positive diversity-decomposition relationship stronger in tropical streams Temperature increases the potential harmful effects of antibiotics on the concentration of greenhouse gases through increased methanogenesis according to anaerobic incubation experiments with freshwater sediments Whether non-native species are more or less likely to become established in communities that host close relatives is debated This global study shows that non-native fish species phylogenetically close to native species are more likely to establish in freshwater ecosystems It is unclear how far the impact of deforestation can spread Here the authors analyse freshwater eDNA data along two rivers in the Amazon forest and find that low levels of deforestation are linked to substantial reductions of fish and mammalian diversity downstream By sampling environmental DNA across a large riverine network over multiple seasons the varied dynamics between biodiversity and food-web dynamics are revealed The responses of freshwater stream biodiversity and biomass to temperature in Arctic regions varies with biogeography In the natural Vjosa River network in Europe the high geodiversity in the catchment and the structure of the river network control algae periphyton biodiversity and its function through regional dispersal and local species sorting suggests an analysis of environmental and ecological data from 46 river sites Wildfire smoke reduced shortwave radiation fluxes and rates of primary production and ecosystem respiration in lakes according to 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Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10663021 (2024) Download references is supported by the Office of Science of the US DOE operated under contract no acknowledges support from the US DOE JGI (CSP 504350) the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) (WIS01516 and WIS01789) DEB-1344254) and the US NSF Microbial Observatory program (MCB-9977903 acknowledges support from the Simons Foundation Investigator in Aquatic Microbial Ecology Award (LI-SIAME-00002001) This work would not be possible without the long-term support of the US NSF NTL-LTER (DEB-9632853 Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment conceptualized the research and obtained initial funding conducted field and laboratory work and curated data performed analyses and created visualizations wrote the final draft incorporating edits provided by M Nature Microbiology thanks Timothy Ghaly, David Pearce and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available Includes metadata for metagenome samples including JGI GOLD and NCBI sample identifiers as well as McMahon Lab identifiers that pair metagenome samples with previous 16S rRNA gene sequencing2 NCBI identifiers corresponding to each species-representative genome as well as genome quality calculated by CheckM219 and average relative abundance calculated by coverM89 KEGG annotations of consistently positively selected genes in a Nanopelagicus species that experienced a step change in strain composition in 2012 (ME2011-09-21_3300043464_group3_bin69) Table row order matches heat map row order in Fig Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01888-3 Metrics details Three different studies in this issue use metagenomics to study the bacterial and viral dynamics of freshwater microbiomes highlighting the ecological and environmental drivers of these ecosystems Rohwer, R. R. et al. Nat. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01888-3 (2025) Zhou, Z. et al. Nat. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01876-7 (2025) Michoud, G. et al. Nat. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01874-9 (2025) Download references Reprints and permissions Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01898-1