Conservation status of freshwater mussels in Europe: state of the art and future challenges
Universidade do Porto · International Union for Conservation of Nature (United Kingdom) · +32 more institutions
Abstract
Freshwater mussels of the Order Unionida provide important ecosystem functions and services, yet many of their populations are in decline. We comprehensively review the status of the 16 currently recognized species in Europe, collating for the first time their life-history traits, distribution, conservation status, habitat preferences, and main threats in order to suggest future management actions. In northern, central, and eastern Europe, a relatively homogeneous species composition is found in most basins. In southern Europe, despite the lower species richness, spatially restricted species make these basins a high conservation priority. Information on freshwater mussels in Europe is unevenly distributed with…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 59.35
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 216
Authors
49- MLManuel Lopes‐LimaCorresponding
Universidade do Porto, International Union for Conservation of Nature (United Kingdom)
- RSRonaldo Sousa
Universidade do Porto, University of Minho
- JGJuergen Geist
Technical University of Munich
- DCDavid C. Aldridge
University of Cambridge
- RARafael Araújo
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
Topics & keywords
- Fishery
- Geography
- Environmental science
- Biology