Nevertheless, the number of freshwater fish without updated assessments (evaluations with less than ten years) (Rondinini et al., 2014) is high (~ 32% of total evaluated freshwater fish) (IUCN, 2020), and this lag can seriously affect the reliable information about their conservation status (Rondinini et al., 2014). To fix this gap and optimize the efficiency of IUCN Red List, many efforts are focusing on identifying priority assessment areas (Hermoso et al., 2017) and evaluating threat risk for total freshwater fish (Global Freshwater Fish Assessment, IUCN, 2020). However, their assessment rate remain below compared to any other vertebrate group (Tapley et al., 2018 Miqueleiz et al., 2020). Nowadays, almost 10,000 freshwater fish species have been assessed, and approximately 23% are currently threatened with extinction (IUCN, 2020). From its begin, IUCN Red List has become an increasingly powerful tool for conservation planning, management, monitoring, and decision making (Rodrigues et al., 2006). To inform about species extinction risk, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has developed since 1964 the IUCN Red List. Moreover, their endemism level is incredibly high (Pelayo-Villamil et al., 2015 Tedesco et al., 2017), and their loss could be an irreparable consequence of global biodiversity. Fishes are among the most charismatic and good studied organisms that inhabit freshwater and nowadays may be considered the most threatened vertebrate group (Hughes, 2021). Although freshwaters cover a very restricted area on the Earth (Lehner & Döll, 2004), they host almost 10% of all described species (Strayer & Dudgeon, 2010) including 18,000 fishes (Fricke et al., 2020). Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests (Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, 2018) and freshwater vertebrate populations decrease faster than their terrestrial or oceanic relatives (WWF, 2020). Among all ecosystems, inland waters are one of the most affected (Strayer & Dudgeon, 2010 Collen et al., 2014). Ecosystems are losing their biodiversity at too high rates mainly due to anthropogenic causes such as climate change, species invasions and habitat alteration (Dudgeon et al., 2006 Dirzo et al., 2014 Reid et al., 2019). Currently, species extinction rates have been estimated to be 1000 times faster than those registered in the fossil record (De Vos et al., 2015) and the sixth mass extinction (Ceballos et al., 2017) is one of the most relevant issues occurring in the XXI century. The Earth is home of more than 1.2 million described species and many others remain undiscovered (Mora et al., 2011).
#Freshwater fish species update#
The nearly fully completed genetic databases for Iberian fish species, along with the limited distribution of many endangered species and the necessity of update their assessments constitute an excellent opportunity to use data obtained from eDNA to improve species monitoring practices and their conservation status.
Iberian watersheds have moderate levels of threat and high levels of out of date assessments. Threat levels reported within national Red Lists are higher than their global counterparts, reinforcing the necessity of improving and maintaining up to date national Red Lists. Our results showed a patchy data coverage of fish records in the Iberian Peninsula. We retrieved records for these species in the Iberian Peninsula and calculated several biological indexes (richness and vulnerability indexes). We compiled the list of freshwater fish species occurring in continental Spain and Portugal and examined their conservation status in global and national Red Lists. In this work, we propose the Iberian Peninsula as an example of reassessment needs in its endangered freshwater fish fauna. In recent years molecular techniques have added new ways of obtaining information about species distribution or populations. IUCN Red List assessments for fish species can quickly become out of date.
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