Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems最新文献

{"title":"Climate Change Impacts and Future Risk on UK Seahorse Species, Short-Snouted Hippocampus hippocampus and Long-Snouted Hippocampus guttulatus","authors":"Reagan H.  Pearce,&nbsp;Hazel  Selley","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70027","url":null,"abstract":"<p>For the two European seahorse species, the short-snouted <i>Hippocampus hippocampus</i> and the long-snouted <i>Hippocampus guttulatus</i>, there are knowledge gaps that need further research. These research gaps become increasingly pressing under climate change, where uncertainty in how coastal ecosystems will change is compounded by uncertainty in how these seahorses will respond to changing pressures. Under climate change, these species could experience northward range shifts, expanding their range in United Kingdom (UK) coastal waters, potentially requiring the UK to take a leadership role in European seahorse conservation in the future. This review aims to synthesise current scientific research to provide an overview of how these seahorse species are likely to respond to climate change. Using the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), predictions for future change along with the likelihood and severity of seahorse species response are combined to provide a confidence ranking in the climate change risk for these species in the UK. When considering individual factors, such as sea surface temperature, these seahorse species show some resilience, but climate change is the cumulative impact of multiple stressors, which existing research has not been able to capture. Overall, further research on seahorse response to environmental variables is needed across Europe.</p>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aqc.70027","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143117980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Patterns in Plant Species Diversity and Composition of a Restored Nature-Based Solutions Floodplain","authors":"S.  Pastina,&nbsp;E. T. H. M.  Peeters,&nbsp;M.  Daumal,&nbsp;R. H. J.  Erkens","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70023","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Floodplains are simultaneously among the most ecologically important and most severely impacted ecosystems in the world, with hydro-morphological alteration of riverine systems leading to declines in biodiversity. The loss of floodplain ecosystems worldwide increased interest in restoration projects throughout the world, centred around the concept of nature-based solutions (NBS). Floodplain restoration is increasingly regarded as one of the most successful forms of NBS. However, stream restoration projects lack in-depth monitoring practices, highlighting the need for evaluations of NBS restoration success on riparian vegetation. This study analysed patterns in plant species diversity and composition following restoration of the Bosscherveld floodplain, part of the Grensmaas Project, the largest nature-based river restoration project in the Netherlands. A total of 173 species were recorded over 325 quadrats. For each plot, hydro-geomorphological factors were analysed. Habitat type and water depth were key determinants of plant species distribution. Species richness significantly declined in relation to increasing hydrological stress, and vegetation was distributed according to species-specific tolerances to disturbance. Spatial coordinates, habitat type, sediment type, water percentage and depth all significantly contributed to differences in vegetation composition. Spatial variables emerged as the most significant contributors to the explained variation. The study concludes that the Bosscherveld floodplain displays high habitat heterogeneity and a significant presence of wetland species, aligning with initial restoration objectives. These findings underline the importance of monitoring to enhance the effectiveness of river restoration projects, ensuring the continued success of NBS initiatives in floodplain ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aqc.70023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143117991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unfoldings of Environmental Racism: Are They Reaching Rhodolith Beds and Related Sociobiodiversities?","authors":"Paulo Horta,&nbsp;Gabrielle Koerich,&nbsp;Marina Sissini,&nbsp;Bruna Rodrigues Moreira,&nbsp;Leonardo Rubi Rörig,&nbsp;José Bonomi-Barufi,&nbsp;Carlos Yure B. Oliveira","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70017","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Environmental racism may be among the explanations for why we are facing the worst socioenvironmental crisis in the history of humanity, led by a state of climate emergency that could result in an ecocidal genocide of planetary dimensions. Unfoldings of environmental racism even reach towards nature when it is considered subject of rights. Among the marine ecosystems less considered in these discussions are rhodolith beds—reef habitats of red coralline algae, also called maerl beds. When dealing with the feasibility of oil exploration in the Amazon mouth region, an area dominated by extensive rhodolith beds, the Brazilian Association of Petroleum Geologists broadcast live a geologist quoted as saying (transcript follows) ‘… what there is (at the mouth of the Amazon) are coralline algae called rhodoliths, which are common, anywhere in Brazil, and are things, errrrr (with hand gestures and facial expression with negative or pejorative sense), ugly like that, they're not nice at all, (…) and even the rhodolith reefs are dead reefs, dead’. As a result, now, the region is facing the real possibility of extensive oil exploitation. This opinion of a limited aesthetical perspective of which nature is important demands urgent public recognition. Policies that foster rhodolith bed conservation needs, explaining their wealth of valuable contributions to society, must be introduced in formal education, dialoguing with children, young people and adults. Multilateral United Nation forums, during the Ocean Decade, can provide ways to speed up this process, combating different forms of environmental racism and speciesism, buying some time and creating opportunities to establish rhodolith bed conservation as a natural world heritage.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142868716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conservation Implications of Strong Population Structure Despite Admixture in an Endangered African Seagrass","authors":"Charlotte A. Combrink,&nbsp;Romina Henriques,&nbsp;Megan J. Jackson,&nbsp;Sophie von der Heyden","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><i>Zostera capensis</i> is an African seagrass that is endangered throughout its range. In South Africa, it is solely confined to low wave energy estuarine habitats and characterised by two evolutionary lineages that diverge across a biogeographic transition. In this study, we sampled seagrass plants from five populations that span the region of lineage divergence and investigated the extent of lineage overlap. Using 2681 SNP loci, including 32 putative outlier loci, we calculated population structure, genomic diversity and levels of admixture. All populations were significantly different to each other, including those &lt; 10 km apart and low levels of admixture indicate limited dispersal of <i>Z. capensis</i>. Every population was characterised by a high inbreeding coefficient (F_IS), suggesting a limited number of breeding individuals in each population. Given increasing anthropogenic stressors that are linked to declines in seagrass meadow cover in South Africa, our study provides strong support that populations of this endangered seagrass require targeted management and conservation actions of each individual population to avoid further loss of the unique evolutionary dynamics and to safeguard the ecosystem services seagrasses provide. Further, our evidence of significant population structure across geographically close populations highlights that conservation efforts relying on seagrass restoration would risk mixing unique evolutionary signatures of <i>Z. capensis</i> in the region when transplanting between estuaries. This represents a critical challenge to using transplants as a potential mechanism of restoring declining populations and highlights the crucial importance of preventing population extinction.</p>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aqc.70012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142868715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Metabarcoding Reveals Meiofaunal Diversity in Rhodolith Beds From SE Brazil","authors":"Gabriel C. Coppo,&nbsp;Sergio A. Netto,&nbsp;Fabiano S. Pais,&nbsp;Ana Carolina A. Mazzuco,&nbsp;Ken M. Halanych,&nbsp;Angelo F. Bernardino","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70036","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Rhodolith beds (RBs) are known to increase the seabed complexity and act as a hotspot, supporting a unique biodiversity. This increased structural complexity due to the presence of rhodolith nodules is expected to influence benthic diversity at a local scale. To investigate this further, we tested the hypothesis that high-density rhodolith beds hold higher meiofaunal diversity than low-density beds. We used metabarcoding (V9 hypervariable region from 18S SSU rRNA) on sediment samples from a region with extensive rhodolith beds in the Eastern Brazil Marine Ecoregion, with distinct areas covered by high- and low-density beds. The sediment underneath high-density beds showed higher food availability (biopolymeric carbon) and organic matter quality (protein content and protein-to-carbohydrate ratio); however, meiofaunal composition and phylogenetic diversity was similar among all rhodolith beds sampled in the study area. Shannon's diversity was lower in high-density beds, which may be attributed to the higher organic matter content and quality supporting strong competitors, such as crustaceans and annelids that may dominate and suppress the presence of other meiofaunal taxa. Our results showed that rhodolith beds host a number of meiofaunal zoobenthos that are rarely sampled with traditional morphology-based methods, and we suggest that metabarcoding may become an important complementary method to study rhodolith beds globally. As assessing biodiversity is a prerequisite for any conservation measures, this study can provide insights when managing valuable marine habitats.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142861852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the Efficiency of the Marine Protected Area Systems in the Southeastern Pacific","authors":"Mauro G. Zucconi,&nbsp;Felipe Opazo,&nbsp;Sergio A. Navarrete","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70032","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Amidst accelerated degradation of marine ecosystems due to anthropogenic disturbances, <i>marine protected areas (MPAs)</i> have been implemented globally to protect marine biodiversity, mitigate ecosystem degradation and replenish fisheries. In many countries, the creation of MPAs increased after the 2011 Aichi Targets, but in most cases, MPAs face significant operational and logistical challenges and suffer from important structural limitations that restrict their efficacy. Here, we use novel databases of taxonomic and functional diversity of 2125 coastal species (&lt; 30 m depth), habitat continuity and climate velocities to assess the efficacy of the existing MPAs located in the Tropical, Southern, Chilean and Magellan ecoregions of the Eastern Pacific (EP). We then use optimization models to locate new MPA sites that improve protection of geographic rarity and maximize their role as climate refugia while maintaining total area protected. Existing MPAs captured between 75% and 95% of species richness in all ecoregions, largely due to the large biogeographic ranges of most species, but under-represented rare endemic species, capturing between 3% and 66%, of single-occurrence species among ecoregions. In general, MPAs are located in areas of ‘moderate’ to ‘high’ functional diversity, representing relatively well this feature within ecoregions, but less effectively across all SEP. There is a large geographical mismatch between current MPA locations and regions that might act as ‘climatic refugia’, which threatens the long-term conservation value of existing MPAs. Our spatial optimization models provide valuable support for enhancing the effectiveness of MPAs, through complementation or relocation, improving their efficacy to conserve different aspects of biodiversity and resilience in the face of climate change in all ecoregions. Notably, these improvements do not necessitate expanding the total area under protection, underscoring that current MPA siting did not prioritize these criteria and suggesting that modifications may be socio-politically possible.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142851562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assisted Juvenile Recruitment Faces Barriers as a Mussel Restoration Technique","authors":"Trevyn A. Toone,&nbsp;Emilee D. Benjamin,&nbsp;Jenny R. Hillman,&nbsp;Andrew Jeffs","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70029","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Coastal mussel populations have declined worldwide, largely due to overharvesting, water pollution, climate change, invasive species and other anthropogenic stressors. Mussel restoration projects have emerged to combat these declines, with restoration methods primarily prioritizing mussel transplantations from healthy populations into degraded areas. While this technique can be effective, it is also costly and often infeasible to upscale. One alternative restoration technique is assisted juvenile recruitment through plantigrade or spat provision, which has facilitated the creation of mussel reefs on small scales. This study assessed the effectiveness of upscaled assisted recruitment of juvenile mussels, specifically using plantigrades attached to macroalgae experimentally placed into restored mussel reefs and adjacent bare cobble habitat. Ultimately, low natural settlement of plantigrades to macroalgae (eight plantigrades per gram macroalgae) and high post-settlement losses of plantigrades (&gt; 99%) resulted in assisted recruitment being unsuccessful as very few juvenile mussels small enough to have originated from the plantigrade provision (0.6 juveniles/m²) were found in either habitat. These results demonstrate two key barriers limiting the success of assisted recruitment as a restoration technique: highly variable natural settlement processes to macroalgae and low successful progression from post-settlement plantigrades to established juveniles due to mortality or emigration. Addressing these limitations will require assessing more reliable sources of plantigrades, such as hatcheries, and identifying the mechanisms currently impeding the transition of plantigrades to juvenile recruits.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142861853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Scleractinian Corals at Their Subtropical Southwestern Atlantic Limit: Post-2019 Mass Bleaching Event Analysis","authors":"Natália C. Roos,&nbsp;Pedro A. S. Longo,&nbsp;Jéssica R. Ilieva,&nbsp;Fábio S. Motta,&nbsp;Guilherme H. Pereira-Filho","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70031","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Thermal anomalies caused by climate change have emerged as a major threat to reef ecosystems globally. While the effects of warming oceans have been extensively investigated in tropical reefs, its effects on subtropical reefs, where coral diversity is lower, remain largely unstudied. We analysed the spatial distribution, mean cover and health status of scleractinian corals in the subtropical rocky reefs of the Alcatrazes Archipelago, a no-take marine protected area located 30 km off the coast of São Paulo state, Brazil (24° S). Data were collected before (2018) and after (2022) the most intense marine heatwave ever recorded in the region, in 2019, using either fixed or random photoquadrats. Five scleractinian corals were recorded as follows: The zooxanthellate massive species <i>Mussismilia hispida</i> and <i>Madracis decactis</i>, the azooxanthellate solitary corals <i>Astrangia</i> spp. and <i>Coenocyathus sebroecki</i> and the invasive sun coral <i>Tubastraea</i> spp. <i>M. hispida</i> and <i>M. decactis</i> were the most abundant species, particularly in the sheltered sites, while <i>Astrangia</i> spp. and <i>C. sebroecki</i> were less abundant and only recorded in the exposed side of the island. In the single site where <i>Tubastraea</i> spp. colonies prevailed, other coral species were nearly absent. Both <i>M. hispida</i> and <i>M. decactis</i> exhibited resilience to the 2019's bleaching event, with their abundance remaining almost the same in 2022. Our findings add evidences to the emerging idea that subtropical reefs in the southwestern Atlantic may serve as refuges during future thermal anomalies, highlighting the importance of monitoring these reefs in the context of changing habitats driven by warming oceans.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142851559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Human Impacts and Larger Geographic Area Explain the Highest Number of Non-Native Species of Freshwater Fishes Into Brazilian Protected Area","authors":"João Carlos Nabout,&nbsp;Felipe Esteves Pinto,&nbsp;Paulo Vitor Santos Rabelo,&nbsp;Rodrigo Assis de Carvalho,&nbsp;Fabrício Barreto Teresa","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70026","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Non-native species represent a significant threat to biodiversity, particularly in aquatic environments where they are often introduced for purposes such as fishing or the aquarium trade. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of isolation and the size of federal protected areas (PAs) on the number of non-native and native freshwater fish species in Brazilian PAs. Data from Brazilian PAs were gathered, including year of creation, buffer of human impacts around the PA, PA categories, coverage by freshwater, tourist visits, sampling sites, geographical coordinates (predictor variables) and information on the number of non-native and native freshwater fish species (response variables). Linear regression analysis was employed to examine the influence of predictor variables on the number of non-native and native fish species. A total of 33 different non-native fish species were identified, with <i>Poecilia reticulata</i>, <i>Hyphessobrycon eques</i>, <i>Hoplias lacerda</i> and <i>Cichla kelberi</i> being the most widespread, occurring in 15, 7, 5 and 4 distinct PAs, respectively. The overall fish biodiversity within PAs encompassed 2670 species, with the National Park of Anavilhanas and the Environmental Protection Area of Ilha e Várzea do Paraná exhibiting the highest species richness. Greater human impact, larger coverage by freshwater and increased sampling effort were positively correlated with the number of recorded non-native species. Factors such as year of creation, type of PA and tourist visitation did not have a significant effect. In contrast, native species exhibited a higher number of occurrences in PAs with lower human impact, longer histories, larger freshwater coverage areas and more extensive sampling efforts. These findings underscore the necessity for comprehensive management strategies to mitigate the impact of non-native species on biodiversity within PAs.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142861530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stream Sentinels: Mayfly Diversity, Land Use, and Conservation in Algeria's Djurdjura Mountains","authors":"Sarah Labdaoui,&nbsp;Farrah Samraoui,&nbsp;Laurent Vuataz,&nbsp;Jean-Luc Gattolliat,&nbsp;Michel Sartori,&nbsp;Boudjéma Samraoui","doi":"10.1002/aqc.70025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70025","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Despite its biogeographical importance and high endemism, the freshwater biodiversity in Algeria and the wider arid region of North Africa has been significantly under-researched and underestimated. Mayflies (Ephemeroptera) are crucial for the maintenance of ecological integrity of hydrosystems and could serve as indicators of changes of North African freshwater biodiversity. This study focuses on mayflies in Algeria, particularly in the Djurdjura Mountains, including the Djurdjura National Park in central-northern Algeria. The aim is to establish an updated checklist, map the distribution of mayfly species and determine the ecological requirements of their assemblages. Twenty-four mayfly taxa were identified during the study, including five new, undescribed species. Through multivariate analysis, the study revealed that land-use practices, altitude and slope orientation significantly influenced mayfly assemblages in the studied streams. This study emphasises the urgent need for conservation action and lays the foundation for future research and conservation efforts that are essential to protecting the integrity of the critical freshwater habitats of the Djurdjura Mountains, which are hotspots for North African endemic species.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":55493,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems","volume":"34 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142851378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}