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Biodiversity and Aquatic Ecosystems Conservation in Global Large River Basins

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This is an article collection published in Ecological Processes.

Guest Editors

Dr. Yushun Chen, Professor, Institute of Hydrobiology/University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS, China
Dr. Michael A. Eggleton, Professor, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, USA
Dr. Michael J. Moore, Assistant Professor/Assistant Unit Leader, Iowa State University/USGS Iowa Cooperative Research Unit, USA
Dr. Quinton Phelps, Assistant Professor, Missouri State University, USA

About the Collection

The aquatic fauna of large river systems have been cornerstones of multiple civilizations throughout human history. They remain critically important as a primary resource and an indicator of ecosystem function today. Unfortunately, almost all global large river systems are at risk from over-exploitation, pollution, large-scale development, navigation, dredging, climate change, and other threats. To help address threats in two internationally important river basins, the Mississippi-Yangtze River Inter-Basin Symposium (MYRIBS) and subsequent international partnership was started in 2013. Ecologists, biologists, managers, and policy makers from the United States and China gathered to encourage communication and exchange of scholarly discussion, with the goal of conserving important large river resources.

This special issue invites original manuscripts on conservation and management of the Yangtze and Mississippi River basins, but not excluding quality manuscripts of other large boatable rivers, lakes, and their tributaries throughout the world such as the Mekong, Columbia, Colorado, Danube, Murray-Darling, Volga, Ganges, Okavango, Nile, Congo, Amazon, Orinoco and more. Potential topics on biodiversity and aquatic ecosystems conservation based on ecological processes include, but are not limited to:

  • Fish ecology, diversity, and management
  • Mussel, crayfish, and other invertebrates conservation 
  • Taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity
  • Aquatic invasive species
  • Tools and techniques for sampling rivers and lakes 
  • Multiple stressors and river and lake restoration success and failures
  • Watershed approaches to river and lake management
  • Ecosystem services of rivers and lakes

Submission deadline: 31 August 2023

Submission instructions: To ensure that you submit to the correct article collection please select the special issue title in the drop-down menu under the 'Additional Information' tab upon submission. In addition, indicate in your cover letter that you wish your manuscript to be considered as part of the article collection on 'Biodiversity and Aquatic Ecosystems Conservation in Global Large River Basins'. All submissions will undergo rigorous peer review and accepted articles will be published within the journal as a collection.

Contributors are required to follow the journal’s submission guidelines at: https://ecologicalprocesses.springeropen.com/submission-guidelines

Click Here to submit your manuscripts now.

Published articles in this collection

  1. Deforestation is a widespread disturbance for neotropical freshwater ecosystems. While biodiversity declines have been associated with deforestation, its functional consequences for stream and river fish fauna...

    Authors: Isabel Cantera, Céline Jézéquel, Tony Dejean, Jérôme Murienne, Régis Vigouroux, Alice Valentini and Sébastien Brosse
    Citation: Ecological Processes 2023 12:52
  2. To rehabilitate the depleted fish resources of the Yangtze River Basin, China, a 10-year fishing ban has been implemented. This national initiative has attracted worldwide attention. The present study aimed to...

    Authors: Fei Liu, Zixin Wang, Zhijun Xia, Jianwei Wang and Huanzhang Liu
    Citation: Ecological Processes 2023 12:51
  3. Large-river decision-makers are charged with maintaining diverse ecosystem services through unprecedented social-ecological transformations as climate change and other global stressors intensify. The interconn...

    Authors: Nicole K. Ward, Abigail J. Lynch, Erik A. Beever, Joshua Booker, Kristen L. Bouska, Holly Embke, Jeffrey N. Houser, John F. Kocik, Joshua Kocik, David J. Lawrence, Mary Grace Lemon, Doug Limpinsel, Madeline R. Magee, Bryan M. Maitland, Owen McKenna, Andrew Meier…
    Citation: Ecological Processes 2023 12:48
  4. The application of index of biotic integrity (IBI) to evaluate river health can be an essential method for river ecosystem management. However, these types of methods were developed in small, low-order streams...

    Authors: Wenqi Gao, Fangyuan Xiong, Ying Lu, Xiao Qu, Wei Xin and Yushun Chen
    Citation: Ecological Processes 2023 12:41
  5. Although freshwater ecosystems cover less than 1% of the earth's surface, they support extremely high levels of biodiversity and provide vital ecosystem services. However, due to the introduction of non-native...

    Authors: Fangmin Shuai, Jie Li and Sovan Lek
    Citation: Ecological Processes 2023 12:22
  6. Habitat degradation and flow regime alterations are two of the most prominent and common impact factors to freshwater mussel populations. Knowledge of the correlation between freshwater mussel distribution, de...

    Authors: Chenchen Jia, Chenhuizi Wu, Xiaochen Huang, Chunhua Zhou, Shan Ouyang, Xiongjun Liu and Xiaoping Wu
    Citation: Ecological Processes 2023 12:15
  7. In the riverine riparian ecosystem, particularly in India, the knowledge of the effects of habitat disturbance on taxonomic distinctness, functional diversity, and local contribution to β diversity (LCBD) of s...

    Authors: Kritish De, Amar Paul Singh, Arkojyoti Sarkar, Kritika Singh, Manju Siliwal, Virendra Prasad Uniyal and Syed Ainul Hussain
    Citation: Ecological Processes 2023 12:13