Scientists’ warning to humanity on the freshwater biodiversity crisis

In the paper

“The largest imminent threats come from megaprojects designed to transfer water among river basins in Brazil and India (Shumilova et al. 2018), and to drain coastal wetlands in China (Cui et al. 2016).”

What the sources say

• Partly supported

  The Global Scale Inventory (p. 7) identifies the São Francisco project in Brazil as under construction and says the Yettinahole diversion in India will damage a biodiversity hotspot. Impacts on Freshwater Ecosystems (p. 8) also describes expected harms from the Brazilian project. The paper does not rank these as the largest imminent threats. The coastal-wetlands claim is attributed to Cui et al., not this source. (LLM, conf=0.87)

  cites Shumilova et al. 2018 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
• Supported

  The Introduction describes reclamation as among the most widespread threats to coastal wetlands and reports approval to reclaim approximately 2,500 km² of China’s coastal wetlands during 2010–2020. This supports the China-specific, near-term threat for which Cui et al. is cited; the Brazil and India projects are attributed to a different source. (LLM, conf=0.86)

  cites Cui et al. 2016 source

In the paper

“Sediment retention by dams leads to delta recession (Luo et al. 2017) and degraded coastal fisheries and tropical mangrove forests, indirectly affecting carbon storage that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the latter case (Atwood et al. 2017).”

What the sources say

• Supported

  Luo et al. is cited for the link between sediment retention by dams and delta recession; the fisheries, mangroves, and carbon-storage claims are attached to a different citation. The Abstract reports erosion of the Yangtze subaqueous delta after construction of the Three Gorges Dam and attributes it mainly to reduced river sediment discharge. The Discussion likewise predicts continued erosion as engineering retains more sediment. (LLM, conf=0.94)

  cites Luo et al. 2017 source
• Supported

  The Atwood citation attaches to the mangrove-carbon point, not the preceding dam and delta claim. The Introduction states that mangroves store large amounts of soil carbon and that preventing emissions from the loss of those stocks can mitigate climate change. (LLM, conf=0.92)

  cites Atwood et al. 2017 source

In the paper

“The species illustrated roughly represent the proportions of endangered freshwater vertebrates, with greater threats to fishes (a-c) than to tetrapods (c-f), and to Eurasian (a-c, f) than non-Eurasian (d-e) species”

In the paper

“The total volume of water planned for near-future diversion megaprojects is projected to exceed 1900 km 3 per year, representing an additional * 5% of total global surface freshwater flow (Shumilova et al. 2018).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Shumilova et al. 2018 source

In the paper

“About one fifth of the Earth's arable land is now already equipped for irrigation, including all the most productive lands, and this proportion is projected to surpass one third by midcentury to feed the rapidly expanding populations of humans and commensal species, especially poultry and ruminant livestock.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Scanlon et al. 2007; Ellis et al. 2010; Siebert et al. 2015

In the paper

“Yet human impacts to lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands and groundwater are dramatically reducing biodiversity and robbing critical natural resources and services from current and future generations.”

In the paper

“The more rapid increase in threats to freshwater than terrestrial ecosystems arises from the minute total volume of liquid freshwater on the Earth's surface, and from the critical roles that freshwaters serve in human economic systems (Barbier 2017).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Barbier 2017 source

In the paper

“Domestic ruminant livestock (* 4 thousand millions globally) contribute 14.5% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission, especially through the enteric fermentation by ruminants producing methane (Ripple et al. 2013).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Ripple et al. 2013 source

In the paper

“The Living Planet Index for freshwater vertebrate populations has declined to just one third that of 1970, and is projected to sink below one fifth by midcentury.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Loh et al. 2005; WWF 2016

In the paper

“Lowering the number of ruminant livestock would have the co-benefits of improving freshwater conditions and mitigating climate change.”

In the paper

“megafauna (defined as fishes, amphibians, reptiles and mammals C 30 kg adult body weight) declined by 88%, with mega-fishes undergoing the largest declines (-94%, Carrizo et al. 2017;He et al. 2019).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Carrizo et al. 2017; He et al. 2019

In the paper

“The Yangtze basin is among the most impacted of any large river on Earth, with the last citings of two species occurring in the 2000s; i.e., the Yangtze river dolphin Lipotes vexillifer (Turvey et al. 2007), and the Yangtze paddlefish Psephurus gladius (Zhang et al. 2009).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Turvey et al. 2007 source
• Not checked yetcites Zhang et al. 2009 source

In the paper

“Global populations of domestic ruminants (cattle, sheep, and goats) (Ripple et al. 2013) poultry, and pigs (Bennett et al. 2018) used to feed the growing human population now exceed 100 million tons of carbon (Bar-On et al. 2018), and livestock populations are growing rapidly.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Ripple et al. 2013 source
• Not checked yetcites Bennett et al. 2018 source
• Not checked yetcites Bar-On et al. 2018 source

In the paper

“The total biomass of all humans alive today constitutes approximately 60 million metric tons of carbon, which is slightly more than 10 times that of all the remaining wild mammals of the world (Smil 2011).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Smil 2011 source

In the paper

“Agricultural practices also degrade the quality and ecological status of the freshwater ecosystems, with status improvements remaining slow and difficult long after environmental regulations have been put in place requiring such improvements (Destouni et al. 2017).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Destouni et al. 2017 source

In the paper

“Worldwide, agriculture accounts for about 70% of all freshwater usage, compared to 20% for industry and 10% for domestic uses (FAO 2016).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites FAO 2016

In the paper

“Withdrawals and diversions (Jaramillo and Destouni 2015) as well as agricultural expansion and intensification (Destouni et al. 2013) are main threats to freshwater availability and quality (Destouni and Jarsjo ¨2018), while fragmentation and flow regulation (Winemiller et al. 2016) are main threats to freshwater biodiversity by altering rivers, floodplain lakes, wetlands and estuaries.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Jaramillo and Destouni 2015 source
• Not checked yetcites Destouni et al. 2013 source
• Not checked yetcites Winemiller et al. 2016 source

In the paper

“Damages are seen in the total area of anthropogenic (urban and agricultural) modified landscapes worldwide, wetlands reduction, and amount of surface and subsurface flows that have been diminished or degraded (Gleeson et al. 2016).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Gleeson et al. 2016 source

In the paper

“Altered flow seasonality in rivers has led to less diverse fish assemblages, decreased inland fisheries production, less stable bird populations and lower riparian forest production (Jardine et al. 2015;Kingsford et al. 2017;Sabo et al. 2017).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Jardine et al. 2015 source
• Not checked yetcites Kingsford et al. 2017 source
• Not checked yetcites Sabo et al. 2017 source

In the paper

“Demands on global freshwaters continue to grow rapidly, with efforts to expand global food production by 50-70% before 2050 (Molden 2007;FAO 2011).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Molden 2007
• Not checked yetcites FAO 2011

In the paper

“The global human population is projected to reach 9.6-12.3thousand millions people by the year 2100, and the human appropriation of (terrestrial) net primary productivity (HANPP) to reach 40-60% (Krausmann et al. 2013).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Krausmann et al. 2013 source

In the paper

“Increased human population and socio-economic activities also increase the pollutant and nutrient loads that deteriorate water quality and ecosystem status across different regions and countries around the world (Destouni and Jarsjo ¨2018; Levi et al. 2018).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Destouni and Jarsjo 2018 source
• Not checked yetcites Levi et al. 2018 source

In the paper

“Water withdrawals and diversions currently cause about one-quarter of the world's rivers to run dry before reaching the ocean, and have drained major inland water bodies like the Aral Sea in Central Asia (Destouni et al. 2013) and Lake Urmia in Iran (Khazaei et al. 2019).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Destouni et al. 2013 source
• Not checked yetcites Khazaei et al. 2019 source

In the paper

“Among the most effective methods for stabilizing human population growth are to provide primary and secondary education for girls, and voluntary family planning education for women in developing countries (Leigh and Blakely 2017).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Leigh and Blakely 2017

In the paper

“Therefore, a linear growth model may be able to persist well into this century, despite the obvious crises that would follow as we reach or surpass the Earth's freshwater capacity.”

In the paper

“Dams also prevent upstreamdownstream movement of freshwater animals, facilitate settlement of non-native species, cause local species extirpations and replacements and increase risk of waterborne diseases in reservoirs and highly altered environments by modifying productivity (Fenwick 2006;Poff and Schmidt 2016).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Fenwick 2006 source
• Not checked yetcites Poff and Schmidt 2016 source

In the paper

“The volume of water used by the energy sector alone represents about 15% of global freshwater withdrawals, and extracting and processing freshwater represents about 19% of total usage by the energy sector (Fricko et al. 2016).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Fricko et al. 2016 source

In the paper

“Dams transform river basins by creating artificial lakes locally, fragmenting river networks, and greatly distorting natural patterns of sediment transport and seasonal variations in water temperatures and flows (Latrubesse et al. 2017).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Latrubesse et al. 2017 source

In the paper

“Freshwater species and ecosystems are increasingly threatened by many human activities, including habitat alteration, water pollution, overfishing, exotic species introduction, river diversions, fragmentation and flow regulation, expansion of agricultural and urban landscapes, climate change, rising sea levels and altered precipitation regimes (Dudgeon 2019;Grill et al. 2019;IPBES 2019).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Dudgeon 2019 source
• Not checked yetcites Grill et al. 2019 source
• Not checked yetcites IPBES 2019

In the paper

“Freshwater ecosystems are also among the most diverse per unit habitat volume on Earth, with more than 140 000 species (i.e., fungi, plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates; c. 12% of all described species) compressed into just * 2% of the world's surface area, and a minute * 0.007% of the total planetary water supply (Reid et al. 2019).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Reid et al. 2019 source

In the paper

“In the twentieth century, the human population grew fourfold and human appropriation of energy from the biosphere about doubled from 13 to 25% (Krausmann et al. 2013).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Krausmann et al. 2013 source

In the paper

“The main conservation threats to these species come from human activities, including overharvesting, pollution, introducing invasive species, and habitat modifications (e.g., water diversions, land-use changes, climate change).”

In the paper

“The fragmentation of river corridors also reduces population sizes and gene flows of aquatic species, increasing species extinction risks (Cohen et al. 2016a, b;Dias et al. 2017).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Cohen et al. 2016a, b
• Not checked yetcites Dias et al. 2017 source