LETTER

Concordance of freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity

  1. Robin Abell1,
  2. Michele Thieme1,
  3. Taylor H. Ricketts1,
  4. Nasser Olwero1,
  5. Rebecca Ng1,
  6. Paulo Petry2,3,
  7. Eric Dinerstein1,
  8. Carmen Revenga2,
  9. Jonathan Hoekstra2

Article first published online: 18 NOV 2010

DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2010.00153.x

Issue

Conservation Letters

Conservation Letters

Volume 4, Issue 2, pages 127–136, April/May 2011

Additional Information

How to Cite

Abell, R., Thieme, M., Ricketts, T. H., Olwero, N., Ng, R., Petry, P., Dinerstein, E., Revenga, C. and Hoekstra, J. (2011), Concordance of freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity. Conservation Letters, 4: 127–136. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2010.00153.x

Author Information

  1. 1

     World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th St. NW, Washington, D.C., USA

  2. 2

     The Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, USA

  3. 3

     Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA, USA

*Correspondence Robin Abell, World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th St. NW, Washington D.C., USA. Tel: +202-495-4507; fax: +202-293-9211. E-mail: robin.abell@wwfus.org

  1. Editor Dirk Roux

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 8 APR 2011
  2. Article first published online: 18 NOV 2010
  3. Accepted manuscript online: 28 OCT 2010 06:41AM EST
  4. Received , 14 July 2010, Accepted, 6 October 2010

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Keywords:

  • Congruence;
  • ecoregions;
  • fish;
  • freshwater;
  • global;
  • priority-setting;
  • rarity-weighted richness;
  • terrestrial

Abstract

Efforts to set global conservation priorities have largely ignored freshwater diversity, thereby excluding some of the world's most speciose, threatened, and valuable taxa. Using a new global map of freshwater ecoregions and distribution data for about 13,300 fish species, we identify regions of exceptional freshwater biodiversity and assess their overlap with regions of equivalent terrestrial importance. Overlap is greatest in the tropics and is higher than expected by chance. These high-congruence areas offer opportunities for integrated conservation efforts, which could be of particular value when economic conditions force conservation organizations to narrow their focus. Areas of low overlap—missed by current terrestrially based priority schemes—merit independent freshwater conservation efforts. These results provide new information to conservation investors setting priorities at global or regional scales and argue for a potential reallocation of future resources to achieve representation of overlooked biomes.

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