Diversity, distribution and conservation of crocodiles (Order: Crocodylia) in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Challenges in freshwater organism conservation in West Africa are worsened by significant knowledge gaps, even for charismatic species like crocodiles. This study addresses these gaps by assessing crocodile diversity, distribution, and conservation threats in Guinea-Bissau, where existing data is outdated. We used visual surveys, inquiries, molecular barcoding, camera trapping, and bibliographic reviews to investigate crocodile populations.

A curated dataset on the distribution of West Palaearctic freshwater bivalves.

Freshwater bivalves (FWB) are attracting scientific and societal attention given their essential ecosystem services, ecological functions, and poor conservation status. Current knowledge of the spatial distribution of West Palearctic FWB is poor preventing the understanding of biogeography and conservation planning. One of the priorities of the pan-European networking project "CONFREMU - Conservation of freshwater mussels: a pan-European approach" funded by the European Union, was to fill the knowledge gap on the distribution of FWB in Europe and adjacent regions.

Cold tolerance strategies of freshwater mussels across latitudes.

Freshwater mussels across Europe exhibit physiological and behavioural adaptations to survive winter conditions. Climate change projections, including more frequent extreme weather events, are expected to intensify pressures on these ecosystems. In this study, we tested the temperature-size hypothesis, which posits that larger body size in ectothermic organisms is an adaptation to colder climates.

Navigating Methodological Trade-Offs in eDNA Metabarcoding Biodiversity Monitoring: Insights From a Mediterranean Watershed.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding technologies promise significant advances in biodiversity monitoring, yet their application requires extensive optimisation and standardisation. Recent research demonstrated that increased sampling and analytical efforts are needed to improve biodiversity estimates, though fully optimising study designs is often hindered by resource constraints. Consequently, researchers must carefully navigate methodological trade-offs to design effective eDNA metabarcoding monitoring studies.

No attenuation of fish and mammal biodiversity declines in the Guiana Shield.

Real-time biodiversity monitoring should provide more resolved data to quantify shifts in ecological communities progressively altered by anthropogenic disturbances. Identifying biodiversity trends requires a rapid and efficient inventory method that enables the collection and delivery of high-resolution data within short intervals. Using aquatic environmental DNA (eDNA), we investigated spatiotemporal changes in fish and mammal communities along the Maroni River in French Guiana.

Assessing the value of environmental DNA into conservation planning: A case study of freshwater bivalves in France.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is emerging as a valuable tool for generating standardised biodiversity data. Whether used alone or alongside conventional surveys, it is expected that eDNA data can improve conservation planning, but this remains largely untested. Here, we assessed the value of eDNA data for making more robust conservation prioritisation decisions, by comparing errors made when identifying priority areas based on conventional data, eDNA or a combination of both.

The mitochondrial genomes of Iberian freshwater and diadromous fishes.

The Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe, is home to a distinctive freshwater fish fauna, predominantly composed of endemic species. This is a consequence of the prolonged isolation from western Europe caused by the Pyrenees, the diverse geological and climatic gradients, and the isolation of river basins. Freshwater and diadromous fishes have diversified in the Iberian Peninsula and include 72 currently recognized native species, 50 of which are endemic to the region.

The complete female mitogenome of (Lamarck, 1819).

Freshwater mussels perform important ecological functions in ecosystems, such as water filtration and energy cycling. Unlike marine bivalves, freshwater mussels have unique characteristics including internal fertilization and parental care. Some freshwater mussels are facing a high risk of extinction due to several factors such as climate change and habitat loss.

The complete mitogenome of the Atlantic longnose chimaera (Holt & Byrne, 1909).

Holocephali is a subclass of chondrichthyans with ample geographic distribution in marine ecosystems. Holocephalan species are organized into three families: Callorhinchidae, Chimaeridae, and Rhinochimaeridae. Despite the critical ecological and evolutionary importance, genomic information from holocephalans is still scarce, particularly from rhinochimaerids.

The complete mitochondrial genome of (Kobelt, 1879).

Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionida) play essential roles in the well-functioning of ecosystems, even providing essential services to humans. However, these bivalves face numerous threats (e.g.

An island in a sea of sand: a first checklist of the herpetofauna of the Serra da Neve inselberg, southwestern Angola.

The Serra da Neve inselberg in Namibe Province, southwestern Angola is the second highest peak of Angola with an elevation of 2489 m. It remains one of the least explored regions in the country, despite several endemic species having been recently described from this inselberg. Here we provide an inventory of the amphibian and reptile species ocurring in Serra da Neve and compare its fauna with that of the surrounding habitats at lower elevations.

The transcriptome assembly of the European freshwater mussel Unio elongatulus C. Pfeiffer, 1825.

Freshwater mussels of the order Unionida are a global conservation concern. Species of this group are strictly freshwater, sessile, slow-growing animals and, extremely sensitive to environmental changes. Human-mediated changes in freshwater habitats are imposing enormous pressure on the survival of freshwater mussels.

A PacBio Hi-Fi Genome Assembly of the Painter's Mussel Unio pictorum (Linnaeus, 1758).

The highly diverse group of freshwater mussels from order Unionida is found in the world's freshwater systems due to several fascinating evolutionary adaptations, including "parental care," and most notably, an obligatory parasitic phase in their early life cycle, called glochidia, which infests and uses fish for nutrition and dispersal. Freshwater mussels play essential ecological roles in freshwater habitats, including water filtration, sediment bioturbation, and nutrient cycling. However, these species are also highly threatened, being one of the faunal groups with the highest recorded extinction rate in the wild.

PacBio Hi-Fi genome assembly of the Iberian dolphin freshwater mussel Unio delphinus Spengler, 1793.

Mussels of order Unionida are a group of strictly freshwater bivalves with nearly 1,000 described species widely dispersed across world freshwater ecosystems. They are highly threatened showing the highest record of extinction events within faunal taxa. Conservation is particularly concerning in species occurring in the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot that are exposed to multiple anthropogenic threats, possibly acting in synergy.

Streams in the Mediterranean Region are not for mussels: Predicting extinctions and range contractions under future climate change.

Climate change is becoming the leading driver of biodiversity loss. The Mediterranean region, particularly southwestern Europe, is already confronting the consequences of ongoing global warming. Unprecedented biodiversity declines have been recorded, particularly within freshwater ecosystems.

A novel assembly pipeline and functional annotations for targeted sequencing: A case study on the globally threatened Margaritiferidae (Bivalvia: Unionida).

The proliferation of genomic sequencing approaches has significantly impacted the field of phylogenetics. Target capture approaches provide a cost-effective, fast and easily applied strategy for phylogenetic inference of non-model organisms. However, several existing target capture processing pipelines are incapable of incorporating whole genome sequencing (WGS).

Identifying freshwater priority areas for cross-taxa interactions.

Information about biotic interactions (e.g. competition, predation, parasitism, diseases, mutualism, allelopathy) is fundamental to better understand species distribution and abundance, ecosystem functioning, and ultimately guide conservation efforts.

Freshwater mussel conservation: A global horizon scan of emerging threats and opportunities.

We identified 14 emerging and poorly understood threats and opportunities for addressing the global conservation of freshwater mussels over the next decade. A panel of 17 researchers and stakeholders from six continents submitted a total of 56 topics that were ranked and prioritized using a consensus-building Delphi technique. Our 14 priority topics fell into five broad themes (autecology, population dynamics, global stressors, global diversity, and ecosystem services) and included understanding diets throughout mussel life history; identifying the drivers of population declines; defining metrics for quantifying mussel health; assessing the role of predators, parasites, and disease; informed guidance on the risks and opportunities for captive breeding and translocations; the loss of mussel-fish co-evolutionary relationships; assessing the effects of increasing surface water changes; understanding the effects of sand and aggregate mining; understanding the effects of drug pollution and other emerging contaminants such as nanomaterials; appreciating the threats and opportunities arising from river restoration; conserving understudied hotspots by building local capacity through the principles of decolonization; identifying appropriate taxonomic units for conservation; improved quantification of the ecosystem services provided by mussels; and understanding how many mussels are enough to provide these services.

A roadmap for the conservation of freshwater mussels in Europe.

Europe has a long history of human pressure on freshwater ecosystems. As pressure continues to grow and new threats emerge, there is an urgent need for conservation of freshwater biodiversity and its ecosystem services. However, whilst some taxonomic groups, mainly vertebrates, have received a disproportionate amount of attention and funds, other groups remain largely off the public and scientific radar.

The gill transcriptome of threatened European freshwater mussels.

Genomic tools applied to non-model organisms are critical to design successful conservation strategies of particularly threatened groups. Freshwater mussels of the Unionida order are among the most vulnerable taxa and yet almost no genetic resources are available. Here, we present the gill transcriptomes of five European freshwater mussels with high conservation concern: Margaritifera margaritifera, Unio crassus, Unio pictorum, Unio mancus and Unio delphinus.

Speeding up the detection of invasive bivalve species using environmental DNA: A Nanopore and Illumina sequencing comparison.

Traditional detection of aquatic invasive species via morphological identification is often time-consuming and can require a high level of taxonomic expertise, leading to delayed mitigation responses. Environmental DNA (eDNA) detection approaches of multiple species using Illumina-based sequencing technology have been used to overcome these hindrances, but sample processing is often lengthy. More recently, portable nanopore sequencing technology has become available, which has the potential to make molecular detection of invasive species more widely accessible and substantially decrease sample turnaround times.

The size and shape of parasitic larvae of naiads (Unionidae) are not dependent on female size.

The naiads, large freshwater mussels (Unionida), have very long life spans, are large-bodied, and produce thousands to millions of larvae (glochidia) which typically must attach to host fish tissues to metamorphose into a juvenile mussel. Glochidia develop within a female's marsupial gill demibranch, thus their number is restricted by female size. However, larger mussels acquire more energy, which could be invested in either larger-sized glochidia, in a more glochidia, or a combination of both.

Alarming decline of freshwater trigger species in western Mediterranean key biodiversity areas.

Theidentification of key biodiversity areas (KBA) was initiated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2004 to overcome taxonomic biases in the selection of important areas for conservation, including freshwater ecosystems. Since then, several KBAs have been identified mainly based on the presence of trigger species (i.e.