Science for conserving Amazon freshwater ecosystems

Abstract

Abstract The Amazon Basin is being degraded at unprecedented rates, yet conservation efforts have implemented protected areas to curb deforestation, leaving freshwater ecosystems vulnerable to degradation. Amazon freshwater ecosystems are largely unprotected because a terrestrial bias has limited the ability of science to affect policy. Overcoming this bias requires increasing exchange of information among stakeholders across the basin to raise awareness of threats to Amazon freshwater ecosystems and promote discussions and access to conservation solutions. To help address this need, this Special Issue collates 15 synthetic articles that advance knowledge and identify conservation solutions. Three articles highlight the importance of considering the hydrological and limnological processes that control the integrity of these freshwater ecosystems and offer new insights on how to extrapolate them across the basin. Three articles on crocodilians, aquatic mammals, and migratory fishes document threats and knowledge gaps, and identify the missing role of governments as an impediment to conservation of their populations. Three articles evaluate the multi‐faceted effects of hydropower dams on fish, birds, and floodplain trees. They reinforce perceptions that dams are key environmental threats and offer guidance for improving protocols for dam site selection and impact assessment. Three articles assessing the effectiveness of protected areas to safeguard fish and aquatic invertebrates show there is an urgent need to redesign the Amazon protected area network to adequately protect freshwater biota. Three forward‐looking articles show that: (i) conservation initiatives by local communities are ‘bright spots’ for freshwater conservation; (ii) microchemistry analyses of the ear bones of fishes could boost the knowledge base needed to conserve them; and (iii) strengthening the Amazon conservation framework requires a reversal of Brazil's current governmental priorities, remobilization of stakeholders, investments in capacity building, and expanding protections to terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems.