Freshwater conservation potential of protected areas in the Tennessee and Cumberland River Basins, USA

Abstract

1. The ability of existing protected areas (PAs) to conserve freshwater species and ecosystems has been little investigated. In this study the freshwater conservation potential of PAs was evaluated based on their geospatial attributes and spatial relationship to threats.2. Specifically, the following questions were addressed: (a) to what extent, if any, do PA drainage network location and size affect the potential of PAs to conserve freshwater species and habitats within them?; (b) how are the factors that limit or promote conservation potential distributed in relation to PAs across a region?; and (c) what are the broader implications for how PAs can be designed and managed to contribute to freshwater conservation around the world?3. Eight factors that affect freshwater conservation potential for 297 PAs within the Tennessee and Cumberland River Basins (US) were analysed. Four of these attributes (connectivity, impervious surface area, agricultural land cover, and upstream storage) showed enough variation across PAs such that the effect of PA size, drainage network position, and their interaction on those attributes, was able to be modelled.4. The results support the hypothesis that PA drainage network location and size affect freshwater conservation potential of PAs. Both have a statistically significant effect on each of the four conservation potential attributes, either as a main effect, or through an interaction, although the direction of these relationships is not always intuitive. Of the factors that limit or promote conservation potential, PAs appear to be most often affected by land conversion to agriculture and a loss of connectivity.5. This study underscores the importance of PA managers understanding key internal and external threats so that they can take mitigating or minimizing action, and the need to define PA locations and boundaries within a larger basin context.

Critical catchments for freshwater biodiversity conservation in Europe: identification, prioritisation and gap analysis

“…We suggest review of management plans in addition to coverage to obtain a more in‐depth evaluation of the benefits provided by each protected area (Thieme et al . ). Finally, the gap thresholds can also be tailored to the specific requirements of different species (see Rodrigues et al .…”

“…Generally, it is increasingly acknowledged that enlarging protected areas may not be sufficient to protect freshwater biodiversity and to meet the ambitious goals of international policies (Thieme et al . ). Often there is a need for additional conservation actions.…”

Freshwater biodiversity conservation through source water protection: Quantifying the potential and addressing the challenges

“…• Spatial scale -Small PAs may have little impact, although if they drain to or comprise small headwater streams the impact may be proportionately greater than if they are located further downstream in river networks (Thieme et al, 2016). Although there is no universal threshold for how much of a catchment should be protected to conserve freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, some studies (Death & Collier, 2010) have attempted to identify thresholds for particular settings.…”

“…• Location -Some subcatchments or even stream reaches may support higher priority freshwater biodiversity elements and ecosystem processes than others, but most terrestrial PAs have not been sited with these elements in mind (Abell et al, 2007;Herbert, Mcintyre, Doran, Allan, & Abell, 2010;Juffe-Bignoli et al, 2016;Thieme et al, 2016).…”

Native and introduced fish community structure in a freshwater swamp forest: Implications for conservation and management

“…Although these species are still present and thriving within the NSSF drainage, Giam et al () showed that the range of fish species in Singapore has been the main historical predictor of their extinction, with species limited to a single drainage easily being extirpated by habitat conversion. Freshwater protected areas elsewhere have been criticized as ineffective owing to an insufficient coverage of species ranges (Chessman, ; Hermoso, Filipe, Segurado, & Beja, ; Raghavan, Das, Nameer, Bijukumar, & Dahanukar, ; Thieme et al, ); however, such arguments are largely moot in highly urbanized Singapore, because of its small size and now mostly transformed land area, in which only a relatively small proportion of habitat is suitable or available for protection (Ng & Corlett, ). Thus, the importance of the NSSF to the freshwater biodiversity of Singapore cannot be overstated.…”