freshwaterBIODIVERSITY

annual report

SC-DIVERSITAS, 22-24 March 2011

M Palmer & A-H Prieur-Richard

Achievements in 2010

• eFLOWS: the quantity, timing, and quality of water flows required to sustain freshwater and the human well-being that depend on these ecosystems– Advancing this field of research– Research agenda

• Global threats to human water security & freshwater biodiversity– Press release & media campaign– Presentation at CBD COP10, Nagoya

C Vorosmarty, P McIntyre et al. 2010 Nature

On-going activities

• AquaBase: determine the biophysical basis of freshwater ecosystems

• GEO BON freshwater biodiversity working group

• BioFresh• Global Freshwater Consortium

Collaborators: Margaret Palmer (USA), Stuart Bunn (Australia), Brad Cardinale (USA), Michael McClain (UNESCO-IHE - Netherlands), Jeanne Nel (SCIR - South Africa), Klement Tockner (BioFresh - EU)

Focal Watersheds: Chesapeake Bay US), Mara (Kenya & Tanzania), Orange or Vaal (South Africa), undecided (Colombia SA), Murray-Darling (Australia)

AquaBase

AquaBase conceptual framework

Market-based Policies and Regulations

Decisions,Natural resource

Management

Biophysical processes and Ecosystem features

Ecosystem Services(social well-being)

PEOPLE USE OR VALUE THIS

Ecological Endpoints/Outcomes(measurable biophysically, meaningful socially)

Ecological Production Function s

Ecoservice Production Function sInformation

Incentives

Economic Valuation

On-going activities

• AquaBase

• GEO BON freshwater biodiversity working group:

– Symposium “Monitoring freshwater ecosystem change”, World Water Week

• BioFresh

– Biodiversity database for EU countries

– Research on dominant stressors

• Global Freshwater Consortium

On-going activities

• AquaBase

• GEO BON freshwater biodiversity working group:

– Symposium “Monitoring freshwater ecosystem change”, World Water Week

• BioFresh– Biodiversity database for EU countries– Research on dominant stressors

• Global Freshwater Consortium

• 5 European countries & the Phillipines + 19 research institutes• Fully funded and well under way

On-going activities

BioFresh

• Build an information platform as a gateway for scientific research on freshwater biodiversity• Online library • Data portal – data bases, models, tools • Various ‘work packages’ e.g., contemporary and historical biogeographic mapping, outreach & communications, climate change

On-going activities

• AquaBase

• GEO BON freshwater biodiversity working group

• BioFresh

• Global Freshwater Consortium:– Foster international coordination & collaborations to

advance conservation and research on freshwater biodiversity & ecosystem services

– Met in Barcelona in February 2011

Representatives: DIVERSITAS, BioFresh (EU), RESTORE (Sweden), Conservation International, GWSP, IUCN - Freshwater Biodiversity Unit, Wetlands International, FAO , UNESCO-Institute for Water Education, World Wildlife Fund

Global Freshwater Consortium

• Open group including major research and conservation organizations and research projects

• Formalization of the consortium - still under discussion if it will

be informal/ad hoc or more formalized

• Potential activities:• Census of Freshwater Life• Global Freshwater Biodiversity Atlas – first follow-up

meeting this year tentatively organized by Wetlands International

• Joint recommendations to FW managers and policy makers

• Planet under Pressure – 2 session proposals submitted

Conclusions

• Looking forward to the discussions on the DIVERSITAS strategic plan:– How freshwaterBIODIVERSITY will fit in the new

structure?

– Future activities of the group

– SC-freshwaterBIODIVERSITY nominations; need for new chair IF existing structure continues

• Exciting new paper coming out soon by DIVERSITAS member Brad Cardinale (U Michigan)

“Biodiversity improves water quality through niche partitioning”

Thank you !