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. 2017 Oct 3:4:170141.
doi: 10.1038/sdata.2017.141.

A global database on freshwater fish species occurrence in drainage basins

Affiliations

A global database on freshwater fish species occurrence in drainage basins

Pablo A Tedesco et al. Sci Data. .

Abstract

A growing interest is devoted to global-scale approaches in ecology and evolution that examine patterns and determinants of species diversity and the threats resulting from global change. These analyses obviously require global datasets of species distribution. Freshwater systems house a disproportionately high fraction of the global fish diversity considering the small proportion of the earth's surface that they occupy, and are one of the most threatened habitats on Earth. Here we provide complete species lists for 3119 drainage basins covering more than 80% of the Earth surface using 14953 fish species inhabiting permanently or occasionally freshwater systems. The database results from an extensive survey of native and non-native freshwater fish species distribution based on 1436 published papers, books, grey literature and web-based sources. Alone or in combination with further datasets on species biological and ecological characteristics and their evolutionary history, this database represents a highly valuable source of information for further studies on freshwater macroecology, macroevolution, biogeography and conservation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Global map indicating the drainage basins included in the database with different colours by biogeographic realm.
The 3119 drainage basins cover more than 80% of the Earth surface (excluding deserts), ranging from 70% for the Indo-Malay region to over 90% for the Afrotropical region.

References

Data Citations

    1. Tedesco P. A. 2017. Figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3739145 - DOI

References

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