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Challenges to saving China’s freshwater biodiversity: Fishery exploitation and landscape pressures

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Abstract

China has over 1320 freshwater fish species, 877 of which are endemic. In recent decades, over-exploitation and landscape pressures have threatened them and led to a severe aquatic biodiversity crisis. In response, large-scale fishing bans have been promulgated to protect freshwater biodiversity in major Chinese rivers since the early 1980s. Here, we present the historical background and current challenges to the fishing bans. Implementing large-scale fishing bans may help improve China’s current freshwater biological resources and biodiversity to some extent. But implementing fishing bans alone is not sufficient to solve the crisis because of shortcomings of the current bans and expanding human pressures in most river basins. Thus, we recommend regulating other anthropogenic pressures, expanding duration and extent of current fishing regulations, establishing a comprehensive monitoring program, and initiating basin-scale ecological rehabilitation. These programs are also needed in other developing countries facing similar biodiversity crises and human pressures.

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Fig. 1

Data sources: Zhu et al. (2009) and CMEE (2017)

Fig. 2

Data sources: Wei et al. (1997), Zhu et al. (2009), Huang (2013), Phelps et al. (2016), Huang et al. (2017), CMEE (2017), and CMOA (2019)

Fig. 3

Data sources: Chen and Hua (1985), Chen et al. (1993), Zhang et al. (1993, 2003), Turvey et al. (2007), Mei et al. (2014), Chen et al. (2016), CMEE (2017), and CAS (2018)

Fig. 4

Data source: CMOA (2019)

Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Data sources: China Ministry of Water Resources or MWR (http://www.mwr.gov.cn/); China Ministry of Transport or MOT (http://www.mot.gov.cn/); China Ministry of Natural Resources or MNR (http://www.mnr.gov.cn/); and China National Bureau of Statistics or NBS (http://www.stats.gov.cn/)

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grants Y62302, Y45Z04, Y55Z06, QYZDB-SSW-SMC041, and ZDRW-ZS-2017-3-2), WWF (Grants 10002550 and 10003581), and State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology (Grants 2016FBZ10 and 2019FBZ02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrobiology & State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 South Donghu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China

    Yushun Chen, Xiao Qu, Fangyuan Xiong & Ying Lu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Shijingshan, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yushun Chen, Xiao Qu & Fangyuan Xiong

  3. International Joint Commission & University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, 440 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Lizhu Wang

  4. Amnis Opes Institute & Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, 104 Nash Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331-3803, USA

    Robert M. Hughes

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  1. Yushun Chen
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Chen, Y., Qu, X., Xiong, F. et al. Challenges to saving China’s freshwater biodiversity: Fishery exploitation and landscape pressures. Ambio 49, 926–938 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01246-2

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