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The River Indus is one of the most extended water bodies in Pakistan. It is a source of drinking water, hydroelectric power generation, irrigation, agriculture and aquaculture. The present examination wanted to survey the river's physicochemical parameters and biodiversity from June 2016 to May 2017. Total eight stations have been selected along the Indus River, and 08 water quality parameters, i.e., temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, power of hydrogen, transparency, alkalinity, hardness, and total dissolved solids, have been checked from all stations on the spot and bring water samples in a plastic bottle. Fish samples were also collected from all stations, preserved all the samples in 10% formalin, and further investigated in the Fresh Water Biology Laboratory at the University of Sindh Jamshoro. A total of 45 fish species have been identified throughout the study period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanisation is increasing globally, degrading terrestrial and freshwater habitats and reducing faunal and floral richness. Whilst the potential for garden ponds to serve as important biodiversity resources in urban areas has been documented in a limited number of studies, quantifying the contribution of garden ponds to urban freshwater diversity has been largely neglected. This study aims to quantify the taxonomic richness, community composition and conservation value of aquatic macroinvertebrates in domestic garden and non-urban ponds. Taxonomic richness was significantly lower in garden ponds than non-urban ponds at an alpha and gamma scale. A greater richness of Odonata, Coleoptera, Gastropoda and Hemiptera were recorded in non-urban ponds. Garden ponds were found to support compositionally different macroinvertebrate communities compared to non-urban ponds, influenced by variation in water depth and conductivity. A total of 23 taxa were recorded from garden ponds only. Non-urban ponds had a significantly higher conservation value compared to garden ponds (87% of garden ponds were of low or moderate conservation value, while only 35% of non-urban ponds were in these categories). Although garden ponds currently support limited macroinvertebrate diversity and have lower conservation value, they contribute to the regional species pool and their potential to limit future urban biodiversity loss is significant. Given their high abundance and popularity within the urban landscape, clear guidance is required for pond-owners on how to best manage garden ponds to support and sustain biodiversity. For this to be achieved, research is required to increase fundamental understanding of urban pond ecology, and the development of evidence led garden pond management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mountainous areas are attractive for human colonization. • In South Africa, mountains host high levels of aquatic arthropod endemism. • There are often trade-offs between urbanization and biodiversity conservation. • Urbanization presents several novel threats to freshwater conservation. • Threats can and have been mitigated to encourage arthropods in urban spaces. Mountains supply essential resources, making them attractive areas for human settlement. Variation in elevation in mountainous areas determines local and regional climates, leading to complex biodiversity patterns. Mountains in the Cape Floristic Region have high species richness and beta diversity, and very high levels of local endemism. Table Mountain is an iconic mountain in the region, and unusual, as it is in the centre of the city of Cape Town. It is exceedingly rich in biodiversity, including many localized endemic species. However, increasing urbanization in the area is adversely affecting the local biodiversity, especially in the lowlands. Climate change effects to date are minimal, but projected to interact with the impacts of urbanization. Here we review the biodiversity patterns of green and blue spaces in and around Cape Town, including Table Mountain, focusing on aquatic arthropods. We also review the major threats that lead to biotic impoverishment, and provide information on current conservation efforts aimed at protecting the rich biodiversity of Table Mountain and its surrounds. Finally, we focus on the shortcomings of existing conservation actions, and then provide conservation strategies to limit aquatic arthropod biodiversity losses, based on actions that have already worked well. To ensure protection of all arthropods, freshwater habitats across all elevations require further conservation action. Education and creating awareness must continue to close the gaps between scientists, conservation practitioners and civil society as a crucial part of the conservation plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal contamination is a global issue impacting biodiversity in urbanised estuaries. Traditional methods to assess biodiversity are time consuming, costly and often exclude small or cryptic organisms due to difficulties with morphological identification. Metabarcoding approaches have been increasingly recognised for their utility in monitoring, however studies have focused on freshwater and marine systems despite the ecological significance of estuaries. We targeted estuarine eukaryote communities within the sediments of Australia's largest urbanised estuary, where a history of industrial activity has resulted in a metal contamination gradient. We identified specific eukaryote families with significant correlations with bioavailable metal concentrations, indicating sensitivity or tolerance to specific metals. While polychaete families Terebellidae and Syllidae demonstrated tolerance to the contamination gradient, members of the meio- and microfaunal communities including diatoms, dinoflagellates and nematodes displayed sensitivities. These may have high value as indicators but are frequently missed in traditional surveys due to sampling limitations. • We sampled a metal contamination gradient in Australia's largest estuary. • We used eDNA metabarcoding to investigate benthic eukaryote communities. • Polychaete families displayed tolerance to bioavailable metal concentrations. • We found sensitivities of members of the meio- and microfaunal communities. • Metabarcoding offers a promising alternative to traditional monitoring approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russian High Arctic archipelagos still lack knowledge on the freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. Here, we present results of the freshwater bodies' survey of the nine islands in the Franz Josef Land archipelago, north-eastern Barents Sea, carried out in August 2016. Freshwater lakes and streams along with associated coastal habitats were examined for hydrochemistry, elemental composition of sediments, microbiota, macrozoobenthos, flora and vegetation as well as ornithofauna. Despite the harsh climate conditions and ephemeral character of the freshwater bodies, there were a diverse microflora and macrozoobenthos. Macrozoobenthos consisted primarily of chironomid larvae (with highest abundances at 6644.4 specimens/m2 and wet biomass hereinafter referred biomass 3.1 g/m2) and enchytraeids (abundances up to 922.2 specimens/m2, biomass up to 0.2 g/m2); additionally, numerous mermitides were found in two sites; and tardigrades were found in a single water body. Grass-moss and moss communities in coastal habitats were described. We propose to include freshwater bodies of Franz Josef Land in the CBMP network, which at the moment lacks any monitoring sites in the Russian High Arctic, and has the only site at comparable latitudes in the Arctic Canada. Our results can be used as the background data on the freshwater environment and biodiversity for - further monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Fish genomes are under a strong influence of climate, habitat, and depth. • GS decreased with latitude, salinity, and depth, the GC contents increased. • Higher GC contents were found to be mostly associated with species occupying physiologically challenging or stressful environmental niches. • Opposing trends in GS and GC to be the hallmark of environmental adaptation in fishes. Environmental interactions and the effects of such interactions on the evolution of genome attributes is an intriguing area of ongoing research. Several earlier studies have delved into how the genome size (GS) and the guanine-cytosine content (GC) of genomes are shaped by species' ecology while largely disregarding other genome attributes, such as number of chromosomes (CR), number of genes (GE), and protein count (PC) from such comparisons. The present study was designed at understanding the influence of ecology––climate, habitat, and depth––on genome attributes by using the most current data on 579 whole fish genomes available at NCBI. Given the diverse and intricate roles of GS and GC in species adaptations to temperature, salinity, and hydrostatic pressure, the focus was on finding if and how the genomes responded to these stressors and if any common patterns existed in the genome-level responses. Our analyses exhibited some significant and intriguing trends for fishes as a whole while indicating strong effects of ecology on GS, GC, CR, and PC. Also, some very unique trends were observed on regressing GS and GC values across temperature, salinity, and depth clines. Accordingly, a very strong decline in the GS and a concomitant increase in GC were observed in species through the tropics/sub tropics to the temperate/poles, from freshwater to the marine habitats, and from the pelagic to bathydemersal depths. Observed patterns strongly support the notion that smaller GS and larger GC are associated with species inhabiting more stable environments and vice versa. The results also signify the effect of these patterns on protein flexibility and its role in tolerating stressful conditions. Observed patterns are discussed in the light of latitudinal biodiversity gradient, habitat complexity, and energy and metabolic expenditure hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the Global Freshwater Biodiversity Atlas has been launched by the BioFresh Research Project, a collaboration of 12 European Union (EU) research institutions, in January 2014. It explains that the Atlas allows research scientists, resource managers, educators, and policy makers to view and share up-to-date geographic data on all freshwater habitats across the world, which would help them to make better decisions for protecting the biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems.