No lake left behind: How well do U.S. protected areas meet lake conservation targets?

Abstract The Convention on Biological Diversity (https://www.cbd.int/) recommends globally protecting ≥ 17% of ecologically representative freshwaters by 2020 to sustain critical ecosystem services and rapidly declining freshwater biodiversity. We examined whether current conservation efforts meet this target for lakes (≥ 1 ha) across the continental U.S. and Environmental Protection Agency ecoregions using the U.S. Protected Areas Database. How one defines lake protection matters: 17.8% of lakes fell within multiuse or strictly protected areas, but only 7.5% of lakes had ≥ 80% of their catchments in strictly protected areas. Protected lakes occurred disproportionately in the lake‐poor western U.S. and most lake‐rich regions fell short of the 17% target. Lakes connected to streams and other lakes were disproportionately protected relative to headwater and isolated lakes, which are important for ecosystem services and biodiversity. Meeting conservation targets requires protecting thousands of additional U.S. lakes and catchments across more diverse ecological settings and explicitly considering connectivity.