Implications of Dam Obstruction for Global Freshwater Fish Diversity
Journal: BioScience
Year: 2012

Dams are obstructing rivers worldwide, impairing habitat and migration opportunities for many freshwater fish species; however, global data linking dam and fish distributions have been limited. Here, we quantify dam obstruction at the biogeographic scale of freshwater ecoregion, which provides the spatial framework necessary to assess the risk of fish species loss due to dams and allows us to identify both ecoregions and genera at risk. Nearly 50% of the 397 assessed freshwater ecoregions are ob