The global EPTO database: Worldwide occurrences of aquatic insects

Motivation: Aquatic insects comprise 64% of freshwater animal diversity and are widely used as bioindicators to assess water quality impairment and freshwater eco-system health, as well as to test ecological hypotheses. Despite their importance, a comprehensive, global database of aquatic insect occurrences for mapping freshwater biodiversity in macroecological studies and applied freshwater research is missing. We aim to fill this gap and present the Global EPTO Database, which includes world-wide geo- referenced aquatic insect occurrence records for four major taxa groups: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Odonata (EPTO).Main type of variables contained: A total of 8,368,467 occurrence records globally, of which 8,319,689 (99%) are publicly available. The records are attributed to the cor-responding drainage basin and sub-catchment based on the Hydrography90m dataset and are accompanied by the elevation value, the freshwater ecoregion and the pro-tection status of their location. Spatial location and grain: The database covers the global extent, with 86% of the observation records having coordinates with at least four decimal digits (11.1 m preci-sion at the equator) in the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) coordinate refer-ence system.Time period and grain: Sampling years span from 1951 to 2021. Ninety- nine percent of the records have information on the year of the observation, 95% on the year and month, while 94% have a complete date. In the case of seven sub-datasets, exact dates can be retrieved upon communication with the data contributors. Major taxa and level of measurement: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Odonata, standardized at the genus taxonomic level. We provide species names for 7,727,980 (93%) records without further taxonomic verification.Software format: The entire tab-separated value (.csv) database can be downloaded and visualized at https://glowabio.org/project/epto_database/ . Fifty individual data-sets are also available at https://fred.igb-berlin.de, while six datasets have restricted access. For the latter, we share metadata and the contact details of the authors

Iron in boreal river catchments : Biogeochemical, ecological and management implications

Highlights • Fe has a key role in biogeochemical and ecological contexts in boreal catchments. • Fe has many harmful impacts on aquatic organisms and ecosystems. • Drivers of Fe transport should be better known in water management. • Catchment-scale approaches are required to create effective management of Fe.Iron (Fe) is an important element in aquatic ecosystems worldwide because it is intimately tied with multiple abiotic and biotic phenomena. Here, we give a survey of manifold influences of Fe, and the key factors affecting it in the boreal catchments and their waters. It includes the perspectives of biogeochemistry, hydrology, ecology, and river basin management. We emphasize views on the dynamics and impacts of different forms of Fe in riverine environments, including organic colloids and particles, as well as inorganic fractions. We also provide perspectives for land use management in boreal catchments and suggest guidelines for decision making and water management. Based on our survey, the main emphases of water protection and management programs should be (i) prevention of Fe mobilization from soil layers by avoiding unnecessary land-use activities and minimizing soil disturbance in high-risk areas; (ii) disconnecting Fe-rich ground water discharge from directly reaching watercourses; and (iii) decreasing transport of Fe to watercourses by applying efficient water pollution control approaches. These approaches may require specific methods that should be given attention depending on catchment conditions in different areas. Finally, we highlight issues requiring additional research on boreal catchments. A key issue is to increase our understanding of the role of Fe in the utilization of DOM in riverine food webs, which are typically highly heterotrophic. More knowledge is needed on the metabolic and behavioral resistance mechanisms that aquatic organisms, such as algae, invertebrates, and fish, have developed to counter the harmful impacts of Fe in rivers with naturally high Fe and DOM concentrations. It is also emphasized that to fulfil the needs presented above, as well as to develop effective methods for decreasing the harmful impacts of Fe in water management, the biogeochemical processes contributing to Fe transport from catchments via rivers to estuaries should be better understood

How Essential Biodiversity Variables and remote sensing can help national biodiversity monitoring

Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) have been suggested to harmonize biodiversity monitoring worldwide. Their aim is to provide a small but comprehensive set of monitoring variables that would give a balanced picture of the development of biodiversity and the reaching of international and national biodiversity targets. Globally, GEO BON (Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network) has suggested 22 candidate EBVs to be monitored. In this article we regard EBVs as a conceptual tool that may help in making national scale biodiversity monitoring more robust by pointing out where to focus further development resources. We look at one country –Finland –with a relatively advanced biodiversity monitoring scheme and study how well Finland’s current biodiversity state indicators correspond with EBVs. In particular, we look at how national biodiversity monitoring could be improved by using available remote sensing (RS) applications. Rapidly emerging new technologies from drones to airborne laser scanning and new satellite sensors providing imagery with very high resolution (VHR) open a whole new world of opportunities for monitoring the state of biodiversity and ecosystems at low cost. In Finland, several RS applications already exist that could be expanded into national indicators. These include the monitoring of shore habitats and water quality parameters, among others. We hope that our analysis and examples help other countries with similar challenges. Along with RS opportunities, our analysis revealed also some needs to develop the EBV framework itself