Research priorities for freshwater mussel conservation assessment

Freshwater mussels are declining globally, and effective conservation requires prioritizing research and actions to identify and mitigate threats impacting mussel species. Conservation priorities vary widely, ranging from preventing imminent extinction to maintaining abundant populations. Here, we develop a portfolio of priority research topics for freshwater mussel conservation assessment. To address these topics, we group research priorities into two categories: intrinsic or extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors are indicators of organismal or population status, while extrinsic factors encompass environmental variables and threats. An understanding of intrinsic factors is useful in monitoring, and of extrinsic factors are important to understand ongoing and potential impacts on conservation status. This dual approach can guide conservation status assessments prior to the establishment of priority species and implementation of conservation management actions.NF-R was supported by a post-doctoral fellowship (Xunta de Galicia Plan I2C 2017-2020, 09.40.561B.444.0) from the government of the autonomous community of Galicia. BY was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (no. 0409-2016-0022). DLS was supported by the G. E. Hutchinson Chair at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. AO was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (no. 17-44-290016). SV was funded by European Investment Funds by FEDER/COMPETE/POCI- Operacional Competitiveness and Internacionalization Programme, under Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006958 and National Funds by FCT-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UID/AGR/04033/2013. NF-R is very grateful to the University of Oklahoma Biological Survey for providing space to work in the U.S. and especially to Vaughn Lab members. Authors are very grateful to Akimasa Hattori, Allan K. Smith, Andrew Roberts, Daniel Graf, David Stagliano, David T. Zanatta, Dirk Van Damme, Ekaterina Konopleva, Emilie Blevins, Ethan Nedeau, Frankie Thielen, Gregory Cope, Heinrich Vicentini, Hugh Jones, Htilya Sereflisan, Ilya Vikhrev, John Pfeiffer, Karen Mock, Mary Seddon, Katharina Stockl, Katarzyna Zajac, Kengo Ito, Marie Capoulade, Marko Kangas, Michael Lange, Mike Davis, Pirkko-Liisa Luhta, Sarina Jepsen, Somsak Panha, Stephen McMurray, G. Thomas Watters, Wendell R. Haag, and Yoko Inui for their valuable contribution in the initial selection and description of extrinsic and intrinsic factors. We also wish to thank Dr. Amanda Bates, Chase Smith, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government