87 research outputs found
Biology and conservation of freshwater bivalves : past, present and future perspectives
Freshwater bivalves have been highly
threatened by human activities, and recently their
global decline has been causing conservational and
social concern. In this paper, we review the most
important research events in freshwater bivalve biology
calling attention to the main scientific achievements.
A great bias exists in the research effort, with
much more information available for bivalve species
belonging to the Unionida in comparison to other
groups. The same is true for the origin of these studies,
since the publishing pattern does not always correspond
to the hotspots of biodiversity but is concentrated in the northern hemisphere mainly in
North America, Europe and Russia, with regions such
as Africa and Southeast Asia being quite understudied.
We also summarize information about past, present
and future perspectives concerning the most important
research topics that include taxonomy, systematics,
anatomy, physiology, ecology and conservation of
freshwater bivalves. Finally, we introduce the articles
published in this Hydrobiologia special issue related
with the International Meeting on Biology and Conservation
of Freshwater Bivalves held in 2012 in
Braganc¸a, Portugal.We would like to express our gratitude to our sponsors and institutions, especially to the Polytechnic Institute of Braganca for all the logistic support. We acknowledge all keynote speakers, authors, session chairpersons and especially to all attendees whose contributions were fundamental for the success of this meeting. We would also like to thank all referees of this special issue and to Koen Martens, Editor-in-Chief of Hydrobiologia, for all the valuable comments and suggestions. The chronogram was built with the help of the expert opinion of fellow colleagues Rafael Araujo, Arthur Bogan, Kevin Cummings, Dan Graf, Wendell Haag, Karl-Otto Nagel and David Strayer to whom we are very grateful. The authors acknowledge the support provided by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and COMPETE funds-projects CONBI (Contract: PTDC/AAC-AMB/117688/2010) and ECO-IAS (Contract: PTDC/AAC-AMB/116685/2010), and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE, under the project "PEst-C/MAR/LA0015/2011"
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