A global agenda for advancing freshwater biodiversity research.

Global freshwater biodiversity is declining dramatically, and meeting the challenges of this crisis requires bold goals and the mobilisation of substantial resources. While the reasons are varied, investments in both research and conservation of freshwater biodiversity lag far behind those in the terrestrial and marine realms. Inspired by a global consultation, we identify 15 pressing priority needs, grouped into five research areas, in an effort to support informed stewardship of freshwater biodiversity. The proposed agenda aims to advance freshwater biodiversity research globally as a critical step in improving coordinated actions towards its sustainable management and conservation.

Ecosystem-based management planning across aquatic realms at the Ria de Aveiro Natura 2000 territory.

Ria de Aveiro represents a coastal territory, in which its natural capital, mostly classified under a Natura 2000 network of protected areas, is of paramount importance for the regional and national economy, supporting harbour activities and maritime traffic, agriculture, commercial fisheries, aquaculture, manufacturing, tourism, sports and recreational activities. Current and foreseen changes connected to human activities, namely land and water uses and potential conflicts, in frame of environmental policies, sustainable economic development and human well-being require the implementation of ecosystem-based management (EBM) planning processes considering the connectivity across marine, transitional, freshwater, and terrestrial domains. The main objective is to elaborate on the co-development of the EBM planning process across the three water domains, all characterized by high biodiversity and by the wide range of services provided by ecosystems and their abiotic components, for the mitigation of impacts from the management plan under implementation. The approach used follows a stepwise procedure in frame of resilience principles, considering the analysis of the relationship between the social and ecological components and on how these can be connected through risk assessment and a spatial multi-criteria analysis based on the delivery of ecosystem services. Stakeholders' perception matched the ecosystem services provisioning risk assessment and supported the planning EBM response that consist in saltmarshes and seagrasses meadows restoration programs. Compliance of the proposed measures is achievable regarding policies (policy targets and policy instruments) and feasibility (scientific and technological knowledge and financial resources). The EBM response can support the Vouga estuary management plan and regional smart specialization (RIS3 Centro).

Cost-effective restoration and conservation planning in Green and Blue Infrastructure designs. A case study on the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean: Andalusia (Spain) - Morocco.

Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) is a network designed and planned to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services and to protect biodiversity. Existing GBI designs lacked a systematic method to allocate restoration zones. This study proposes a novel approach for systematically selecting cost-effective areas for restoration on the basis of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and ecosystem condition to give an optimal spatial design of GBI. The approach was tested at a regional scale, in a transboundary setting encompassing the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean in Andalusia (Spain) - Morocco (IBRM), across three aquatic ecosystems: freshwater, coastal and marine. We applied Marxan with Zones to stakeholder-defined scenarios of GBI in the IBRM. Specifically, we aimed to identify management zones within the GBl that addressed different conservation, restoration and exploitation objectives. Although almost all conservation targets were achieved, our results highlighted that the proportion of conservation features (i.e., biodiversity, ecosystem services) that would be compromised in the GBl, and the proportion of provisioning services that would be lost due to conservation (i.e., incidental representation) are potentially large, indicating that the probability of conflicts between conservation and exploitation goals in the area is high. The implementation of restoration zones improved connectivity across the GBI, and also achieved European and global policy targets. Our approach may help guide future applications of GBI to implement the flexible conservation management that aquatic environments require, considering many areas at different spatial scales, across multiple ecosystems, and in transboundary contexts.