Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e25846. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025846. Epub 2011 Oct 6.
Given the globally poor protection of fresh waters for their intrinsic ecological values, assessments are needed to determine how well fresh waters and supported fish species are incidentally protected within existing terrestrial protected-area networks, and to identify their vulnerability to human-induced disturbances. To date, gaps in data have severely constrained any attempt to explore the representation of fresh waters in tropical regions.
We determined the distribution of fresh waters and fish diversity in the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Australia. We then used distribution data of fresh waters, fish species, human-induced disturbances, and the terrestrial protected-area network to assess the effectiveness of terrestrial protected areas for fresh waters and fish species. We also identified human-induced disturbances likely to influence the effectiveness of freshwater protection and evaluated the vulnerability of fresh waters to these disturbances within and outside protected areas. The representation of fresh waters and fish species in the protected areas of the Wet Tropics is poor: 83% of stream types defined by order, 75% of wetland types, and 89% of fish species have less than 20% of their total Wet Tropics length, area or distribution completely within IUCN category II protected areas. Numerous disturbances affect fresh waters both within and outside of protected areas despite the high level of protection afforded to terrestrial areas in the Wet Tropics (>60% of the region). High-order streams and associated wetlands are influenced by the greatest number of human-induced disturbances and are also the least protected. Thirty-two percent of stream length upstream of protected areas has at least one human-induced disturbance present.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrate the need for greater consideration of explicit protection and off-reserve management for fresh waters and supported biodiversity by showing that, even in a region where terrestrial protection is high, it does not adequately capture fresh waters.
鉴于全球对淡水的生态价值保护不力，需要进行评估，以确定在现有的陆地保护区网络中，淡水及其所支持的鱼类物种的保护情况如何，以及它们对人为干扰的脆弱性如何。迄今为止，数据的不足严重限制了任何探索热带地区淡水代表性的尝试。
我们确定了澳大利亚昆士兰州湿热带的淡水分布和鱼类多样性。然后，我们利用淡水、鱼类物种、人为干扰以及陆地保护区网络的分布数据，评估陆地保护区对淡水和鱼类物种的保护效果。我们还确定了可能影响淡水保护效果的人为干扰，并评估了保护区内外淡水对这些干扰的脆弱性。湿热带保护区内的淡水和鱼类物种的代表性很差：按等级定义的溪流类型中有 83%，湿地类型中有 75%，鱼类物种中有 89%，其总湿热带长度、面积或分布的不到 20%完全在 IUCN 第二类保护区内。尽管湿热带地区的陆地保护区受到高度保护（超过该地区的 60%），但仍有许多干扰影响着保护区内外的淡水。高等级溪流和相关湿地受到的人为干扰最多，保护程度也最低。保护区上游 32%的溪流长度至少存在一种人为干扰。
结论/意义：我们通过表明，即使在一个陆地保护程度较高的地区，也不能充分捕获淡水，因此需要更加重视对淡水及其所支持的生物多样性的明确保护和非保护区管理。
