A global database on freshwater fish species occurrence in drainage basins

Pablo A Tedesco (1) , Olivier Beauchard (2, 3) , Rémy Bigorne (1) , Simon Blanchet (1, 4) , Laetitia Buisson (5) , Lorenza Conti (1) , Jean-François Cornu (6) , Murilo Dias (7) , Gaël Grenouillet (1) , Bernard Hugueny (1) , Céline Jézéquel (1) , Fabien Leprieur (8) , Sébastien Brosse (1) , Thierry Oberdorff (1)

1 EDB - Evolution et Diversité Biologique
2 Ecosystem management research group - ECOBE (Wilrijk, Belgium)
3 VLIZ - Flanders Marine Institute
4 SETE - Station d'écologie théorique et expérimentale
5 LEFE - Laboratoire Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement
6 UMR ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier
7 UnB - Universidade de Brasilia [Brasília]
8 UMR MARBEC - MARine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation

A growing interest is devoted to global-scale approaches in ecology and evolution that examine patterns and determinants of species diversity and the threats resulting from global change. These analyses obviously require global datasets of species distribution. Freshwater systems house a disproportionately high fraction of the global fish diversity considering the small proportion of the earth's surface that they occupy, and are one of the most threatened habitats on Earth. Here we provide complete species lists for 3119 drainage basins covering more than 80% of the Earth surface using 14953 fish species inhabiting permanently or occasionally freshwater systems. The database results from an extensive survey of native and non-native freshwater fish species distribution based on 1436 published papers, books, grey literature and web-based sources. Alone or in combination with further datasets on species biological and ecological characteristics and their evolutionary history, this database represents a highly valuable source of information for further studies on freshwater macroecology, macroevolution, biogeography and conservation.

Mots clés: biodiversity; distinctiveness; diversity; faunas; homogenization; patterns; worlds

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie; Ecosystèmes

Pablo A Tedesco, Olivier Beauchard, Rémy Bigorne, Simon Blanchet, Laetitia Buisson, et al.. A global database on freshwater fish species occurrence in drainage basins. Scientific Data , 2017, 4, pp.170141. ⟨10.1038/sdata.2017.141⟩. ⟨hal-01928506⟩