Emili García-Berthou

University of Girona | UDG · Institute of Aquatic Ecology

Aim Variation of life history traits along spatial gradients is poorly understood in invasive species and particularly in freshwater fish. We aimed to examine life history variation in a highly invasive fish (Gambusia holbrooki) along latitudinal and upstream–downstream river gradients and to assess the effects of age on this variation. We hypothes...

Eastern Mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) is an invasive and globally widespread species that is considered highly tolerant. We used species distribution models (SDMs) to assess factors, including the role of anthropogenic perturbation, that mediate its invasion on a regional scale. A better understanding of the important large-scale factors may he...

Freshwater ecosystems constitute only a small fraction of the planet's water resources, yet support much of its diversity, with freshwater fish accounting for more species than birds, mammals, amphibians, or reptiles. Freshwaters are, however, particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts, including habitat loss, climate and land use change, nut...

Aim To analyse the occurrence and abundance of native versus alien fish species in relation to climate, land use, hydrologic alteration and habitat fragmentation in a heavily invaded and human‐impacted riverine ecosystem. To test whether co‐occurrence patterns of native versus alien species are structured by environmental filtering or biotic associ...

Most European rewilding initiatives are based on the recovery of large herbivores, particularly European bison Bison bonasus, aiming at restoring ecosystem processes and increase trophic complexity. The growing support for the release of bison as a wild species, and change its legal status, in Spain, as an ecological analogue of the extinct steppe...

Most European rewilding initiatives are based on the recovery of large herbivores, particularly European bison Bison bonasus, aiming at restoring ecosystem processes and increase trophic complexity. The growing support for the release of bison as a wild species, and change its legal status, in Spain, as an ecological analogue of the extinct steppe...

Biodiversity is declining worldwide due to anthropogenic impacts, especially noxious for freshwater ecosystems, considering their close relationship with human activities. Damming is one of the most harmful human impacts that leads to the loss of several riverine fish through habitat loss or change. Herein, we aimed to assess the relationship betwe...

Biological invasions are of special conservation concern in the Iberian Peninsula and other regions with high levels of endemism. Environmental variability, such as the seasonal fluctuations of Mediterranean streams, is a key factor that affects the spread of aquatic species in novel habitats. Fish parasites have a great potential to reflect such c...

Eighty years ago, George S. Myers classified inland fishes in three divisions (primary, secondary and peripheral) based on their salinity tolerance and eco‐evolutionary history. Although this classification has been followed by many fish studies, it has also received considerable criticism. Here, we aim to test for differences in salinity and therm...

Biological invasions pose a rapidly expanding threat to the persistence, functioning, and service provisioning of ecosystems globally, and to socio-economic interests. The stages of successful invasions progress driven by the same mechanism that underlies adaptive changes across species in general—via natural selection on intraspecific variation in...

Captive breeding and stocking are commonly employed strategies for enhancing fisheries and conserving endangered fish species. However, hatchery-raised fish often exhibit reduced performance in the wild, displaying alterations in physiological, morphological, and behavioral traits. We tested for differences in swimming capacity and metabolic traits...

Monitoring the extent to which invasive alien species (IAS) negatively impact the environment is crucial for understanding and mitigating biologi- cal invasions. Indeed, such information is vital for achieving Target 6 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. However, to-date indi- cators for tracking the environmental impacts of IAS...

Standardized terminology in science is important for clarity of interpretation and communication. In invasion science – a dynamic and rapidly evolving discipline – the proliferation of technical terminology has lacked a standardized framework for its development. The result is a convoluted and inconsistent usage of terminology, with various discrep...

Rivers are ecosystems highly threatened by human activities and fish are an invaluable tool to measure and communicate environmental degradation and restoration. Fish bioassessment is crucial but notoriously difficult in Mediterranean-climate streams for a number of reasons, including low local species richness, faunas with high spatial turnover an...

The European Fish Index EFI+ is the only fish-based multimetric index for the assessment of the ecological status of running waters that is validated and thus applicable across most countries of the European Union. Metrics of the index rely on several attributes of the species present in the fish assemblage, irrespective of their native/alien statu...

The European Fish Index EFI+ is the only fish-based multimetric index for the assessment of the ecological status of running waters validated and thus applicable across the European Union. Metrics of the index rely on several attributes of the species present in the fish assemblage, irrespective of their native/alien status. The abundance of alien...

Unravelling the ecological and historical factors underlying species distributions and biodiversity patterns have challenged ecologists and biogeographers for a long time (Cano-Barbacil et al. 2022). This is also fundamentally relevant in freshwater ecosystems, which are among the most diverse but, most threatened ecosystems globally. Climatic vari...

Aquatic ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the introduction of non-indigenous species (NIS), leading to multi-faceted ecological, economic and health impacts worldwide. The Iberian Peninsula comprises an exceptionally biodiverse Mediterranean region with a high number of threatened and endemic aquatic species, most of them strongly impacted...

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) calls for a 50% reduction in rates of invasive alien species establishment by 2030. However, estimating changes in rates of introduction and establishment is far from straightforward, particularly on a national scale. Variation in survey effort over time, the absence of data on survey effort,...

Standardized terminology in science is important for clarity of interpretation and communication. In invasion science — a dynamic and quickly evolving discipline — the rapid proliferation of technical terminology has lacked a standardized framework for its language development. The result is a convoluted and inconsistent usage of terminology, with...

Unraveling the effects of latitudinal and elevational gradients on species distribution has been a central topic in biogeography for decades. However, few studies have evaluated the effects of the interaction between both gradients on species distributions. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the interaction of latitude and elevation in a f...

Invasive alien species have widespread impacts on native biodiversity and ecosystem services. Since the number of introductions worldwide is continuously rising, it is essential to prevent the entry, establishment and spread of new alien species through a systematic examination of future potential threats. Applying a three-step horizon scanning con...

Aim Investigating major freshwater fish flows (translocations) between biogeographic regions and their temporal dynamics and also quantifying spatial patterns and temporal changes in the array of introduced species, and the emergence and distance between major donor and recipient regions. Location Global. Time Period 1800–2020. Major Taxa Studie...

Biological invasions are a major component of global change worldwide. But paradoxically, an invasive species might also have threatened populations within its native range. Designing efficient management policies is needed to prevent and mitigate range expansions of invasive alien species (IAS) in non-native areas, while protecting them within the...

The authors regret that the printed version of the above article contained an incomplete version of Table 1, in which only 20 invasive alien species were published out of the top-ranked 24 that should have been. The correct Table 1 is shown below. The authors apologise for any inconvenience caused.

As the number of introduced species keeps increasing unabatedly, identifying and prioritising current and potential Invasive Alien Species (IAS) has become essential to manage them. Horizon Scanning (HS), defined as an exploration of potential threats, is considered a fundamental component of IAS management. By combining scientific knowledge on tax...

An important goal of LIFE INVASAQUA is to develop tools that will improve management and increase the efficiency of the Early Warning and Rapid Response (EWRR) framework for Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in the Iberian Peninsula. Horizon scanning for high risk IAS is basic when implementing measures to reduce new invasions and to focus efforts on th...

Brazil is the country in the world with the highest freshwater fish diversity. Because of the high rates of species introduction, the number of publications about invasive fish has increased in the last decades in this country. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify knowledge patterns and gaps related to the introduction of...

Aim: We estimate and compare niche position, marginality and breadth of Iberian inland fishes at three geographical extents (regional, restricted to the species' range and global) to understand the effect of spatial scale on niche metrics. Furthermore, we investigate differences in niche metrics between native and alien fish, and test for associati...

Invasive non‐native species (INNS) are recognized as a major threat to island biodiversity, ecosystems, and economies globally. Preventing high‐risk INNS from being introduced is the most cost‐effective way to avoid their adverse impacts. We applied a horizon scanning approach to identify potentially INNS in the United Kingdom Overseas Territories...

Aim: Unravelling the ecological and historical factors that underlie species distributions has challenged ecologists for a long time. Thus, our objective is to understand the role of environmental variables explaining the distribution of three major eco-evolutionary groups of inland fishes (Darlington's divisions: primary, i.e. strict freshwater ;...

Invasive fishes are a major environmental issue at the global scale, particularly for their impacts on freshwater ecosystems via the mechanisms of hybridisation, competition, predation, and disease transmission. This is of special conservation concern on the Iberian Peninsula due to the high level of endemism. With the aim to improve our knowledge...

Peacock basses ( Cichla spp.) have been introduced in impoundments for decades, and their negative impacts on the native fish fauna have been documented. However, previous studies largely focused on the overall responses of fish assemblages, often neglecting specific predator–prey interactions and the underlying effects of environmental characteris...

We provide a unique fish individual body size dataset collected from our own sampling and public sources in north-eastern Spain. The dataset includes individual body size measures (fork length and mass) of 12,288 individuals of 24 fish species within 10 families collected at 118 locations in large rivers and small streams. Fish were caught by one-p...

The enormous biodiversity of tropical freshwater combined with a considerable increase in the construction of reservoirs urges to understand the ecological effects caused by damming. Using rarely available data obtained before (one year) and after (four years) the filling of a hydroelectric plant on the Teles Pires River (Amazon River basin), the e...

Understanding the main drivers of species distributions is one of the main goals of ecology. However, the relationships between traits and elevational and longitudinal distributions in inland fishes, as well as their underlying evolutionary processes, have been less investigated. Thus, we aimed to quantify and assess the relationships among several...

Scientific and grey literature on invasive alien species (IAS) is conditioned by social, economic and political priorities, editorial preferences and species and ecosystem characteristics. This leads to knowledge gaps and mismatches between scientific research interests and management needs. We reviewed the literature on IAS management in Spain fou...

Neotropical Ichthyology promotes the Special Issue (SI) “Human impacts and the loss of Neotropical freshwater fish diversity” with the purpose of publishing relevant scientific articles on the current biodiversity crisis and the loss of Neotropical freshwater fishes in the Anthropocene. The SI is composed of 22 publications, being two review articl...

Invasive alien species are repeatedly shown to be amongst the top threats to biodiversity globally. Robust indicators for measuring the status and trends of biological invasions are lacking, but essential for monitoring biological invasions and the effectiveness of interventions. Here, we formulate and demonstrate three such indicators that capture...

Trait-based approaches are commonly used in ecology to understand the environmental filtering or the biotic responses to anthropogenic perturbations. Specifically, fish trait information is especially difficult to obtain and some species present scarce coverage and data availability in trait databases. Therefore, we investigated the reliability of...

Se presenta una lista actualizada de las especies exóticas que se encuentran en etapa de establecimiento o de propagación de la invasión en aguas continentales de la península ibérica. La lista está basada en la evaluación sistemática de los datos en colaboración con un amplio equipo de expertos de España y Portugal. Esta lista de actualización es...

Using a long time series, we analyzed trends in abundance of two characiform fishes in the upper Paraná River and its floodplain: the native Schizodon altoparanae and its alien congener Schizodon borellii, which invaded the floodplain in the last decades. We aimed to contribute to the understanding of the invasive species success and its relationsh...

An updated list is presented of the alien species in the establishment or spread invasion stage in in-land waters at the Iberian Peninsula. The list is based on a systematic assessment of information in collaboration with a wide expert team from Spain and Portugal. This updated list is an important tool supporting the implementation of the IAS Regu...

An updated list is presented of the alien species in the transport or introduction invasion stage in inland waters of the Iberian Peninsula. The list is based on a systematic assessment of information in collaboration with a wide expert team from Spain and Portugal. This list is an important tool to support the implementation of the IAS Regulation,...

Mate recognition is the process of identifying and assessing the appropriate species, sex or population of another individual for their suitability as a potential mate. Recognition may be innate or learned. Learning, the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, involves a relatively long-term change in behavioral responses. In this st...

River systems are characterized by the existence of longitudinal processes structuring fish assemblages. However, the construction of dams, many of them built in cascades, are disrupting these processes worldwide. Here, we analyzed the fish assemblages across reservoir cascades in three Brazilian river basins (Iguaçu, Paranapanema, and São Francisc...

Interspecific synchrony and trait-based differences between species are likely to be related to each other. Therefore, we investigated interspecific synchrony patterns in a fish community under prolonged drought conditions, using a trait-based approach. We hypothesized that trait-similarity should be related to interspecific synchrony between fish...

Invasive alien species are one of the main components of global ecological change, the second known cause of animal extinctions, and very costly in terms of ecosystem services. Invasive alien species and damming are two of the most impacting alterations in freshwater ecosystems, and understanding the processes that govern biological invasions in th...

Motivation: We compiled a global database of long-term riverine fish surveys from 46 regional and national monitoring programmes and from individual academic research efforts, with which numerous basic and applied questions in ecology and global change research can be explored. Such spatially and temporally extensive datasets have been lacking for...

Peacock basses (Cichla spp.) are native to the Amazon basin but introduced to different parts of the world. Almost thirty years ago, Cichla kelberi was introduced in an impoundment of the São João River, a coastal system in southeastern Brazil. Recently, this cichlid invaded the estuarine section of the basin. This study aims to analyze spatial and...

Aim: To provide an overview of ecology and management of invasive species in riverine ecosystems. Key findings: ●Aquatic invasive species are a primary threat to streams and rivers across the globe, impacting biodiversity, disrupting key ecological functions, and compromising ecosystem services. ●Invasive species are those that are transported out...

Peacock bass Cichla ocellaris is a piscivorous cichlid native from the Amazon and Orinoco river basins, which has been broadly introduced into tropical areas worldwide, leading to several adverse local effects. However, predic-tors of its invasibility and assessments of its ecological impacts over large spatial scales are still lacking. The importa...

Swimming performance is a key feature that mediates fitness and survival in aquatic animals. Dispersal, habitat selection, predator-prey interactions and reproduction are processes that depend on swimming capabilities. Testing the critical swimming speed (U crit) of fish is the most straightforward method to assess their prolonged swimming performa...

Understanding how global change and connectivity will jointly modify the distribution of riverine species is crucial for conservation biology and environmental management. However, little is known about the interaction between climate change and fragmentation and how movement barriers might impede native species from adjusting their distributions v...

The bleak Alburnus alburnus is native to most of Europe. This cyprinid fish is a successful invader in the Iberian Peninsula. No studies exist on its foraging strategies on a large scale for this ecoregion. The aim of the present study was to compare dietary traits of invasive bleak among the main Iberian rivers and a ‘reference’ native bleak popul...

Biodiversity data are being collected at unprecedented rates. Such data often have significant value for purposes beyond the initial reason for which they were collected, particularly when they are combined and collated with other data sources. In the field of invasion ecology, however, integrating data represents a major challenge due to the notor...

Physiological features of species can determine the resilience and adaptation of organisms to the environment. Swimming capacity and metabolic traits are key factors for fish survival, mating and predator‐prey interactions. Individuals of the same species can display high phenotypic variation often in response to varying environmental conditions. W...

Energy metabolism fuels swimming and other biological processes. We compared the swimming performance and energy metabolism within and across eight freshwater fish species. Using swim tunnel respirometers, we measured the standard metabolic rate (SMR) and maximum metabolic rate (MMR) and calculated the critical swimming speed (Ucrit). We accounted...

Trait‐based approaches are commonly used in ecology to understand the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, environmental filtering or biotic responses to anthropogenic perturbations. However, little is known about the reliability of assigned traits and the consistency of trait information among different databases currently...

Resum El professor Ramon Margalef és l'ecòleg més important que ha tingut l'Estat espanyol. Va inspirar i formar més d'una generació d'ecòlegs ibèrics i llatinoamericans, ja fos directament a través dels seus consells, classes i conferències com, encara avui, a través dels seus articles o llibres, especialment els tractats monumentals Ecología i Li...

The mummichog is a cyprinodontiform fish native to eastern coast of North America, where it is very abundant. It is used in the aquarium hobby and for research and could entry through these and other pathways. It is a very hardy species that tolerates a range of temperatures and salinities, has established in two separate areas of the Iberian Penin...

Swimming performance is a key feature that mediates fitness and survival in many fish species. Using a swim tunnel respirometer, we compared prolonged swimming performance and energy use for two competing species: an endangered, endemic toothcarp (Aphanius iberus) and a worldwide invasive mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). Critical (Ucrit) and opti...