Data from: Freshwater fish functional diversity shows diverse responses to human activities, but consistently declines in the tropics

Freshwater environments are intertwined with human activities and
the consequence has been environmental degradation and
biodiversity loss. Fish provide key ecological and economic
benefits, and fish abundance and diversity can be affected by
human activities resulting in functional diversity (FD) changes
that might scale up to ecosystem impacts. Changes in FD can be
expressed by quantifying its three main FD components temporally
and/or spatially: richness, regularity, and divergence. There is
no consensus about how human activities affect the main
components of FD. In addition, human activities might affect
the functional diversity of communities differently in temperate
and tropical regions because of differences in the regional pools
and the distribution of functional traits. Here, using a
meta-analytical approach, we assess how different human
activities (e.g., deforestation, invasion, reservoirs)
in freshwater systems affect FD components in fish communities.
We compiled information from 2012 to 2023, and we found
highly idiosyncratic patterns globally, but consistent loss of
functional richness and regularity in face of human activities in
the tropics. This idiosyncrasy could be related to high
environmental heterogeneity or the multiple ways in which
communities can be affected by human activities, or
the distribution of functional uniqueness and redundancy. The
reduction of functional diversity is concerning since human
activities are removing specific functions from natural
environments and results in the dominance of traits related to
generalist ecological strategies. Despite the general patterns of
reduction, local features are determinants on how the community
will answer to human activity and therefore we highlight
the importance of understanding the environment and fauna at the
local scale, and the mechanisms by which each activity might
affect FD.