The Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (FBIS) Fish Data

Freshwater fishes are regarded as South Africa’s most threatened species group. Long-term distributional data for freshwater fish species can be vital for detecting critical ecosystem changes, such as species range shifts, new records of non-native invasions and loss of ecosystem services or unique biodiversity. Understanding exactly how the abundance and distribution of freshwater fishes (both native and non-native) are changing is pivotal to effectively manage and conserve unique and threatened freshwater biodiversity and ecosystems. In light of this, a comprehensive freshwater fish dataset (freshwaterbiodiversity.org) was built, comprising all available records of formally described freshwater fish species occurring in South Africa. The comprehensive search for data resulted in the accrual of a total of 60 837 records of freshwater fish from South Africa, which includes 35 955 records new records to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Of the 101 native species occurring in the country, almost half of all assessed species were found to be threatened, with the number of occurrences decreasing in recent years. Conversely, the number of occurrences and distribution ranges of many non-native species were found to be increasing, especially within the past three decades. These data have provided a much-needed update to the known status and distribution of freshwater fishes in the country.

淡水鱼类被认为是南非受威胁程度最高的物种类群。淡水鱼类物种的长期分布数据对于检测关键生态系统变化至关重要，诸如物种分布范围迁移、外来物种入侵新记录、生态系统服务丧失以及独特生物多样性流失等。精准掌握淡水鱼类（含本土与外来物种）的丰度与分布变化情况，是有效管理和保护兼具独特性与受威胁性的淡水生物多样性及生态系统的核心前提。鉴于此，研究团队构建了一套综合性淡水鱼类数据集（freshwaterbiodiversity.org），收录了南非境内所有已正式描述的淡水鱼类物种的可用观测记录。通过全面的数据检索，最终累计获取来自南非的淡水鱼类记录共计60837条，其中包含35955条全球生物多样性信息设施（Global Biodiversity Information Facility，GBIF）此前未收录的新记录。在南非境内分布的101个本土鱼类物种中，近半数已评估物种被认定为受威胁物种，且近年的出现记录数呈下降趋势。与之相反，许多外来鱼类物种的出现记录数与分布范围均呈现扩张态势，尤其在过去三十年中表现尤为显著。本数据集为南非淡水鱼类的已知物种现状与分布情况提供了亟需的更新补充。