Charting a course for freshwater biomonitoring: The grand challenges identified by the global scientific community

The past 50 years have seen biomonitoring emerge as an essential means of generating the knowledge needed to inform protection and restoration of freshwater ecosystems. Despite the successes of biomonitoring, most freshwater ecosystems remain unmonitored. Moreover, degradation of freshwaters continues at a rapid rate with new threats and novel stressors emerging that are difficult to assess using existing techniques. New technologies and techniques have been developed to improve biomonitoring, but application has been slow and integration with existing approaches is often problematic. Clearly, freshwater biomonitoring faces many important challenges that must be addressed to meet management needs of the coming decades. We identify Grand Challenges facing freshwater biomonitoring with the aim of encouraging research and practice to address these challenges. We asked 256 biomonitoring scientists from around the globe to identify what they considered the most important challenges. From their submissions we established five Grand Challenges and 18 associated subchallenges. For each Grand Challenge, we outline the current state of biomonitoring practice and suggest promising pathways and approaches to address them. By identifying and describing these challenges, we strive to position freshwater biomonitoring to take advantage of emerging opportunities and enhance its capacity to meet current and future management needs.

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Publication Details

Journal
Ecological Indicators
Published
2025-06-07
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113646
Citations
5
Primary Topic
Fish Ecology and Management Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
11.57

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article

Charting a course for freshwater biomonitoring: The grand challenges identified by the global scientific community

Nathan J. Smucker, Helen F. Dallas, Ben J. Kefford, Judy England et al.
5 citations
Ecological Indicators
Fish Ecology and Management Studies
11.57
article

Charting a course for freshwater biomonitoring: The grand challenges identified by the global scientific community

Nathan J. Smucker, Helen F. Dallas, Ben J. Kefford, Judy England, Francisca C. Aguiar, Leandro Juen, Willem Goedkoop, Thomas W. H. Aspin, Luciano Fogaça de Assis Montag, Edward M. Krynak, Paul J. Van den Brink, Isabelle Lavoie, Adam G. Yates, Frank O. Masese, Andreu Rico, Thaísa Sala Michelan, Elizabeth W. Wanderi, Lara Van Niekerk, Karina Dias‐Silva, Robert B. Brua, Robert M. Hughes, Kristin J. Painter, Raphael Ligeiro, Gábor Várbíró, Jennifer Lento, Ricardo Koroiva, Tibor Erős, Sandra Poikāne, Anila P. Ajayan, Jean Dzavi, Zoltán Csabai, Jonas Schoelynck, Alexia María González-Ferreras, Renato Tavares Martins, Mirco Bundschuh, Igor Stanković, David P. Hamilton, Sergi Sabater, Daniel Gebler, Jordan Musetta-Lambert, Heidi van Deventer, Thibault Datry, Rachel Stubbington, Mirian Roxana Calderón, Renata Ruaro, Joseph M. Culp
article en
5 citations

Abstract

The past 50 years have seen biomonitoring emerge as an essential means of generating the knowledge needed to inform protection and restoration of freshwater ecosystems. Despite the successes of biomonitoring, most freshwater ecosystems remain unmonitored. Moreover, degradation of freshwaters continues at a rapid rate with new threats and novel stressors emerging that are difficult to assess using existing techniques. New technologies and techniques have been developed to improve biomonitoring, but application has been slow and integration with existing approaches is often problematic. Clearly, freshwater biomonitoring faces many important challenges that must be addressed to meet management needs of the coming decades. We identify Grand Challenges facing freshwater biomonitoring with the aim of encouraging research and practice to address these challenges. We asked 256 biomonitoring scientists from around the globe to identify what they considered the most important challenges. From their submissions we established five Grand Challenges and 18 associated subchallenges. For each Grand Challenge, we outline the current state of biomonitoring practice and suggest promising pathways and approaches to address them. By identifying and describing these challenges, we strive to position freshwater biomonitoring to take advantage of emerging opportunities and enhance its capacity to meet current and future management needs.

Ecological IndicatorsVol. 176
University of New Brunswick (CA), Griffith University (AU), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (BR), Environmental Protection Agency (US), Université de Yaoundé I (CM), Washington State Department of Ecology (US), Environment and Climate Change Canada (CA), Freshwater Biological Association (GB), University of Lisbon (PT), University of Antwerp (BE), University of Waterloo (CA), Universitat de València (ES), Iowa State University (US), Environmental Protection Agency (GH), Environment Agency (GB), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (BR), University of Canberra (AU), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (ZA), University of Eldoret (KE), Catalan Institute for Water Research (ES), University of Koblenz and Landau (DE), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE), University of Saskatchewan (CA), Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (CA), Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR), Kenya Fisheries Service (KE), Joint Research Centre (IT), HUN-REN Balaton Limnological Research Institute (HU), Institut de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (CM), Vermont Law and Graduate School (US), HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research (HU), Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (ES), Instituto de Física de Cantabria (ES), Environmental Protection Agency (IE), GeoInformation (United Kingdom) (GB), University of Osijek (HR), Nottingham Trent University (GB), University of Life Sciences in Poznań (PL), Universidade Federal do Pará (BR), National University of San Luis (AR), Wilfrid Laurier University (CA), University of Pecs (HU), Wageningen University & Research (NL), Nelson Mandela University (ZA)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Fish Ecology and Management Studies
11.57
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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