The significance of long-term biodiversity monitoring studies for the protection of natural biodiversity and human well-being is well recognised by the Turkish scientific community. Despite understanding the ecological importance of freshwater ecosystems, spatially or temporally congruent studies using high resolution biodiversity monitoring data from Turkish freshwater resources remain scarce. To determine a biodiversity baseline for future studies, biological and environmental sampling was carried out in 15 different locations from the highly anthropogenically impacted Bakırçay River and its catchment in Western Anatolia between 2017 and 2018. A total of 17 fish species from 10 families were recorded, belonging mainly to the Cyprinidae and Leuciscidae families. These included six non-native, six regionally endemic, and five native species. The endangered endemic Alburnus attalus was the most widespread species, whereas several non-native species were restricted to single sites. Patterns in community composition were primarily associated with pH and stream order. However, community metrics such as species richness, Pielou's evenness, and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index were not significant. Intensifying anthropogenic activity within the Bakırçay basin suggests that sources of pollution and other detrimental stressors like non-native species should be managed to protect riverine biodiversity and maintain the provision of ecosystem services. Our findings therefore not only present a baseline for future studies on fish biodiversity and community composition, but also the possible onset of future monitoring studies in the region. Our findings underline the importance of long-term biomonitoring studies for the conservation of Türkiye's freshwater ecosystems to monitor changes occurring over time.

• Keywords
• Bakırçay river, Ecological modeling, Fish ecology, Freshwater fish, West anatolia,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Freshwater crayfish are amongst the largest macroinvertebrates and play a keystone role in the ecosystems they occupy. Understanding the global distribution of these animals is often hindered due to a paucity of distributional data. Additionally, non-native crayfish introductions are becoming more frequent, which can cause severe environmental and economic impacts. Management decisions related to crayfish and their habitats require accurate, up-to-date distribution data and mapping tools. Such data are currently patchily distributed with limited accessibility and are rarely up-to-date. To address these challenges, we developed a versatile e-portal to host distributional data of freshwater crayfish and their pathogens (using Aphanomyces astaci, the causative agent of the crayfish plague, as the most prominent example). Populated with expert data and operating in near real-time, World of Crayfish™ is a living, publicly available database providing worldwide distributional data sourced by experts in the field. The database offers open access to the data through specialized standard geospatial services (Web Map Service, Web Feature Service) enabling users to view, embed, and download customizable outputs for various applications. The platform is designed to support technical enhancements in the future, with the potential to eventually incorporate various additional features. This tool serves as a step forward towards a modern era of conservation planning and management of freshwater biodiversity.

• Keywords
• Aphanomyces astaci, Astacidae, Cambaridae, Endangered species, Invasive species, Open data, Parastacidae, Species distribution,
• MeSH
• Aphanomyces MeSH
• Databases, Factual MeSH
• Ecosystem MeSH
• Internet MeSH
• Astacoidea * microbiology   MeSH
• Fresh Water * MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH