Arctic freshwater biodiversity is rapidly changing due to climate warming, resource extraction, infrastructure development, and landscape transformation. To improve understanding, predict future responses, and inform policy formulation, research needs must be clearly identified. Using a horizon scan survey, Arctic freshwater experts from government, international agencies, and Indigenous Peoples identified 77 biodiversity rese...

Anthropogenic activities have led to an unprecedented crisis in freshwater biodiversity loss. The capacity to monitor the abundance of wild populations is critical to conserving biodiversity, but conventional physical specimen collection methods are invasive, costly and labour‐intensive. Environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a promising alternative, being easy to sample, with studies under controlled laboratory conditions showing co...

Research on wild fishes has tended to overlook the role of abiotic factors in shaping behaviours associated with boldness and exploration. This oversight could exist because small‐scale variation in the abiotic environment might seem unlikely to influence such behaviours. We challenged this assumption through research in the Trinidadian guppy ( Poecilia reticulata ) system. We started by quantifying how behaviours associated w...

The threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus , has undergone dramatic increases in abundance in parts of its historical native range, and it is also undergoing a major range expansion. We review available information and discuss the vectors and sources of the species' range expansions, the genetic characteristics of recently founded populations and the ecological consequences of both stickleback introductions and increas...

Reductions in a limiting nutrient might be expected to necessitate compromises in the functional traits that depend on that nutrient; yet populations existing in locations with low levels of such nutrients often do not show the expected degradation of functional traits. Indeed, logperch ( Percina caprodes ), pumpkinseed sunfish ( Lepomis gibbosus ) and yellow perch ( Perca flavescens ) residing in low‐calcium water in the Uppe...

Research has demonstrated consistent positive correlations between organism abundance and absolute environmental DNA (eDNA) concentrations. Robust correlations in laboratory experiments indicate strong functional links, suggesting the potential for eDNA to monitor organism abundance in nature. However, correlations between absolute eDNA concentrations and organism abundance in nature tend to be weaker because myriad biotic and...

The nutritional diversity of resources can affect the adaptive evolution of consumer metabolism and consumer diversification. The omega‐3 long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5n‐3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n‐3) have a high potential to affect consumer fitness, through their widespread effects on reproduction, growth and survival. However, few studies consider the evolution of fatty ac...

Theory predicts that population genetic structure and metacommunity structure are linked by the common processes of drift and migration, but how population genetic structure and metacommunity structure are related in nature is still unknown. Deeper understanding of the processes influencing both genetic and community diversity is vital for better predicting how environmental change will impact biodiversity patterns. We examine...

Essential fatty acids ( EFA s) are primarily generated by phytoplankton in aquatic ecosystems, and can limit the growth, development, and reproduction of higher consumers. Among the most critical of the EFA s are highly unsaturated fatty acids ( HUFA s), which are only produced by certain groups of phytoplankton. Changing environmental conditions can alter phytoplankton community and fatty acid composition and affect the HUFA...

Ecological linkages between species diversity in communities and genetic diversity in populations have potential to influence the assembly of communities in habitats recovering from human disturbance, but few studies have attempted to synthesize relationships between these levels of biological organization, especially for locally adapted species. No such studies have been done in freshwater ecosystems despite the plethora of e...

Evolutionary relationships within the phylum Rotifera are poorly understood despite the important role that they play in freshwater ecosystems. Phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences from two mitochondrial genes, 16S rDNA and cytochrome oxidase I (COI), were employed to examine the extent of genetic divergence within populations of several common taxa. This work sought to verify the role of phenotypic plasticity versus genetic...