Biological invasions pose a rapidly expanding threat to the persistence, functioning and service provisioning of ecosystems globally, and to socio‐economic interests. The stages of successful invasions are driven by the same mechanism that underlies adaptive changes across species in general—via natural selection on intraspecific variation in traits that influence survival and reproductive performance (i.e., fitness). Surprisi...

Groundwater is a vital ecosystem of the global water cycle, hosting unique biodiversity and providing essential services to societies. Despite being the largest unfrozen freshwater resource, in a period of depletion by extraction and pollution, groundwater environments have been repeatedly overlooked in global biodiversity conservation agendas. Disregarding the importance of groundwater as an ecosystem ignores its critical rol...

Biological invasions represent one of the main contemporary pressures facing freshwater ecosystems, and a better understanding of invasive species potential distributions is essential to prepare for future stressors. Crustacean invaders contribute significantly to global invasions with the Ponto-Caspian region being one of the primary donor areas for the Palearctic. The amphipods Dikerogammarus villosus and Dikerogammarus haem...

Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774) (Mollusca, Corbiculidae) is among the most successful and widespread invaders of aquatic ecosystems worldwide. Given its wide geographical distribution and documented effects on aquatic ecosystems, there is considerable interest in quantifying its behaviour, propagation and control. We conducted a series of laboratory experiments to assess the effects of complete desiccation (aerial exposure a...

Wetlands are among the most endangered ecosystems worldwide with multiple direct and indirect stressors, especially in human-altered areas like intensive agricultural landscapes. Conservation management and efforts often focus on species diversity and charismatic taxa , but scarcely consider habitats. By focusing on a complex formed by 107 permanent wetlands at 18 Natura 2000 sites in the Emilia-Romagna region (northern Italy)...

Climate change and human pressures are changing the global distribution and the extent of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which comprise half of the global river network area. IRES are characterized by periods of flow cessation, during which channel substrates accumulate and undergo physico‐chemical changes (preconditioning), and periods of flow resumption, when these substrates are rewetted and release pulse...