Introduction

• freshwater systems include rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands
• freshwater habitats are mostly small but most include diverse ecosystems
• ponds are the most common habitat and have a great value for biodiversity when kept natural with surrounding plants
• damaged freshwater areas have the ability to regenerate into an area of great value
• freshwater accounts for 6% of species despite only covering 0.8% of the earth's surface
• freshwater is valuable for many species, economically important to fisheries, and hold cultural and aesthetic importance
• dominate the tropics where species richness is high, but high diversity areas tend to be less economically developed
• diversity is not equally distributed across freshwater habitats
• the 5 main threats to freshwater habitats are: land use, climate change, N deposition, biotic exchange and atmospheric CO2
• Land use and climate change are the biggest threats
• freshwater taxa are suffering from more extinctions than terrestrial and marine taxa