Pandemic and conservation of freshwater molluscs in Argentina
Autor
Gutiérrez Gregoric, Diego Eduardo
de Lucía, Micaela
Torres, Santiago
Darrigran, Gustavo
Resumen
To date, the impact of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina has been quite significant in terms of social activity, but more specifically in terms of scientific field. Completion of research by the present authors on issues related to the conservation and distribution of gastropods and freshwater bivalves from Argentina has been delayed because of laboratories being closed or fieldwork not being possible. Regarding the conservation of the freshwater mollusc fauna of Argentina, there is a relatively high species richness of around 168 species but there are also considerable information and resources gaps when it comes to the study of freshwater molluscs, both native and non-native, the latter also being a threat to native biodiversity. For this purpose, we have taken up the challenge of generating an update of the distributions of the freshwater mollusc taxa of Argentina, as well as their conservation status according to criterion B of regional distribution according to the IUCN. The databases of freshwater molluscs have been updated, based on records in malacological collections, that is, analysis of new pre-pandemic collections, as well as publications since 2008 and 2010. To date, we have finished updating both the list of species, as well as the records for bivalves. For gastropods, the list of species has been fully updated, but the list of records has only been partially updated. For the completed databases, the GEOCat software applied by IUCN has been used to estimate the Extent of Occurrence (EOO) and Area of Occupation (AOO) of each of the species, and thus to determine the level of vulnerability. As a result of this update, we estimate that in Argentina there are 68 species of bivalves and 117 gastropods. Thus the numbers of recorded freshwater mollusc species in Argentina appear to have increased in recent years, rising from 168 to 185.