Charting a course for freshwater biomonitoring: The grand challenges identified by the global scientific community

The past 50 years have seen biomonitoring emerge as an essential means of generating the knowledge needed to inform protection and restoration of freshwater ecosystems. Despite the successes of biomonitoring, most freshwater ecosystems remain unmonitored. Moreover, degradation of freshwaters continues at a rapid rate with new threats and novel stressors emerging that are difficult to assess using existing techniques. New technologies and techniques have been developed to improve biomonitoring, but application has been slow and integration with existing approaches is often problematic. Clearly, freshwater biomonitoring faces many important challenges that must be addressed to meet management needs of the coming decades. We identify Grand Challenges facing freshwater biomonitoring with the aim of encouraging research and practice to address these challenges. We asked 256 biomonitoring scientists from around the globe to identify what they considered the most important challenges. From their submissions we established five Grand Challenges and 18 associated subchallenges. For each Grand Challenge, we outline the current state of biomonitoring practice and suggest promising pathways and approaches to address them. By identifying and describing these challenges, we strive to position freshwater biomonitoring to take advantage of emerging opportunities and enhance its capacity to meet current and future management needs.

YATES Adam;  BRUA Robert;  CULP Joseph;  AGUIAR Francisca;  AJAYAN Anila;  ASPIN Thomas;  BUNDSHUH Mirco;  CALDERON Mirian;  CSABAI Zoltan;  DALLAS Hellen;  DATRY Thibault;  DIAS-SILVA Karina;  DZAVI Jean;  ENGLAND Judy;  EROS Tibor;  GEBLER Daniel;  GOEDKOOP Willem;  GONZALEX FERRERAS Alexia Maria;  HAMILTON David P;  HUGHES Robert M;  JUEN Leandro;  KEFFORD Ben;  KOROIVA Ricardo;  KRYNAK Edward M;  LAVOIE Isabelle;  LENTO Jennifer;  LIGEIRO Raphael;  MARTINS Renato;  MASESE Frank O;  DE ASSIS MONTAG Luciano Fogaca;  MUSETTA LAMBERT Jordan;  PAINTER Kristin;  POIKANE Sandra;  RICO Andreu;  RUARO Renata;  SABATER Sergi;  SALA MICHELAN Thaisa;  SCHOELYNCK Jonas;  SMUCKER Nathan;  STANKOVIC Igor;  STUBBINGTON Rachel;  VAN DEVENTER Heidi;  VAN NIEKERK Lara;  VAN DEN BRINK Paul;  VARBIRO Gabor;  WAMBUI WANDERI Elizabeth; 

2025-06-10

ELSEVIER

JRC141012

1872-7034 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X2500576X,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC141012,   

10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113646 (online),