The untapped potential of conservation journals to promote freshwater biodiversity

Freshwater ecosystems are amongst the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. They are subject to intense and increasing threats and have a higher proportion of threatened and extinct species than terrestrial or marine realms. Concurrently, freshwater ecosystems are largely underrepresented in both conservation research and actions arguably as a consequence of less popularity and promotion. To test this assumption, we used cover images as a proxy of exposure and promotion opportunities provided by conservation journals. We collected information on cover images of 18 conservation journals from 1997 to 2016 and data on citations and Altmetric scores of papers published in them. We found that freshwater ecosystems (10.4%) were featured less often than marine (15.2%) or terrestrial (74.4%) ecosystems on covers of these journals. All 15 most featured species are from terrestrial or marine ecosystems, with 14 of them being large vertebrates such as elephants, big cats, rhinos, polar bears, and marine turtles. None of the 95 species featured more than once on the covers of conservation journals spend their whole life history in fresh waters, i.e. they are at least partly associated with terrestrial or marine ecosystems. Our results indicated that cover-featured studies received more attention from academia and the general public, i.e. showed higher citations and Altmetric scores, than non-featured ones within the same issue. By featuring freshwater species and habitats on covers, therewith providing more exposure opportunities, conservation journals hold the potential to promote biodiversity conservation in fresh waters. Scientists can help that endeavour by submitting freshwater-related photos together with their manuscripts for review, therewith providing more options for editors to portray freshwater species and habitats and to ultimately raise awareness and appreciation of freshwater life.