Shifting Baselines Confound River Restoration

Historical records show that rivers worldwide once held many more fish and other fauna than they do today. Overharvesting seems to have been one principle cause of steep declines in recent centuries. Although it is hard to estimate historical numbers of freshwater wildlife with accuracy, efforts to determine earlier levels of abundance may help planners avoid using falsely low estimates as baseline assumptions. Restoration programs could investigate the effects of reintroducing extirpated species.

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