Abstract
Introduction: Freshwater systems are increasingly being impacted by a plethora of pressures. Freshwater fish are thus periled, urging the need to investigate the drivers of population decrease to better counteract them, in order to provide some conservation relief to these pressured species. Methodology: To facilitate freshwater research, the Dammed Fish Project developed a series of free tools that simplify procedures and facilitate the access of correct data. Results: RivTool+ is a free software that evolved from RivTool (used in over 75 countries) and that integrates new functions and acts as a tool hub to host additional software apps. The computing engine of RivTool, that allows along the river network calculations and summarizations, is now able to be used by new tools. RivConnect—River network connectivity app that allows graph-based quantification of structural and functional connectivity, using several metrics and understanding network directionality. RivFish—App that contains the corrected, spatially and taxonomically, occurrence, at the basin and sub-basin level, of more than 600 native freshwater fish species of Europe. RivOpt—Optimization tool that allows for river network connectivity restoration optimization. RivOpt accounts for conflicting multiple objectives and is able to deal with different restoration actions for each barrier (removal, partial removal, fishway construction and retrofitting or no action). Conclusions: Dammed Fish tools facilitate research procedures and access to verified data, improving the information baseline, increasing the accuracy of results and accelerating research. Thus, it contributes to an improved understanding of the mechanisms controlling species vulnerability and contributes to their conservation.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, P.B., P.S. and G.D.; methodology, P.B., P.S., J.M.S., D.M. and G.D.; software, D.M. and G.D.; validation, D.M., J.M.S., T.L. and A.T.F.; formal analysis, D.M., T.L., J.M.S. and G.D.; investigation, P.B., P.S., D.M. and G.D.; resources, P.B. and M.T.F.; data curation, T.L., A.T.F., D.M. and G.D.; writing—original draft preparation, P.B.; writing—review and editing, all; supervision, P.B. and M.T.F.; project administration, P.B. and G.D.; funding acquisition, P.B. and M.T.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This study was funded by the project “Dammed Fish Impact of structural and functional river network connectivity losses on fish biodiversity—Optimizing management solutions” (PTDC/CTA-AMB/4086/2021, DOI: 10.54499/PTDC/CTA-AMB/4086/2021), from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT). G.D. has been financed by FCT through CEECINSTLA/0001/2022/TERRA—Laboratório Associado para a Sustentabilidade do Uso da Terra e dos Serviço de Ecossistemas. P.B. was financed by national funds via FCT (LA/P/0092/2020). Forest Research Centre (CEF) is a research unit funded by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., through project reference UID/00239/2025 and UID/PRR/00239/2025. The Associate Laboratory for Sustainable Land Use and Ecosystem Services (TERRA) is also funded by FCT (LA/P/0092/2020—https://doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0092/2020).
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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