Editorial: Fish as sentinels of urbanization impacts in aquatic ecosystems

ROSSO, JUAN JOSE; LANGERHANS, RANDALL BRIAN; AVIGLIANO, ESTEBAN

Frontiers in Environmental Science

Frontiers

Año: 2023

2296-665X

By 2030, urban areas are projected to house 60 per cent of people globally (UnitedNations, 2018). Cities tend to occur near water because of the fundamental need forfreshwater, but also because of its diverse uses (travel, commerce, food production, powergeneration, flood management). In this context, urbanized landscapes represent a majorthreat to freshwater (Albert et al., 2020) and marine (Alter et al., 2020) organisms. Being oneof the only vertebrates that inhabit all types of aquatic ecosystems, fish are good candidates toserve as sentinels of the impacts of urbanization.This topic Research Topic includes five key contributions examining changes in fishassemblages, populations and phenotypes, and their potential ecological, evolutionary andeconomic consequences caused by urban-induced changes. Major patterns in fish responsesto urbanization may vary among species, type of aquatic ecosystems and biogeographicregions, and this was supported by the contributions of this topic including studies fromdiverse fish taxa, aquatic environments and regions around the world. Nearctic, Neotropicaland Austral fish assemblages are covered as well as freshwater and marine ecosystems. Thestudies document important changes in fish facing urbanization at varying spatial andtemporal scales.