Global crayfish atlas offers new tools for conservation 

If you’re a crayfish, location can make all the difference. In North America, these small crustaceans are facing tough times due to habitat destruction, damming, and pollution, leading many species to require urgent help. 

Conversely, some of these same species, when introduced to Europe, have found the environment so favorable that they’ve become invasive, outcompeting local crayfish and spreading diseases that push native species toward extinction.

Searchable atlas: The World of Crayfish

Previously, researchers and conservation planners had to sift through multiple data sources to determine where specific crayfish species had been documented. 

Now, a new mapping project led by the West University of Timișoara, Romania (WUT) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has compiled information on 427 crayfish taxa and over 100,000 observation records into the first searchable global atlas, named the World of Crayfish.

Ecological importance of crayfish

“One of the most basic pieces of information to know about a species is where it lives: its distribution and its range size. But we just don’t have that information for a lot of crayfish species,” said Bloomer. 

“About a third of crayfish are thought to be threatened or endangered, but for another 20-ish percent, we don’t have the data available to even assess what their conservation status should be.”

Bloomer acknowledges that most people outside her field may not notice or appreciate crayfish, but she emphasizes their importance.

Crayfish are considered “keystone species” in freshwater ecosystems, playing significant roles as food sources for other animals and as ecosystem engineers. They create burrows that provide habitats for many species in semi-terrestrial environments. Unfortunately, their impact as invaders is equally significant.

Urgent need for unified action

“Invasive species are one of the gravest challenges to biodiversity in Europe, with profound ecological, economic, and societal consequences,” said atlas co-creator Mihaela Ion, researcher at the Institute of Biology Bucharest, Romanian Academy.

“They disrupt ecosystems, outcompete native species, and impose significant costs on sectors like agriculture and fisheries. In some cases, they even threaten public health. A unified, science-driven approach is essential to mitigate their impact.”

These ecological changes occur locally but require global collaboration for effective conservation and invasion mitigation. That’s why Ion, Bloomer, and their collaborators believe the new global crayfish atlas will make a significant difference.

Building the crayfish atlas

“We’re looking at climate change, habitat loss, and international spread of invasive species and disease,” Bloomer said. “These global issues require global collaborations to move forward and make an impact.”

“The World of Crayfish™ (WoC) platform is designed to become a transformative tool in biodiversity research and management,” added Lucian Pârvulescu, a professor at WUT and project coordinator for the atlas. 

“It serves as a foundation for integrating expert-validated datasets and applying advanced analysis techniques to address pressing ecological challenges like invasive species management.”

‘WoC exemplifies the future of biodiversity data infrastructure – accessible, integrative, and purpose-driven. By focusing on freshwater ecosystems, particularly crayfish species, it addresses an urgent need for tools that do more than collect data – they provide solutions.”

Creating the atlas involved extracting GPS coordinates from every modern crayfish occurrence record in scientific literature, as well as museum and agency collections.

Several thousand records were sourced from the Crustacean Collection of the Illinois Natural History Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois. Atlas co-creator and emeritus curator Christopher Taylor has collected and curated the collection for nearly 30 years.

Empowering conservation efforts

The more than 100,000 data points can be visualized on a world map scalable to 20-kilometer hexagons, including an address lookup tool.

Bloomer notes that this spatial scale is meaningful for conservation planning but masks the exact locations where sensitive or imperiled species were found.

Researchers and resource managers can register for an account on the website to access more detailed location data. Future updates to the atlas aim to enhance its capabilities.

“Through collaboration with international experts and leveraging scientific advancements, WoC aims to combine ecological data with geospatial and predictive tools. These tools will support tailored analyses, such as mapping invasive species dynamics, evaluating habitat suitability, and predicting population trends,” Pârvulescu said.

“The platform’s strength lies in its ability to merge diverse data streams into a cohesive system that generates actionable insights.”

Ultimately, the team hopes the atlas will empower researchers, policymakers, and agencies to develop conservation assessments and policies to protect these important animals with precision and urgency. Bloomer also hopes the atlas will inspire public interest in crayfish.

Raising awareness and appreciation for crayfish

“The unfortunate reality in conservation biology is that a lot of the species that get attention and funding are charismatic megafauna that people see on TV or in zoos,” said Bloomer.

“This website gives the public better access to information on what lives near them, and could get them more interested in their local landscape. Hopefully, they’ll see that crayfish are just as cool as lions and rhinos.”

The study is published in the journal PeerJ.

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