Fresh waters are disproportionately rich in species, and represent global hotspots of biodiversity. However, they are also hotspots of endangerment.

David Dudgeon is Chair Professor in Ecology and Biodiversity at the University of Hong Kong. He has spent almost forty years researching and writing about the streams and rivers of monsoonal East Asia, and the animals that live in and around them. He is well known and well respected internationally in the field of freshwater ecology, on which he has published extensively. He received the Biwako Prize in Ecology in 2000, and was Editor-in-Chief of Freshwater Biology between 2015 and 2017.

Preface; 1. The freshwater commons; 2. Global endangerment of freshwater biodiversity; 3. Overexploitation; 4. Alien species and their effects; 5. River regulation: impacts and mitigation; 6. Vanishing lakes and threats to lacustrine biodiversity; 7. How will climate change affect freshwater biodiversity?; 8. Ecosystem services and incentivizing conservation of freshwater biodiversity; 9. Conservation of freshwater biodiversity: opportunities and initiatives; Index.