Fishing Historical Sources: a Snapshot of 19th-century Freshwater Fauna in Spain

Vol.: (0123456789) 1 3 Rev Fish Biol Fisheries https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-022-09753-4 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Fishing historical sources: asnapshot of19th‑century freshwater fauna inSpain FranciscoBlanco‑Garrido · VirgilioHermoso · MiguelClavero Received: 23 November 2022 / Accepted: 25 December 2022 © The Author(s) 2023 Abstract Historical information is needed to describe in a robust manner long-term changes in the distribution of organisms, although it is in general scarce or contained in non-scientific sources. Gazetteers (or geographical dictionaries) constitute a potential source of historical species records, which has not been accurately explored yet. The dictionary edited by Pascual Madoz between 1845 and 1850 extensively described the geography, population and socioeconomic aspects in Spain. The dictionary included abundant information on wild animals and plants, with a special focus on socioeconomically relevant species. Here, we present a database generated by collecting and georeferencing the mentions to freshwater fauna records in the Madoz, which includes 10,750 occurrence records of 39 freshwater-associated taxa from 5,472 localities. This database has been made public and usable (following FAIR criteria) in GBIF. Most of the records correspond to fish (10,201 records, 94.9% of total; 33 taxa), followed by crayfish (418 records, 3.9% of total; one species). Annelids (one taxon), amphibians (one taxon), reptiles (one taxon) and mammals (three species) sum up to 132 records (1.2% of total). The database presented here can be used to estimate the baseline ranges of many freshwater species, which should inform present-day management for the conservation and recovery of endangered species and freshwater communities. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s11160- 022- 09753-4. F.Blanco-Garrido(*)· M.Clavero Departamento de Biología de la Conservación, Estación Biológica de Doñana – CSIC, Americo Vespucio 26, 41092Seville, Spain e-mail: [email protected] V.Hermoso Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes s/n, 41012Seville, Spain Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 1 3 Vol:. (1234567890) Graphical abstract Keywords Spain· Nineteenth century· Historical ecology· Freshwater species distributions· Reference conditions· Citizen science Introduction Human activities are driving the decline of populations of a myriad of species worldwide, initiating the sixth mass extinction event (Barnosky et al. 2011; Cowie etal. 2022). In this context, freshwater organisms are declining with notable intensity, if compared with terrestrial or marine ones (Living Planet Index; WWF 2020). As an example, a recent estimation of the sampled Red List Index for fish shows that this index is notably lower for freshwater fishes than for marine species (Miranda etal. 2022). The generalised negative trend of freshwater biodiversity is driven by multiple, complex and interacting anthropogenic impacts on riverine, lake and wetland biodiversity (Reid etal. 2019). Even being notably large, the real magnitude of the decline of freshwater biodiversity might be largely underestimated, because humans have impacted freshwater systems for centuries (Limburg and Waldman 2009), while biodiversity indicators rarely account for processes longer than a few decades (e.g. the Living Planet Index uses data starting in 1970). The underestimation of biodiversity losses can mislead the definition of conservation baselines and the conservation targets derived from them (Clavero etal. 2022a), potentially generating a shifting baseline syndrome (Lovell etal. 2020). Assessing long-term biodiversity change requires historical information, which is scarce in general. Long-term data series exist for some commercially exploited freshwater species and can be used to estimate temporal dynamics in the abundance of local or regional populations (Yoshiyama et al. 1998; Aschonitis etal. 2017; Brevé etal. 2022). However, long-term fisheries datasets are rare and in general have a reduced spatial extent, informing about landings in specific spots. Mining historical sources is a promising approach to describe past species distributions and design conservation baselines and management efforts (Clavero and Hermoso 2015; Duarte Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 1 3 Vol.: (0123456789) etal. 2018; Viana etal. 2022). In Europe, geographic description initiatives have been developed at least since the eleventh century (Duarte etal. 2018; Jones 2018), often in the form of geographic dictionaries (Clavero and Revilla 2014). Many of these historical documents provide information on natural resources, including vegetation and fauna, which can be used to describe past ecosystems and to identify conservation baselines (Clavero and Hermoso 2015; Viana et al. 2022). Here, we present a database containing over 10,000 occurrence records of freshwater fauna from Spain in the mid-nineteenth century. Records were compiled from the geographic dictionary edited by Madoz (1845–1850) (henceforth ‘the Madoz’), an extensive, exhaustive and standardized socioeconomic survey of Spain that provides abundant information on wildlife occurrences. The mid-nineteenth century is a relevant time-frame for freshwater conservation in the Iberian Peninsula because by that time freshwater ecosystems were still minimally impacted by the most relevant, large-scale human disturbances, such as water pollution, invasive species or damming (e.g. Elvira and Almodóvar 2001; Clavero and Hermoso 2015). The resulting database has been made publicly available (Blanco-Garrido and Clavero 2022) and provides an unprecedented amount of information to model the past distribution of species that can be used to define reference conditions for the conservation of freshwater biodiversity in the Iberian Peninsula. This database can constitute a model for the development of similar data generation initiatives elsewhere. Methods Data source We extracted records of freshwater fauna (mainly, but not exclusively, fish) from the Madoz. This geographical dictionary summarised geographic, historical, population and socioeconomic information for Spanish villages and larger administrative units, also describing rivers, mountains, capes and other geographical features. The Madoz was published in 16 volumes between 1845 and 1850 and contains some 11,800 pages and around 70,000 articles. It incorporated information from previous sources (e.g. Martínez Marina 1802; Miñano 1826–1828), although the bulk of the information provided was generated from its own sampling, which involved the participation of more than 1400 local collaborators over a 15-year period. The articles of the Madoz followed a systematic structure, with different sections, including a description of the cultivated areas and natural vegetation (under the section terreno, “terrain”), the urban area, the rivers, fountains and mills, the industrial and trading activities, the municipal budget and taxes, and crops, livestock and wildlife (under the section producciones, “productions”). Most mentions to freshwater fauna in the Madoz are reported either when describing rivers and wetlands or within the producciones section in articles dealing with population centres. Some mentions to freshwater fauna are also associated to the heading terreno, although this is much less frequent. Building the freshwater fauna database We searched for mentions to freshwater fauna included in the Madoz using digitalized copies of the dictionary with text recognition, available at the Virtual Library of Andalusia (http:// www. bibli oteca virtu aldea ndalu cia. es), and following a snowball-like active search procedure. The search began with frequently cited species, such as European eel, brown trout or barbels (anguila, trucha or barbo in Spanish, respectively) throughout the 16 volumes of the Madoz. When finding a mention to one of those species, we noted any other mention to freshwater fauna elements, which were the focus of subsequent search rounds. Searches included name variants used for the different species as well as common mistakes made by the pdf reader in interpreting species names. The detection of name variants was made easier because fauna mentions were usually provided as short lists, while errors were identified by copying lists of fish names and pasting them in a text processing program (the most common mistake was the inclusion of blank spaces among letters, e.g. b a r b o for barbo). The search process continued until no new names appeared. Taxonomy was harmonised by assigning the variants of vernacular names to a unique scientific name based of the GBIF’s taxonomic backbone. Whenever possible, records were identified to species level. If this was not possible, the lowest possible taxonomic level was assigned (e.g., genus, family, order). Vague Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 1 3 Vol:. (1234567890) terms not fitting a clear taxonomic category were discarded (e.g., "fish" or "fishery"; "peces" or "pesca" in Spanish, respectively). Mentions to freshwater fauna were translated into spatially explicit records by georeferencing localities (articles) using Google Earth (Decimal Degrees Coordinates, unprojected WGS84). Georeferentiation was done for localities including villages, small topographical accidents, and small rivers. To homogenise georeferencing procedures, coordinates assigned to villages correspond roughly to the centroid of the built area, so they do not necessarily represent the exact localization of the taxa mentioned by the Madoz. Considering the average area of Spanish municipalities (60 km2; http:// www. ine. es) and that often multiple records (villages) were cited within a single municipality, the spatial accuracy of these records could, therefore, be confidently assigned Fig. 1 A: Spatial distribution of 5,472 localities in Spain (peninsula and both archipelagos, Canary and Balearic Islands) where freshwater fauna is mentioned in the geographical dictionary edited by Madoz (1845–1850). Note that one locality is located in Southern Portugal. B: Density of localities in each river basin. Only the names of those river basins that are cited in the text are indicated Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 1 3 Vol.: (0123456789) within a 5 km radius around the citation. Articles dealing with large geographical (e.g. stretches within a river) or administrative units (e.g. judicial districts, provinces) were not georeferenced. For further hydrological context, the information on freshwater fauna was also linked to the specific hydrological basin to which each georeferenced locality belongs to, using QGIS (QGIS Development Team 2022). The database on nineteenth century Spanish freshwater fauna is hosted in GBIF (Blanco-Garrido and Clavero 2022), from where it is freely accessible and downloadable. It is structured as: (i) Event database, composed by 5,472 rows (sites) and 22 columns (variables), (ii) Ocurrence database, with 10,750 rows (species × sites) and 30 columns (variables), downloadable as a DwC-A file. Henceforth, we report and discuss the distribution of the main species and faunal groups resulting from the mining of the information included in the Madoz. Results anddiscussion Overview of the dataset We generated 10,750 occurrence records of 39 freshwater taxa from 5,472 localities (Fig.1A). Records are mainly distributed through Peninsular Spain, although they also include the Canary (three localities) and Balearic (two localities) archipelagos, as well as one locality in Portugal (Pulo do lobo, a cascade in the lower Guadiana River). The availability of records has important spatial bias due to different human settlement patterns across Spain, where there are larger and sparser municipalities towards the south, resulting in less Madoz articles (Fig.1A, B). Most of the records refer to fish (10,201 records, 94.9% of total; 33 taxa), followed by crustaceans (418 records, 3.9% of total; one taxa). The remaining groups are annelids (one taxon), amphibians (one taxon), reptiles (one taxon) and mammals (three taxa), which sum up 132 records (1.2% of total). Freshwater fauna distributions Brown trout Salmo trutta Linnaeus 1758 Brown trout (trucha, in Spanish) was the most frequently cited freshwater species in the Madoz (3943 records; 36.7% of total), with other 32 records of the migratory form, the sea trout (discussed below, together with other migratory fish). The species was cited in all main river basins, although records of the species were rarer to the south (Fig.2). The six trout records in the Guadiana and the mention to its presence in the Guadalhorce basin are especially Fig. 2 Records of brown trout Salmo trutta, excluding records to migratory sea trout, extracted from the Madoz’s dictionary (n = 3,943) Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 1 3 Vol:. (1234567890) noteworthy, because the species does not occur naturally in these basins in the present (Doadrio etal. 2011). In both cases, the Madoz dictionary provides explicit mentions of the presence of trout both in tributaries of the Guadiana River (for example Gévora, Estena, Jola and others) and in the Guadalhorce River itself. Trout records from the Madoz were used by Clavero etal. (2017) to evaluate the impacts of recent warming trends (around 1.5°C since the begging of the twentieth century), showing that the species has declined when compared with the mid-nineteenth century situation and that this decline was accurately predicted by temperature-distribution relationships modelled with the Madoz data. European eel Anguilla anguilla Linnaeus 1758 The Madoz dictionary provided 2848 records of the European eel (26.5% of total). The eel was widely distributed, being present and widespread in all Iberian basins (Fig. 3) and occurring also in the Balearic and Canary archipelagos. The presence of eels in Gran Canaria Island is remarkable, since these are the southernmost records of the entire species distribution range joint to the Khnifiss lagoon in Morocco (see Qninba etal. 2021). The Madoz mainly used the Spanish voice “anguila”. Other vernacular names, although less commonly used, were “orihuelo”, “meixones” (referred to elvers) and “congrios”. The latter is also widely used to designate the conger eel Conger conger Linnaeus 1758 in marine environments. Eel records extracted from the Madoz were used by Clavero and Hermoso (2015) to produce a baseline scenario for the conservation of the eel in the Iberian Peninsula and to propose management action in relation to the mitigation of river fragmentation. Barbels (Luciobarbus andBarbus genera) Barbel species, generally reported as barbos but also picones in a few cases, agglutinate 1867 records in the Madoz (17.4% of all records). There are eight barbel species in the Iberian Peninsula (Doadrio et al. 2011). In general, Iberian barbels share a similar morphology (Gante etal. 2015) and are not differentiated through vernacular names, although this differentiation was occasionally possible (e.g. codirroyo for Barbus haasi Mertens 1925 in the Ebro Basin, where it coexists with Luciobar‑ bus graellsii Steindachner 1866). Thus, we assigned possible species identity of barbel records following the biogeographical distribution of barbel species in Fig. 3 Records of European eel Anguilla anguilla extracted from the Madoz’s dictionary (n = 2,848) Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 1 3 Vol.: (0123456789) the Iberian Peninsula (Doadrio et al. 2011; Gante et al. 2015; SIBIC 2017; www. carta pisci cola. es) (Fig.4). Large nases (Pseudochondrostoma andParachondrostoma genera) We collected 467 records (4.3% of total) corresponding to six different Pseudochondrostoma and Para‑ chondrostoma species (Fig.5). The species belonging to Pseudochondrostoma genus were mainly cited in the Madoz as “bogas”, although vernacular name “loinas” and its variations (“lobinas” and “luinas”) were also used. The name "madrillas" was used to refer to the species Pseudochondrostoma polylepis Steindachner 1864 in a single locality belonging to the Tagus River basin, although this name is widely used to refer to the species of the genus Parachondrostoma. The species belonging to this genus were also named as "medrillas" (variation of “madrillas”), "bogas", "loinas" and their variants "lobinas", "lubinas", "logimas", "lomas", "lon‑ jas" and "loñas". Large nases embrace six different Iberian species. As in the case of barbels, we deduced the species linked to nases recorded in the Madoz attending at the current Fig. 4 Records of barbels (Luciobarbus and Barbus genera) extracted from the Madoz’s dictionary (n = 1,867). The records of barbels from the Guadiana Basin could correspond to up four species (L. sclateri Günther 1868, L. comizo Steindachner 1864, L. microcephalus Almaça 1967 and L. guiraonis Steindachner 1866) Luciobarbusbocagei (and/ or L. comizo) Luciobarbusbocagei Luciobarbussclateri Luciobarbusspp. (Guadiana Basin) Luciobarbusguiraonis (and/ or B. haasi) Luciobarbus guiraonis Luciobarbusgraellsii Luciobarbusgraellsii (and/ or B. haasi) Barbus haasi Barbus meridionalis Fig. 5 Records of large nases (Pseudochondrostoma and Parachondrostoma genera) extracted from the Madoz’s dictionary (n = 467) Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 1 3 Vol:. (1234567890) the distribution of these fish across different Iberian basins (Doadrio etal. 2011; SIBIC 2017). Small nases (Iberochondrostoma lemmingii Steindachner 1866 andAchondrostoma arcasii Steindachner 1866) The Madoz provided 110 records of Achondrostoma arcasii. The species was mainly mentioned with the present-day common name “bermejuela”, although it had several variations (“bermeja”, “bermejo”, “bermejuelo”, “bermijuela”), and the Madoz also recorded the names “sarda”, currently assigned to Achondrostoma salmantinum Doadrio & Elvira 2007, and “sardina”, this latter located close to the known distribution of this congeneric species (Doadrio etal. 2011). Records of this species were found in the Duero and Ebro River basins, as well as across several small Cantabrian basins, with one record within the Tagus River basin (Fig.6). Twelve fish records from the Madoz were assigned to Iberochondrostoma lemmingii, mentioned with the name “pardilla” in the Guadiana and Tagus River basins (Fig.6). Chubs (genus Squalius) We found 99 records (0.9% of total) assigned to chubs (Squalius spp). A wide variety of vernacular names were used in the Madoz to refer to chubs, such as “bordallo” and “cacho” with different variations (“cachuelo”, “cachuela”, “carchuelo”, “carchuela”, “escacho”, “escallo”, “escalo” and “escaño”). Some records from the Ebro basin used the name “zaparda” (two records), still in use today (Asensio and Doadrio 2004), and “zapeño” (one record). The term “bagra” was used in Catalonia (Ter River basin), where it is still the common name for Squalius. As for barbels and nases, we used the knowledge on the biogeography of Squalius species to tentatively assign a specific status to Madoz records (Asensio and Doadrio 2004; Doadrio et al. 2011; Perea 2017; SIBIC 2017; Perea et al. 2021). Several Iberian basins host a small hybridogenetic species, Squalius albur‑ noides Steindachner 1866, which is thought to have evolved from the hybridization of an extinct ancestor with different Squalius species. Squalius alburnoides has a complex reproductive biology, involving lineages with different ploidies, which requires the presence of other Squalius species (see Cunha etal. 2011 and references therein). In Fig. 6 Records of Achon‑ drostoma arcasii (n = 110) and Iberochondrostoma lemmingii (n = 12) extracted from the Madoz’s dictionary Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 1 3 Vol.: (0123456789) the basins inhabited by Squalius alburnoides we assigned records to the other coexisting Squalius species, although acknowledging the uncertainty of the attribution (Fig.7). Minnow Phoxinus bigerri Kottelat 2007, Gudgeon Gobio lozanoi Doadrio & Madeira 2004 andFreshwater blenny Salaria fluviatilis Asso 1801. Minnow, Gudgeon and Freshwater blenny were mentioned in 31, 13 and one occasions, respectively (Fig.8). Vernacular names used in Madoz for minnows were “chipas” and its variation “chopas”, “zarbos” and its variations “sarbos” and “sargos” for gudgeon, and the Catalan “barb porqui” (i.e. piggy barbel) for freshwater blenny. Minnow and Gudgeon records were located mainly in Ebro River basin, but both species occurred also in Cantabrian basins. Both, minnow and gudgeon, have a much wider present distribution, which have originated through multiple human-mediated introductions (Amat-Trigo 2017; García-Raventós et al. 2020). Freshwater blenny record was located in the Fluvià River basin (Fig. 8), in which the species still occurs today (Méndez etal. 2019), in a very particular mention Fig. 7 Records of chubs (Squalius genus) extracted from the Madoz’s dictionary (n = 99) Fig. 8 Records of Minnow Phoxinus bigerri (n = 31), Gudgeon Gobio lozanoi (n = 13) and Blenny Salaria fluviatilis (n = 1) extracted from the Madoz’s dictionary Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 1 3 Vol:. 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