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Learn from Chinese examples to save endangered sturgeons from hydropower dams

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 9, pages 880–882 (2025)Cite this article

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In Europe, all anadromous sturgeon species are critically endangered, and many species are locally extinct4,5 (Fig. 1a,b). In North America, the historical abundance of all eight sturgeon species has also been greatly reduced. In China, the Yangtze River was once home to three sturgeon species3. In July 2021, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) extinct and reclassified the Yangtze sturgeon (Acipenser dabryanus) from ‘Critically Endangered’ to ‘Extinct in the Wild’3, while Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) spawning stock has declined from thousands to tens of individuals (Fig. 1c). The onset of this tragedy was the construction of Gezhouba Dam in 1981, which disrupted the long-distance migrations of all three sturgeon species and particularly reduced the number of available spawning sites from 16 to only 1 for the Chinese sturgeon.

As all sturgeon species are long-lived (with lifespans that reach up to 170 years and late maturity, at 8 to 30 years)3,4,5,6, the decline of Chinese sturgeon populations extended over 30 years. Similar population dynamics have been noted in the world’s major rivers3 (for example, the Danube River with the Iron Gate I and II dams between Serbia and Romania) where dams damage the integrity of sturgeons’ life histories.

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Fig. 1: Endangered sturgeon species worldwide and effects of dams on sturgeon numbers.

References

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Acknowledgements

The authors are supported by National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2023YFC2604502), Yunnan Provincial Department of Science and Technology (202303AC100018).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Hong Cao, Liang Zhang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Science, Wuhan, China

    Hong Cao, Xin Gao & Ping Xie

  2. Institute for Ecological Research and Pollution Control of Plateau Lakes, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, China

    Liang Zhang

  3. Leibniz-Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany

    Jörn Gessner

  4. Department of Biology (DiBio), University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Leonardo Congiu

  5. BK-Riverfish, LLC, Amherst, MA, USA

    Boyd Kynard

  6. Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Wuhan, China

    Qiwei Wei

  7. Donghu Experimental Station of Lake Ecosystems, CERN, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Science, Wuhan, China

    Ping Xie

  8. College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding, China

    Ping Xie

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  1. Hong Cao
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Correspondence to Qiwei Wei or Ping Xie.

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Cao, H., Zhang, L., Gessner, J. et al. Learn from Chinese examples to save endangered sturgeons from hydropower dams. Nat Ecol Evol 9, 880–882 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02709-4

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