Overview

• The open-access database covers 536 islands with freshwater habitats ranging from permanent lakes to seasonal creeks.
• It draws on data from the Atlas of Living Australia and thousands of published surveys to document 102 amphibian species and 95 freshwater fish species, including island endemics and nine non-native taxa.
• Species distribution analyses show frogs thrive on islands close to the mainland with humid, low-variability climates while fish richness correlates with larger island size.
• Fourteen of the recorded species are listed as threatened, underscoring the vulnerability of island freshwater ecosystems to habitat loss and climate change.
• Developed by UQ’s Biodiversity Research Group and published in Diversity and Distributions, the database supports a broader conservation framework spanning all of Australia’s 9,300 islands.