Dhaka, May 17 -- A new study has found that climate warming is causing a widespread and persistent decline in oxygen levels in rivers worldwide, posing serious risks to freshwater ecosystems.

Published in the journal Science Advances, the research was led by scientists from the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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The team analysed nearly 40 years of data from over 21,000 river stretches globally, using advanced machine learning to track oxygen changes between 1985 and 2023. On average, oxygen levels declined by 0.045 milligrams per litre per decade, with almost 80 percent of rivers showing deoxygenation.

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