The main threat that Adriatic sturgeons face is damming, which involves the fragmentation of the habitat and prevents trophic and spawning migrations. The building of a dam severely modifies the river habitat upstream and downstream for many kilometers: upstream the current can be very slow, with water turbidity, water stratification and hypoxia or even anoxia on the bottom; downstream the nature of the substrate can change and water can be warmer and hypoxic, so the reproductive success of sturgeons can be very low or null and the metabolism of juveniles can be very stressed (above 23–25 °C for "A. naccarii"). Before the building of some fish ladders on the main watercourses, most (if any) of the traditional spawning areas of the Po basin were not available to Adriatic sturgeons for decades, and this involved the collapse of wild populations of "A. naccarii", as well as of other species of sturgeon ("A. sturio", "Huso huso") in the Adriatic sea. The only suitable remaining habitat for spawning were in the vicinity of the confluence of the River Po with its tributaries.