FRESHWATER NEWS
Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB)
Research for the future of our freshwaters – that is IGB’s guiding principle!
May 2023
Invertebrates in and around water ~ Species protection for the sturgeon ~ Stocking at the Oder ~ Better prediction of oxygen deficiency in lakes ~ City dwellers versus country bumpkins ~ New Emmy Noether research group ~ Conference on Boddenpike ~ Open Days ~?IGB Annual Research Report online
Hello!
Have you seen a mayfly yet this year? The first of these creatures are now starting to hatch, and their nuptial dance is a real spectacle. Why are we asking you this? Well, because the Green Drake Mayfly (Ephemera danica) and many other flying #insects are dependent on #freshwaters, which is where they spend their first life stages. The larvae of mayflies, for example, spend several years in #water bodies before they come ashore for a few days as adult flies, which is only when we really notice them.?Semi-aquatic insects?are an important food source for animals in the water and on land, and are used as indicator species to assess water quality and the state of freshwater #ecosystems. To make this more feasible, researchers coordinated by IGB have compiled geo-referenced #data sets on worldwide occurrences of these insects. The data sets are freely available.?
More about the topic
Our freshwaters are populated not only by insects, but also by other #invertebrates such as flatworms, crustaceans and molluscs. Together, these groups of species make up the largest proportion of freshwater biotic communities. These so-called freshwater #macroinvertebrates spend at least one stage of their life in water, making them particularly vulnerable to changes in their #habitat. A team of researchers led by IGB, involving scientists from other German and Cuban institutions, has set up a database with geo-referenced records of the occurrence of four groups of freshwater invertebrate taxa across #Cuba. This detailed knowledge is useful for activities such as area-based conservation planning.
Species protection for the sturgeon
Let us move on from small aquatic organisms to large aquatic animals: #sturgeon are true survivors, having been around for more than 200 million years. In fact, they have barely changed since the time of the dinosaurs and have survived at least two major mass extinctions. Today, however, all 26 remaining sturgeon species are threatened with extinction. The reasons are anthropogenic: weirs and other transverse structures in rivers, for example, impede migratory fish on their way to spawning grounds, or the fish perish during migration downstream, getting caught up in the turbines of #hydropower plants. Traditional fish ladders are often not designed for the sturgeon, a large fish; in fact, only very few sturgeon are able to use them. Researchers under the leadership of China’s 云南大学 , the 中国科学院 and IGB have therefore presented a recommendation on how to facilitate effective passage and promote sturgeon with bypass channels at dams.
One of the 26 sturgeon species was in the spotlight last week: as part of the reintroduction programme coordinated by IGB, around 2,000 juvenile Baltic sturgeon were released into the River #Oder. The original plan was to stock the fish in the autumn of 2022, but the man-made environmental disaster on the River Oder?made it impossible. By taking this action, the participating partners from research and environmental associations also sent a signal for the better protection of our river habitats. What the River Oder particularly needs is a reduction in #salt discharges so as to prevent a renewed toxic algal bloom, as well as enhanced #restoration measures instead of the planned development. This was also pointed out by Brandenburg’s Environment Minister Axel Vogel ( Karriereseite | Ministerium für Landwirtschaft, Umwelt und Klimaschutz des Landes Brandenburg (MLUK) ) and Dr Christiane Rohleder, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection ( Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz (BMUV) ), during the event. Both were keen to help release the small sturgeon into the river.
Oxygen deficiency in lakes
For most organisms, whether fish or invertebrates, survival is also a question of the #oxygen available in the water. If oxygen becomes scarce in deeper layers of lakes and reservoirs, the living conditions of organisms deteriorate. This phenomenon, caused by high nutrient inputs and #climate change, also results in the increased production of greenhouse gases and the intensification of nutrient cycles. Moreover, the treatment of such oxygen-deficient deep water to produce drinking water is associated with high costs. Researchers at TU Bergakademie Freiberg and IGB have developed a new tool to predict the ecological consequences of oxygen deficiency in #lakes on the basis of a few parameters.
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Proper restoration of inland waters
The availability of #drinking water in sufficient quantity and quality, along with many other important ecosystem services, depends on a near-natural water cycle, intact water bodies, diverse aquatic habitats and species communities. However, practically all water bodies have now been impacted, if not clearly altered, by human use. #Peatlands, flowing waters and their #floodplains, lakes and other stagnant #waters should therefore be increasingly restored. For example, the European Commission has initiated a Nature Restoration Law that aims, among other things, to restore more rivers in Europe to a free-flowing state. The Federal Environment Ministry’s Natural Climate Protection action programme is designed to rewet peatlands and establish a near-natural water balance. But what is the best way to go about restoring water bodies??
Survival in the city
Let’s go ashore: How do #animals and plants survive and thrive in #cities – and how do they differ from their conspecifics and communities in rural areas? These are the issues addressed by urban #ecology, a rapidly growing research field. To offer orientation in the information jungle on urban ecology, a team led by IGB and Freie Universit?t Berlin created a map of 62 research hypotheses in urban ecology. Among them are the ideas of the ideal city dweller, the daring city dweller, life on credit, and the biological monotony of cities. In many cases, research has yet to show how robust the hypotheses are and to which cities they apply. The overview provides an important basis for this endeavour.?
New Emmy Noether research group
IGB junior research group leader Lynn Govaert also conducts research on how individual species or entire communities respond to environmental change. She is particularly interested in how evolutionary and ecological processes influence these responses, and whether it is possible to derive predictions from them. The young Belgian scientist was recently awarded funding for her work under the Emmy Noether Programme of the? Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - German Research Foundation .
Save the dates
3 June | #Stralsund: All those interested in pike in the Bodden, #pike #fishing and sustainable management should read on: our BODDENHECHT project is set to present its findings from over 4 years of pike research at OZEANEUM. Aspects such as migration routes, spawning grounds, and commercial and recreational fishery use were explored.?
1 July | Stechlin: The clear Lake #Stechlin, located 80 km north of Berlin, is always worth a visit. And even more so on our Open Day. This is when we show you our LakeLab and talk to you about the state of the lake, its big, small (and new) inhabitants, and the research conducted by IGB here at the #Neuglobsow site.?
9 September | Berlin: Which animals, plants and microorganisms live in the waters of the Berlin-Brandenburg region? How are our lakes, rivers, small freshwaters and their communities changing due to use, urbanisation or climate change? How can they be better protected and preserved? And how are all these matters explored? We will tell you all this and more during our Open Day at the #Berlin site.??
With this in mind, see you soon at one of our events – or else you will hear from us again in our next FRESHWATER NEWS! Until then, our current annual research report gives you further insights into freshwater research at IGB.?
The IGB Team
The next issue of FRESHWATER NEWS will be published in July 2023.
Founder & CEO, Group 8 Security Solutions Inc. DBA Machine Learning Intelligence
10 个月Much thanks for your post!