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Hydroelectric turbines put fish at risk of severe injury during passage. To support an informed debate on the sustainability of hydropower, reliable data of turbine-induced fish mortality are pivotal. A team of researchers has now provided a first global analysis. On average, 22.3 percent of all fish passing through turbines got killed or showed severe, potentially lethal injuries.

Lakes in alpine locations react sensitively to climate change. Researchers led by IGB and the Faculty of Geosciences at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, China, have analysed in detail the changes in a lake in the northern Tibetan highlands since the end of the last ice age. Sediment samples dating back thousands of years show strong ecological changes due to rising temperatures and the influence of melting glaciers. 

Researchers at IGB have found that the Mexican waves collectively produced by tiny fish in Mexico actually reduce both their predatory birds' propensity to attack as well as the birds’ hunting success.  Functionally, these waves may work as a signal from the fish to the birds: “We know you are there, don’t waste your time on attacking us!”

Light pollution is a serious threat to all levels of biodiversity – from genes to ecosystems. An international team of researchers has identified 11 urgent research questions that need to be addressed in order to mitigate the effects of light pollution on biodiversity.

Researchers from 90 scientific institutions worldwide have stated that freshwater biodiversity research and conservation lag far behind the efforts carried out in terrestrial and marine environments. In a new publication in Ecology Letters, they propose a research agenda with 15 priorities aimed at improving research on biodiversity in lakes, rivers, ponds and wetlands. This is urgently needed, as biodiversity loss is taking place much faster in inland waters than on land or in the oceans.

Scientific memorandum "Energy transition not at the expense of aquatic biodiversity" formulates seven concrete proposals to defuse conflicts of goals between climate and biodiversity protection.

Researchers led by IGB have summarised and evaluated the scientific literature on recreational ecology in a meta-study. Although all recreational activities can have negative impacts on plants, animals and the environment, they conclude that boat traffic and shoreline use have the most consistently negative impacts. 

If all the proposed dams were built, 19 percent of free-flowing rivers that are longer than 500 km and inhabited by freshwater megafauna will lose their free-flowing status. The study also finds that freshwater megafauna diversity is higher in future fragmented free-flowing rivers than in rivers that would remain free-flowing in the future or that are already fragmented.