News

In the latest IGB Policy Brief on the occasion of the 2021 federal elections, scientists recommend that politicians take urgent measures to combat the massive decline in freshwater biodiversity and thus safeguard important ecosystem services.

Recent study with Robert Arlinghaus shows that the replenishment potential of many fish stocks is overestimated. This increases the risk of overfishing. Especially the largest fish should be protected to a greater degree than is presently the case.

Many of the world's clear lakes are deteriorating at an alarming rate: at the shore, where people want to play and swim, the lake bottom is covered with green carpets of algae.

Using water fleas, Luc De Meester showed that a population with a high amount of genetic variation can quickly adapt its behavioural and life-history traits to changes in the environment. 

In Germany, the protection of fish is supported by general pro-ecological values and norms. In France, Sweden and Norway, on the other hand, native fish species have great influence on individual conservation-oriented behaviour.

Global warming is increasing the surface temperatures of lakes worldwide – are species finding the temperatures they need to survive? Researchers led by IGB have quantified the long-term temperature changes in 139 lakes worldwide. 

Oxygen levels in freshwater lakes are declining rapidly – faster than in the oceans. Over the past forty years, for example, oxygen levels in the deep waters of temperate lakes have dropped by nearly 19 percent. 

Around half of the hydropower plants in Romania are located in nature conservation areas. These are mostly small plants that contribute only 3 percent of Romania's electricity generation, but threaten biodiversity.