News

Today, Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke visited the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin to learn about the first interim results of the special investigation programme on the environmental disaster in the Oder River (“ODER~SO”), which has been funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) since February 2023. Fish stocks in the Oder River have declined by 53 to 67 per cent as a result of last summer’s environmental disaster, especially midstream.

Taxonomy, or the identification of animal and plant species, can be very time-consuming, especially when a large number of objects are being analized. For example, scientific studies on the global decline of insects are often challenging from a taxonomic point of view. Molecular methods can now replace the human eye in identifying species. For the first time, researchers from the Biological Station Doñana (CISC) in Spain, with the participation of the IGB, have compared the efficiency of conventional and molecular methods using non-biting midges.

Sophia Kimmig spends half her day coordinating the IGB project "AuBe", which develops insect-friendly lighting concepts. The other half of her day is spent writing about the night. Her book "Lebendige Nacht" (Living Night) has just been published – about the wonders of a world we sleep through.

The ongoing war in Ukraine is having multiple impacts on the country’s water sector, according to a recent study led by IGB and the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research (SGN) that has been published in the journal Nature Sustainability.  In addition to the horror of the direct consequences of war, the destruction of water infrastructure also carries long-term consequences and risks for the population, the environment and global food security.

Routine fishing on 29 November this year was the first large inventory conducted in the middle of the Oder since the man-made environmental disaster that occurred in summer. The result: much fewer fish were caught in total, and species such as the blue bream and the asp, which are important to this ecosystem, were lacking completely. Moreover, water analysis conducted by the researchers shows that the salt concentration is still far too high. There could be a repeat of the disaster when temperatures increase, endangering remaining stocks.

IGB has provided feedback on the government draft of the National Water Strategy, emphasising, among other things, the relevance of aquatic biodiversity and the large practical implementation deficit in water management.

Studies of the Anthropocene continue to uncover the complex and dynamic interrelations between the societal world and the Earth system. At an international conference, researchers from the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities have joined forces to address the question of how these increasing mutual impacts can be better understood and further developed towards global sustainability.

IGB researchers have carried out sample fishing in the River Oder to get a better overview of the remaining fish population after the man-made environmental disaster. The results are very sobering.