News | IGB

8 November 2022

Ocean microbes get their diet through a surprising mix of carbon sources

Long thought to rely solely on photosynthesis, the microbe Prochlorococcus may get as much as one-third of its carbon through a second strategy: consuming the dissolved remains of other dead microbes.

7 November 2022

focus

“The LakeLab manages the balancing act between a high degree of realism and stringent experimental conditions”

IGB’s LakeLab in Lake Stechlin, containing “24 lakes within a lake”, is globally unique. This year, the large-scale experimental facility is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Reason enough to look at the past and the future with Mark Gessner, head of the “Plankton and Microbial Ecology” department at Lake Stechlin and initiator of the LakeLab.

2 November 2022

press release

Climate change: More algae and fewer aquatic plants promote methane emissions

A Chinese team, in collaboration with IGB researcher Sabine Hilt, has shown in a large mesocosm experiment how heat waves, nutrients and pesticides promote algae growth and cause aquatic plants to dwindle. This shift in plant types may increase the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions from shallow lakes, as Sabine Hilt and Dutch colleagues demonstrated in another mesocosm experiment.

1 August 2018

insight

LakeLab experiment 2018 started

As energy supplier and stimulus of the internal clock, light is of fundamental importance to plants and animals. This also applies to fish and microscopic organisms in lakes. Like other species, they have adapted to the day-night rhythm during evolution. But what happens if a lake is illuminated by artificial lighting at night, or if not enough light penetrates into the water during the day? These questions are examined during this year's summer experiment at the Lake Lab.