Selected publications

The authors commented on a study (van Klink et al. 2020) on trends in insect biomass and abundance, and argue why they consider the data collected for freshwater to be non-representative and why the results shown there should not be considered indicative of an overall improvement in the condition of freshwater ecosystems.

An international team including Jonathan Jeschke provide the first global quantitative projections of future trajectories of alien species numbers. Based on a new model and assuming a business-as-usual scenario, they project that the number of alien species will increase by 36% until 2050 worldwide and by 64% in Europe.

The study addresses the question of whether size-selective fishing can alter the behaviour as well as the chronotype from an evolutionary perspective. Zebrafish adapting to size selection changed their risk-taking behaviour and showed molecular changes in the circadian system, but these were only expressed in subtle adjustments of diurnal behaviour.

The authors compared 2 approaches to monitor mosquitoes in Germany: professional trapping vs citizen science. They show that these approaches are complementary. While systematically placed traps allow to better map mosquito diversity, the citizen-science approach of the Mückenatlas project allows to easily detect invasive species and provides otherwise unavailable data from private premises.

The authors suggest that lunar illuminated fraction should, in general, never be used in biological studies, as alternative variables such as horizontal illuminance better represent moonlight exposure, and therefore offer a greater chance of detecting the effects of moonlight. They provide a brief explanation of how moonlight varies with season and time of night.

The literature on global trends in recreational fishing, the determinants of participation and its social embedding in the public eye are reviewed across the world. In western countries, a sustained shift in public values from anthropocentric to more biocentric viewpoints is documented. This shift elevates biodiversity conservation toward a key goal of contemporary fisheries management.

A mosquito monitoring programme was initiated in Germany in 2011, which has been complemented by the citizen science project ‘Mückenatlas’ since 2012. The authors analysed the Mückenatlas dataset to investigate causes of variation in submission numbers and to reveal biases induced by opportunistic data collection.

The vertical flux of marine snow reduces atmospheric CO2. In particular, particle associated prokaryotes are responsible for organic C-loss. Analysis of prokaryotic heterotrophic production a. species richness in the North Atlantic reveal that C- loss a. associated microbial richness are different with particle fractions. Especially large, fast-sinking particles drive C-flux a. -sequestration.