Dipl.-Biol. Matthias Emmrich

IGB, Dept.4,
Biology and Ecology of Fishes 
12587 Berlin, Müggelseedamm 310

Fields of Interests:

Structure of lake fish communities

Tel: (030) 64 181 609
Fax: (030) 64 181 750

emmrich@igb-berlin.de

Topic of Diploma Thesis: Seasonal differences in diet spectra of cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) of Lake Dümmer

Length variability and functional composition of lake fish stocks as possible indicators of ecological integrity

Sub project within the EU-project WISER (Water bodies in Europe: Integrative systems to assess ecological status and recovery)

(In collaboration with Thomas Mehner)

Despite intensive studies and discussions an ecological integrity assessment of fish stocks using structural biodiversity parameters has been proved to be less successful. This is valid at least for most European lakes.

Within this work I am going to focus on how far differences in size spectra of lake fish communities could be used as significant indicators accounting for ecological integrity and indicating anthropogenic stressors and interspecific interactions.

Several studies on marine ecosystems pointed out that size based indicators are a suitable approach to evaluate e.g. the impact of fisheries. So far such an approach has been rarely transferred to freshwater ecosystems so that less is known of the valuation relevance of size spectra differences within the freshwater fish fauna.

Alternatively we enhance the functional characterisation of fish communities to develop schemata independently of the precise local or regional fish fauna, which should provide an assessment of the ecological status of lakes using the fish fauna

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