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Microplastics are found in lakes and reservoirs around the world. Pollution reaches even the most secluded places where human influence is minimal. Moreover, concentrations of microplastics in freshwaters are sometimes higher than in subtropical gyres, the marine areas where large amounts of waste accumulate. These are the findings of an international study of 38 lakes and reservoirs led by the University of Milan-Bicocca in Italy, with the participation of IGB, and published in the journal Nature.

The IGB has commented on the draft National Biodiversity Strategy 2030 from a research perspective and is also making the analysis public here.

A team of behavioural ecologists from IGB and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) is investigating how animals hunt in groups. Animals in water hunt differently than animals on land, which is partly due to the different size ratio between predator and prey. One example is striped marlin, which belong to the billfish family. Motivation may play a greater role than dominance hierarchy during resource division, but the large fish get out-competed by sea lions when the two predators attack the same prey.

How does oxygen make fish larvae glow? How can hungry scavenger cells protect against diseases? And why does dirt in the water help fish grow better? Researchers utilize natural substances to breed sustainable and healthy food fish.

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.

The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) has elected Professor Dörthe Tetzlaff and eight other scientists as full members of the Academy during its committee meeting for Leibniz Day 2023. Alongside Professor Jens Krause, she is the second member from the IGB.

On 2 March 2023, an international team of researchers raised concerns about the impact of Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine's freshwater resources, water infrastructure and environment. Now, with the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on 6 June 2023, the worst feared scenario has become a reality. In a joint statement, Dr Oleksandra Shumilova of IGB and Professor Klement Tockner, Director of the Senckenberg – Leibniz Institution for Biodiversity and Earth System Research (SGN), stress the serious consequences of this ecological disaster.

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.