Introduction

The IGB research programme for 2005-2007 will focus on four key areas of study; environmental signalling, processes at aquatic interfaces, the adaptation, plasticity and dynamics of aquatic communities and the sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems. An interdisciplinary approach in each will unite the efforts of limnologists, hydrologists, chemists, microbiologists, fish ecologists, fish biologists and other specialists. In the same spirit, it is expected that researchers will collaborate across the boundaries of the four study areas. The IGB programme is unique in that it brings together pure and applied science for the benefit of both.

The basic research is organised according to the increasing scales of biological complexity from molecules to organisms and from species and communities up to the level of ecosystems. The four focus areas and their projects have been partially reorganised to incorporate new findings and to optimise interdisciplinary cooperation. Changes to the former programme are indicated within the single foci or projects, respectively.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Walz

Focus 1 Environmental signalling

Coordinator: Werner Kloas

The highly evolved sensitivity of signal receptors to exogenous chemical stimuli can make organisms vulnerable to natural compounds or man-made chemicals that mimic specific chemical cues or interfere with regular receptors. The programme will focus upon stimuli emitted by selected cyanobacterial secondary metabolites, biogeochemicals, and natural and man made endocrine disrupters, and their effects upon molecular modes of action, organisms, and ecosystems. Various aspects of signalling are considered as well as biotransformation processes, signal pathways via reactive oxygen species (ROS), receptor signal transduction, and gene expression in a range of aquatic organisms from cyanobacteria to aquatic vertebrates representing all compartments of a lake ecosystem We will study the manner by which aquatic organisms perceive and respond to both internal and external signals with changes in their cellular metabolism such as energy allocation, growth, development, reproduction, and behaviour. However, since many effects are phenomenological the major research effort will also elucidate corresponding modes of action.

Project 1.1 Natural compounds as triggers for oxidative stress

Coordinator: Stephan Pflugmacher

Project 1.2 Natural and man-made endocrine disruptors

Coordinator: Werner Kloas

Focus 2 Processes at interfaces

Coordinator: Gunnar Nützmann, Norbert Walz

In the glacially formed landscape of North-Eastern Germany, nutrients and energy are mutually transformed and transported at the interfaces between groundwater and sediment and between sediment and surface water. This raises the question as to how the amount and the velocities of these transformations underlie biological, chemical or physical processes. We will focus on quantifying the exchange processes at these interfaces to better understand the underlying mechanisms and to provide a foundation for better modelling. Project 2.1 will study the turbulent currents in rivers and lakes, which influence all processes at the interfaces between open water and the biota. Subsequent projects in this focus will examine processes occurring at specific interfaces: the exchange of ground and surface water through the sediment (Project 2.2), the biogeochemical transformations between sediment and surface water, especially their promotion by biological factors (Project 2.3), and the biological exchange between benthic structures and open water that determine the ecological status of shallow waters (Project 2.4).

Project 2.1 Hydrodynamic control of fluxes and biota

Coordinator: Christof Engelhardt

Project 2.2 Connectivity between ground and surface waters

Coordinator: Gunnar Nützmann

Project 2.3 Biogeochemical processes in microzones

Coordinator: Michael Hupfer

Focus 3 Adaptation, plasticity and dynamics of communities

Coordinator: Rainer Koschel

Focus 3 will build upon previous IGB investigations of such lowland ecosystems as the Müggelsee, Stechlinsee, Breiter Luzin, and the Rivers Spree and Oder. It will identify ecological and evolutionary, biologically-founded, optimisation strategies of speciation and of biodiversity, especially of adaptation, plasticity and dynamics of microorganisms, plankton and fish communities. This will lay a new theoretical foundation for the sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems and their respective organisms.

Project 3.1 will examine the structure and function of bacteria, methanogenic archaea, cyanobacteria, and algae; Project 3.2, of fish communities. Project 3.3 will address the sympatric speciation of fishes and Project 3.4 climate-induced, long-term changes in the phenology of plankton and subsequent complications in species interactions.

The former research topic "Top-Down Regulation of Planktonic Communities" has been modified and moved to the focus "Sustainable Management", as the results will be of interest to local water authorities for applied lake management strategies. The former project "Benthic-pelagic coupling" was transferred to Focus 2 where it will benefit from hydrodynamic studies for a better ecological understanding of bistable shallow systems

Project 3.1 Structuring of microbiota by biological interactions

Coordinators: Hans-Peter Grossart, Lothar Krienitz
(Rotation principle Peter Casper, Claudia Wiedner)

Project 3.2 Regulation of fish diversity in running waters

Coordinator: Frank Kirschbaum

Project 3.3 Ecological factors in speciation of fishes

Coordinator: Thomas Mehner

Focus 4 Sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems

Coordinator: Christian Wolter

This focus was established in 2000 to develop scientifically substantiated insights for adaptive and sustainable water and ecosystem management strategies in surface waters. Projects are primarily designed to facilitate ecological sustainability and to expand our knowledge of the structure and functioning of freshwater ecosystems. This is keeping with the statutory mission of the IGB, which includes to transfer the results of basic ecologic research into applied science.

Our first results include the development of in-lake restoration designs, assessment schemes for biological classifications of lakes and rivers, and a basic characterization of recreational fisheries as one of the major users of fisheries resources.

Current projects are being continued because 1) they are innovative, promising and at the forefront of science, 2) their results fall within and serve for the European Water Framework Directive (WFD), and 3) revitalisation efforts can only be assessed over the long term.

Integrative management options will be causally analysed and evaluated, such as reduction of external nutrient loading combined with in-lake ecological engineering, biodiversity conservation, and a conservation driven fisheries management to maximize stakeholder benefits and minimize environmental impacts. The response of freshwater systems to revitalization measures analysed and in-lake measures and river revitalizations will be used as large-scale scientific experiments to improve the ecosystem theory of degraded water systems and to promote the costs-by-cause principle in conservation. In urban waters, the ecological potential of heavily modified water bodies will be assessed to aid in the implementation of the WFD. Beyond 2007 we will attempt to integrate ecological and socio-economic studies to capture also the human dimensions in natural resource management. This work would be done in cooperation with social and economic research institutes and by expanding our own scientific expertise.

Project 4.1 Management of river systems

Coordinator: Martin Pusch

Project 4.2 Ecological engineering and lake ecosystem development

Coordinator: Peter Kasprzak, Rainer Koschel

Project 4.3 Inland fisheries

Coordinators: Bernhard Renner, Robert Arlinghaus

© IGB 6/24/2009