Aquatic Ecosystem Services and Sustainability
Freshwater habitats and wetlands are among the most important ecosystems on Earth because they provide important ecosystem services to our societies. These include, for example, drinking water supply, flood prevention, inland fisheries, transport and recreation. The importance of inland waters for humans should lead to their protection. But indeed, intensive use and the fact that many wetlands are linked to fertile soils put a high pressure on many freshwater ecosystems.
In the programme area “Aquatic Ecosystem Services and Sustainability”, IGB is investigating ecosystem services of freshwater habitats and how they can be managed and restored. Important goals are to understand the mechanisms providing resilience to freshwater ecosystems and to elaborate nature-based solutions that support the multiple functions of freshwaters. Production, regulating and cultural services of freshwater ecosystems, the processes that support them, and their threats will be studied. Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture are an important dimension of this programme area.
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October 2023
Biogeochemistry. - XX(2023), XX
Mapping and monitoring peatland conditions from global to field scale
This paper reviews the current state of knowledge on mapping and monitoring peatlands from field sites to the globe and identifies areas where further research is needed. Simple peat characteristics such as degree of humification, dry bulk density or stoichiometry can be used as a proxy to estimate the carbon and nutrient fluxes in different degraded peatlands.
October 2023
Methods in Ecology and Evolution. - 14(2023)10, S. 2514-2530
Positioning aquatic animals with acoustic transmitters
The paper offers an introduction to novel methods of high-resolution positional telemetry that provide guidance to practioners. It presents a summary of all techniques for fine-scale positioning of the movements of fish.
June 2023
Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries. - 33(2023), 1095–1111
Global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by recreational anglers: considerations for developing more resilient and sustainable fisheries
The study investigated the impact of COVID on recreational fisheries across the globe.The authors found COVID to increase local recreational fisheries participation but to reduce touristic recreational fisheries where travel restrictions were in place.
June 2023
Journal of Environmental Management. - 342(2023), Art. 118298
Socio-economic or environmental benefits from pondscapes? Deriving stakeholder preferences using analytic hierarchy process and compositional data analysis
The authors studied the needs and knowledge of stakeholders who own, work, research, or benefit from pondscapes in 8 countries. Using the analytic hierarchy process, this study shows that in general stakeholders in the European and Turkish demo-sites prefer environmental benefits, while stakeholders in the Uruguayan demo-sites rank the economic benefits higher.
March 2023
Science. - 379(2023)6635, Seiten 946-951
Ecosystem-based management outperforms species-focused stocking for enhancing fish populations
In a large-scale effort, a research team in cooperation with angling clubs, has conducted whole-lake experiments in 20 lakes to improve ecological conditions. Habitat improvements were the most effective means to enhance fish populations, whereas fish stocking completely failed. The study emphasizes the importance of restoring habitats and improving natural ecosystem processes.
