News

Researchers at IGB have used long-term data from the Spree River to discover that aquatic plants can compensate for declining water levels in a drier climate. In recent summers, the growth of aquatic plants in the lower part of the Spree has led to an increase in water levels of around 50 to 60 centimetres compared to previous years, thus compensating for the declining discharge. 

Charophytes are extremely beneficial to lakes, improving water quality and biodiversity. However, their abundance was found to decline in many lakes  without clear signs of eutrophication during recent decades. Today, a team from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin and the Feldberg-Uckermärkische Seenlandschaft association (FFUS) published recommendations for practitioners on the reintroduction of charophytes.

Since January 2026, Prof. Michael Hupfer has taken over as president of the German Society for Limnology (DGL). The DGL is one of the most important national professional associations for research on inland waters and water management. In this interview, Prof. Hupfer talks about his plans for his new role and explains why transdisciplinary professional societies are so important today.

Researchers at IGB have simulated how summer storms change the ecology of deep, clear lakes in the “LakeLab” at Lake Stechlin. They artificially generated a storm in the LakeLab enclosures, which mixed the water column. This brought nutrients, inorganic carbon, and algae from deeper layers to the surface, triggering a mass development of cyanobacteria—known as blue-green algae blooms.

IGB scientist Dr Oleksandra Shumilova was honored with the Caroline von Humboldt Award today. The award, which is endowed with 15,000 euros, is given annually to an excellent female postdoctoral researcher from Germany or abroad as a distinction for her scientific achievements and successes to date and serves to support a research stay at HU Berlin.

A research team from IGB has analysed the zooplankton communities in the White Nile and Blue Nil in Khartoum. It is the first study of plankton in the Sudan Nile since the 1980s and provides an important baseline for monitoring of the river‘s biodiversity in the face of ongoing hydropower dam construction.

A new IGB dossier describes the changes in Brandenburg's landscape water balance and outlines options for action in agriculture, forestry and water management.

Professor Chris Soulsby, researcher at the University of Aberdeen and guest scientist from IGB's Landscape Ecohydrology research group, was awarded the Langbein Lecture of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for his lifetime contributions to the science of hydrology.