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  • Programme area:3) Dimensions of Complexity of Aquatic Systems
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How water storage dynamics in landscapes strengthen our ability to cope with extreme droughts

To address the growing challenges posed by extreme droughts, researchers are focusing on ecohydrological processes in landscapes. They show that a better understanding of water storage dynamics at medium scales, i.e. areas between 10 and 100 square kilometres, could help to better predict and secure the availability of water resources, even in times of climate change. We spoke to Professor Dörthe Tetzlaff about drought resilience, the hidden water treasures of our landscapes, and more sustainable land and water management.

press release

German lakes under climate change

Using long-term monitoring data from 46 German lakes, researchers from IGB have shown that surface temperatures of lakes have risen faster than air temperatures over the last 30 years. Ooxygen concentrations in the deep water have decreased. Modelling suggests that this trend will continue. The good news is that the lack of oxygen in the hypolimnion would be alleviated if the nutrient loads from urban and agricultural discharges could be reduced.

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Two years after the environmental disaster of the Oder

Researchers have compiled and analyzed the key environmental factors that led to the mass development of the brackish water alga Prymnesium parvum in the Oder in the summer of 2022. The data synthesis shows how multiple stressors combined to allow an alga that normally thrives in stagnant salt water to proliferate en masse in a completely atypical habitat. In addition, a study on the quantitative impact on fish stocks in the Oder was published: compared to before the disaster, fish and mussel stocks have been decimated by more than half.

press release

Desiccating salt lakes as a source of greenhouse gases

Desiccating salt lakes are an underappreciated source of greenhouse gases that could become even more relevant as a result of climate change. Newly announced research by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in the USA in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) examining greenhouse gas emissions from the drying lake bed of Great Salt Lake, Utah, calculates that 4.1 million tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were released in 2020.