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This study in Nature Climate Change shows how interactions between climate change and urbanisation affect biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics. The authors point out that the interactions between these two drivers of global change can have far-reaching effects, and how this knowledge can inform urban planning.

Oxygen is essential for most aquatic organisms. Chemical and biological processes, such as the ability to self-purify, are also dependent on oxygen. However, environmental changes and rising water temperatures are altering the oxygen content of lakes, ponds and pools. Oxygen concentrations in the deep layers of lakes are decreasing worldwide. In addition, oxygen depletion can lead to an increased release of greenhouse gases. IGB researchers are investigating the extent and consequences of this. In the process, they are also questioning some theories about the laws of lake ecology.

The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) has long been identified as a threatened species. In order to better understand its life cycle, long-term monitoring of the salmon population in Girnock, Scotland, a well-known freshwater habitat of this migratory fish species, was started around sixty years ago. The work is the most detailed long-term study of an Atlantic salmon population in the world. It revealed quantitative changes in the return rates, distribution, size, growth and age of salmon.

Although lots of rain has reached the ground, the groundwater has not yet returned to the state it was in before the dry year of 2018. Moreover, in 2023, a year with high precipitation, a particularly large amount of water evaporated due to high temperatures. So, no reason to sound the all-clear?

The IGB has provided research-based feedback on a draft legislation to regulate the reuse of municipal wastewater for agricultural irrigation.

Songjun Wu, a former doctoral student in Prof. Dörthe Tetzlaff's research group, has been awarded the 2024 Dissertation Prize of the German Hydrological Society. 

In an EU consultation, IGB researchers emphasise that the practical implementation of the Nitrates Directive has so far been inadequate.

A new study with IGB researchers Oleksandra Shumilova and Igor Ogashawara aims to advance the application of declassified satellite data in the fields of ecology and conservation. The team, led by the University of Freiburg, has analysed the spatial and temporal resolution of more than one million images: they cover the entire Earth and all seasons.