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A team of authors has been awarded the BWK Publication Prize for their research into the ecological impact of hydropower plants. The paper, published in the journal WASSER UND ABFALL, provides a comprehensive analysis of how hydropower plants affect the hydromorphology and ecological condition of German streams and rivers, thereby counteracting efforts to revitalise them.

By choosing the right food, you can do a lot for your own health – and also contribute to more or less environmentally friendly consumption. This also applies to fish and their food. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) are working on feed for aquaculture and aquaponics. Their aim is to optimise the nutrition of fish and at the same time protect the environment.  

The evaluation of different management approaches for macrophytes showed that the "do nothing" option can also be considered when dealing with aquatic plants. According to the study, mass developments of aquatic plants primarily impair the recreational value of a water body, while they are often beneficial for other ecosystem services

A team of scientists collected and analysed water samples at the time. The result, published in Nature Water today, showed that high concentrations of organic micropollutants exacerbated the lethal effects of prymnesin. 

Conservation efforts have led to the recovery of pinnipeds populations worldwide after decades of intensive hunting and culls. However, this positive development has led to conflicts with fisheries, particularly small-scale fisheries, researchers have found.

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.

Buying fish, sausage or meat saves you from breaking a social taboo in some industrialized nations, especially when hunting and fishing are conducted for recreation. In a perspective article in Nature Sustainability, a research team from the natural and social sciences and environmental philosophy adds a new perspective to the topic of "recreational use of wild animals". The hypothesis is that an emotionally intense interaction between hunters or anglers and wild animals can create a particularly strong sense of responsibility,

When the weather is nice, it is time to go swimming in a lake, canoeing on a river or having a picnic by the water. The Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) shares do's and don'ts for environmentally friendly water fun – including some that are not so obvious.