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The UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) has emphasized again how important the protection of biodiversity is for us humans. One goal of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is to maintain and restore the "functions and services of ecosystems". An international research team led by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Climate Adaptation Science Centers and IGB has worked out which ecosystem services most depend on biodiversity in freshwater. It‘s more than just the edible fish and recreational that you might expect and they are all at risk.

IGB has reported the presence of the invasive bloody-red mysid (Hemimysis anomala) for the first time during recent surveys in Lake Stechlin. The current state of research shows that Hemimysis can enter the waters via a variety of introduction pathways, for example via water ways, water birds or water sports equipment. The extent of the distribution and the consequences for the lake‘s ecosystem cannot yet be estimated, but are being further investigated by IGB.

Microorganisms help to keep the water of lakes clean. In the process, they also detoxify the nitrogen compound ammonium, which is introduced into water bodies by fertilizers, for example, and is also produced naturally by metabolic processes. An international team led by the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ) with IGB researchers Hans-Peter Grossart and Danny Ionescu has now shown that this detoxification of ammonium in the depths of European lakes is only sustained by an extremely small number of specific archaebacteria species.

IGB has provided feedback on the government draft of the National Water Strategy, emphasising, among other things, the relevance of aquatic biodiversity and the large practical implementation deficit in water management.

No life has yet been found on Mars, but it is exciting to explore under what circumstances it might be possible. A team has studied the cellular processes that regulate the adaptation of microorganisms to perchlorates. If microorganisms could genetically adapt their stress response to this salt, which occurs in some deserts and on Mars, their survival on the red planet would be possible.

Today, the second part of the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) starts in Montreal. In previous negotiations, inland waters have not been given sufficient consideration – even though they harbour a particularly high biodiversity and provide vital ecosystem services for humans. IGB scientists researching freshwater biodiversity provide an overview of this often overlooked topic.

Researchers from IGB and the Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU) in Poznań (Poland) tested whether water fleas (Daphnia) are more frequently infected by the parasite Caullerya mesnili in warmer waters. For the infected water fleas, the disease usually ends fatally.

Long thought to rely solely on photosynthesis, the microbe Prochlorococcus may get as much as one-third of its carbon through a second strategy: consuming the dissolved remains of other dead microbes.