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Ulrike Berninger, Professor of Ecology at the University of Salzburg in Austria, has long been interested in mixotrophic plankton. This refers to the small organisms floating in water that combine the properties of both zooplankton and phytoplankton. Depending on the environmental situation or individual requirements, these unicellular organisms can either take up food particles via phagocytosis or carry out photosynthesis using sunlight.

Fish are an important element in the food web of lakes. This also applies to the experimental enclosures of the LakeLab. However, in this case, the number of fish must be controlled so that the results from the individual cylinders can be compared with each other. Because fish from the lake repeatedly jump into the enclosures, all fish must first be removed with nets from the cylinders before starting a new experiment. Today, 5 small perch were released into each enclosure for this year's LakeLab experiment.

As energy supplier and stimulus of the internal clock, light is of fundamental importance to plants and animals. This also applies to fish and microscopic organisms in lakes. Like other species, they have adapted to the day-night rhythm during evolution. But what happens if a lake is illuminated by artificial lighting at night, or if not enough light penetrates into the water during the day? These questions are examined during this year's summer experiment at the Lake Lab.

Throughout the LakeLab experiment 2016 samples are regularly taken during day and night. For example, the team of IGB scientist Gabriel Singer gets out once a week shortly before dawn. They focus on aquatic bacteria which are responsible for the decomposition of organic material.

After returning from his postdoctoral residency at the University of Brisbane in Australia,  Andreas Jechow visited by chance the Lake Stechlin Information Center in 2012. There he saw a scale model of the LakeLab and was immediately fascinated by the research platform and the concept behind it. Now, three years later he is part of the LakeLab team and studies the light regimes in the mesocosms.