News

In the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference, scientific societies in the field of water research once again recommend that the high relevance of inland waters should be better taken into account in the context of climate policy. The scientific findings and data from IGB also prove this urgency.

After 25 years, the programme to reintroduce the European sturgeon into the Elbe and the Gironde is now bearing fruit – adult specimens have returned to the rivers for the first time this year. In an interview, IGB scientist Jörn Geßner tells of the obstacles encountered along the way, as well as more fortunate occurrences. And he explains why the task of reintroducing sturgeon into the North and Baltic Seas will continue to be difficult despite past successes.

If all the proposed dams were built, 19 percent of free-flowing rivers that are longer than 500 km and inhabited by freshwater megafauna will lose their free-flowing status. The study also finds that freshwater megafauna diversity is higher in future fragmented free-flowing rivers than in rivers that would remain free-flowing in the future or that are already fragmented.

Today, the topping-out wreath was raised on the shell of the new joint biodiversity building of IGB and the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB). Attended and celebrated by about 70 guests on the Dahlem research campus. Of course, everyone was proud of the new building and looking forward to the closer collaboration between IGB and FUB.

The populations of all reptile species and almost all amphibian species have declined over the past 120 years. Amphibians are particularly sensitive indicators of the state of our ecosystems. One of the Red List species experts is IGB researcher Matthias Stöck.

In the latest IGB Policy Brief on the occasion of the 2021 federal elections, scientists recommend that politicians take urgent measures to combat the massive decline in freshwater biodiversity and thus safeguard important ecosystem services.

If fish are hunted by birds, it is essential to their survival that they are able to recognise when they are in danger from avian predators. Juliane Lukas, Jens Krause and David Bierbach from IGB have investigated whether fish are able to differentiate between real danger and non-threatening events.

In two special issues of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, researchers provide a scientific overview.