Monitoring and interpreting aquatic biodiversity change under multiple stressors
Abstract: Freshwater ecosystems are among the most sensitive sentinels of global change, yet the consequences of multiple, potentially interacting stressors on aquatic biodiversity remain insufficiently understood despite increasing research initiatives. Beyond documenting biodiversity loss, key open questions concern the functional implications of change - from genes to ecosystems - and whether past stressor exposure leaves an evolutionary legacy that constrains future recovery potential. In this talk, I present how combining innovative experimental approaches and repositories (ExStream and Environmental Specimen Bank) with novel molecular (eDNA and omics) and analytical (e.g. machine learning) methods enables biodiversity assessment across large spatial scales at unprecedented taxonomic and genetic resolution. I will show how these tools sharpen our understanding of stressor–response relationships and recovery dynamics, drawing on results from the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre 1439 RESIST and the UBA-funded TrendDNA project, which analyses long-term archived samples from German river basins to reconstruct biodiversity trajectories over decadal timescales. Together, these complementary approaches - controlled experiments informing field-scale patterns, molecular tools resolving molecular diversity and functional responses - offer a path toward more mechanistic, predictive frameworks for aquatic biomonitoring under ongoing global change. Turning this potential into actionable science demands continued integration across institutions, disciplines, infrastructures, and ultimately policy interfaces.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Florian Leese, University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE)
IGB Colloquia open up!
IGB strives to facilitate and accelerate the exchange of knowledge and ideas within and also outside of IGB. One element contributing to inter- and transdisciplinary exchange, and more (scientific) cooperation and innovation, is to open up IGB Colloquia to an interested external audience from science (other research institutes, universities, laboratories) as well as practice (i.e. conservationists, freshwater/land-use managers, authorities, associations). If you would like to join this IGB Colloquium as a guest, we ask you to register until the morning of the colloquium 10 o'clock the latest. After we have checked your registration, you will receive the participation link.
