Eawag - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology - Eawag

To mark this year’s International Day for Biological Diversity on 22 May, professor Catherine Graham and professor Florian Altermatt explain in an interview why it is important in biodiversity research to look beyond systemic boundaries. The two scientists lead the joint research initiative “Blue-Green Biodiversity” between WSL and Eawag.

To protect ecosystems, it is important to understand how environmental disturbances, such as forest fires or hurricanes, affect nature. A study by Eawag and the University of Zurich now shows how their frequency and intensity affect small and large organisms. Accordingly, large species are more affected by disturbances than small species, and this influences the size distribution within ecological communities.

In order to increase the permeability of the rock for applications such as the use of geothermal energy, rock is artificially broken. Until now, there was a lack of methods to track this process in the field in real time. Thanks to a new technique, this gap can now be closed, as a study by Eawag and ETH Zurich shows.