Department Aquatic Ecology

Current Projects

A multi phase research program by Eawag and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN)
Together with climate change, biodiversity loss is the most pressing environmental crisis of our time. The "Translational Centre Biodiversity Conservation" bundles knowledge and makes it generally available. In collaboration with key Swiss stakeholders, the Centre identifies topics for knowledge exchange, translation, and synthesis, and communicates and distributes the resulting synthesis products.
Why do toxic cyanobacteria bloom? A gene to ecosystem approach...
An Eawag-WSL collaboration focusing on Biodiversity at the interface of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
This project contributes to the Blue Green Biodiversity Research Initiative – an Eawag-WSL collaboration focusing on Biodiversity at the interface of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
This project contributes to the Blue Green Biodiversity Research Initiative – an Eawag-WSL collaboration focusing on Biodiversity at the interface of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
The architecture of community structure, functional traits and trophic networks across blue-green ecosystems
Laboratory experiments under controlled chemostat conditions have indicated that evolution of algal populations can occur on ecological time-scales and can significantly alter community dynamics and ecosystem ...
Assess the distribution and genetic structure of all amphipod species in Switzerland.
Understanding how facultative endosymbiotic bacteria that increase host resistance shape coevolution between aphid hosts and their hymenopteran parasitoids.
Developing tools and protocols on how to use novel eDNA technology in the context of biodiversity monitoring in riverine ecosystems.
Studying dispersal processes and diversity patterns in dendritic networks, using a wider range of approaches, including simulation models, protist microcosm experiments and field studies.

Biodiversity and dispersal in dendritic networks

Identification of transformation products and assessment of environmental relevance
An ecological longterm study of the Spöl River, Swiss National Park, to experimental high flows since 1999, including redd counts of brown trout, macroinvertebrates, periphyton and water physico-chemistry at periodic times during each year.
Population genetics approaches to investigate how the massive level of habitat fragmentation affects population connectivity of crayfish, and if technical countermeasures effectively mitigate the negative effects of fragmentation.
Combining innovative approaches to phytoplankton and lake-ecosystem monitoring with community and ecosystem theory to to understand ...

Linking small-scale phytoplankton dynamics to aquatic ecosystems ...

New tools to monitor changes in ecosystem conditions and to quantify genetic changes of populations in (semi-)natural environments to predict how human mediated environmental change will influence stability and resilience of ecosystems.
Understanding and measuring how flow intermittency drives biodiversity and river functions in an alpine environment
This Interreg project aims to understand the responses of Lake Constance to changing environmental conditions.
In an outdoor replicated whole-pond experiment, we aim to understand the relative contributions of ecological species turnover and evolutionary adaptation in phytoplankton communities
A project for the development of a quagga mussel monitoring concept mussel monitoring concept and the support of preventative and protective measures in Switzerland.