News Portal

In aquatic ecosystems, both mussels and macrophytes increase water clarity and generally help to prevent excessive algal growth. However, according to a study carried out at Eawag’s experimental pond facility, these stabilizing effects can be disrupted when the co‑occurrence of species gives rise to complex interactions.

Daphnia can adapt rapidly to changing environmental conditions. This was shown by a study carried out by scientists from Eawag and Cornell University in Oneida Lake (NY, US). This adaptation influences daphnia population density, thus affecting the entire lake food web.

Besides research and consultancy, teaching is the third major aspect of Eawag’s work. Around 140 master’s students are supervised every year at the Institute, some of whom are directly involved in research projects. This integration of teaching and learning, along with the flat hierarchies and Eawag’s interdisciplinary culture together create a unique environment that is greatly valued by students and supervisors alike, and which results again and again in outstanding master’s dissertations.

Rapid changes in the genome of two closely interlinked species cannot be explained only by processes such as evolutionary pressure. Equally important is the role played by ecological processes, for example the dynamics of population size. This has been shown for the first time experimentally by an international team of researchers under the direction of Eawag and the University of Konstanz with an alga and a virus. The study will be published today in the magazine Science Advances.

River sediment normally acts as a sink for hormones that are dissolved in the water. However, if they are disturbed, for instance when flooding occurs, these substances can end up back in the water column – with potentially negative consequences for the whole ecosystem.

New species can evolve rapidly after adapting to new niches, a process called ecological speciation. But mutations are rare, so how is such rapid ecological speciation possible? Recently evolved lake and stream ecotypes of stickleback from Lake Constance reveal an unexpected answer.

Implementation of the Montreal Protocol has successfully prevented depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer and associated increases in levels of UV-B radiation at the Earth’s surface. But many questions remain to be answered – for example, how does climate change affect the exposure of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to UV radiation? This is one of the questions discussed in a review article, co-authored by former Eawag scientist Barbara Sulzberger, which was recently published in Nature Sustainability.

Treating community wastewater takes a lot of energy. Eawag is currently supporting a project that not only presents an alternative to conventional treatment processes but is also designed to enabled increased throughput within a smaller amount of space.

Awareness of sustainable groundwater consumption is increasing in importance because of changing land use and climate change. As a result, the desire to better understand the natural and anthropogenic processes that have an influence on groundwater quality is growing.

The 3RCC award has been conferred on two Eawag researchers by the 3R Swiss Competence Centre (3RCC) for their outstanding research work. For the first time ever, the researchers managed to obtain ISO certification for a toxicity test using cultured fish gill cells, thanks to their project work in this area. This represents a milestone in the promotion of alternatives to animal experiments. The prize was awarded on September 2nd in Bern.

The energy strategy calls for a further expansion of hydropower. This puts pressure on Swiss water bodies and water landscapes. At today's Eawag Info Day, some 200 experts from practice, research and administration will discuss how the various interests in water can be met in a sustainable manner and where the competition between these interests calls for priorities to be set. The Eawag researchers will demonstrate that it is not only a question of technical solutions, but also of social acceptance, for example when measures in favour of water ecology lead to an increase in the price of electricity.

Amphipods are among the most important invertebrate organisms in water. They have central ecological functions, for example as food for fish or in the degradation of leaves. Nevertheless, surprisingly little is known about these animals, which are between a few millimetres and a few centimetres in size. And despite very different requirements, the species are hardly differentiated in water monitoring.

On 1 September 2019, Benoît Ferrari will take over as interim director of the Ecotox Centre. Benoît Ferrari is an expert on the ecotoxicity of sediments and has been group leader for sediment and soil ecotoxicology at the Ecotox Centre in Lausanne since 2013. The current director, Inge Werner, will remain with the Ecotox Centre on a part-time basis until 2021.

Not only women, but also most men, find that men more often walk right into a trap and are gender biased. More than twice as many women as men think that they are disadvantaged because of their sex. Likewise, almost twice as many women as men approve of a quota for women in academic positions. This is the result of an evaluation of a questionnaire published in the magazine Earth and Space Science.

Swiss groundwater contains numerous pesticide degradation products. This has been discovered by an extensive screening by Eawag and ETH Zurich. The transformation products (metabolites) originate predominantly from pesticides from agriculture.

The efforts for clean water are having an effect: According to the European Environment Agency, over 85 percent of bathing sites in European waters have excellent water quality.

Ebola is a deadly viral infection that has so far mainly been present in Central and West Africa. Many people in those regions are either unfamiliar with the disease, do not believe in it, or don’t know how to prevent infection. For this reason, UNICEF was active in The Gambia, West Africa, among other places, between 2014 and 2016, running information campaigns on how to prevent the spread of Ebola.

Phosphate supplies are limited and found in only a few countries. Mining and transport of this nutrient are costly. It is therefore becoming increasingly important that phosphorus be recovered and reused regionally, and Switzerland, with a functioning phosphorus recycling economy, can lead the way.

A team of ten female cyclists is currently undertaking the hardest ride of their lives, riding all stages of this year’s Tour de France route—albeit one day ahead of the men’s race. Amongst the cyclists is Sara Beck, a postdoc in the Environmental Microbiology department.

Without phosphorus there would be no life; however, the mineable quantities are limited. The element was first described 350 years ago. This week, some 200 experts are meeting in Zurich to discuss the future of phosphorus.

Swiss 3R Competence Centre (3RCC) to fund six projects worth CHF 1.2 million to advance the replacement, reduction and refinement of animal experiments.

When animals migrate into an ecosystem, the ecosystem turns into a temporary land of milk and honey for predators. But novel findings from a recent study on local fish migration patterns in northern Europe indicate that even when animals migrate out of an ecosystem, their absence has an effect on food webs.

The summer heat has reached Switzerland and cooling down in the lake certainly does no harm. On the website "Meteolakes" you can find out how refreshing a dip in Lake Zurich will be at the moment, the next hours and days.

A large metal box was buried in the foundation of Eawag's new Flux building in Dübendorf last Wednesday, 19 June.

For the first time ever, a toxicity test with cultured gill cell lines from fish has been ISO-certified. The test is used to determine the acute toxicity of water samples and chemicals to fish. This is an important milestone because there is a lack of recognised alternatives to experiments with live fish.