News Portal

Nature Sustainability has just published a review article on possible risks that COVID-19 viruses could cause in wastewater. Prof Eberhard Morgenroth (Head of the Eawag Department of Process Engineering) is a co-author of the review. We asked him five questions.

Using genomic analyses of 100 cichlid species, scientists from Eawag and the University Bern, together with co-workers in Australia, the UK, Tanzania, Uganda and the US, have investigated the striking variation observed in cichlid fish speciation rates. Their findings show that exchanges of genetic variants between existing species dramatically accelerate the development of new species – given favourable ecological conditions.

Blue-green algae are very common both in the water and on land. Sporadically, they occur in lakes on the surface in such large numbers that one speaks of a bloom. Because there are species that can produce toxic substances, many questions arise.

One of the heavy metals naturally present in soils is thallium. Since little is known about its environmental behaviour, a research group at Eawag has been studying this metal in detail.

The Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force has been mandated by various federal agencies to act as a national scientific advisory body in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current deputy head Martin Ackermann, head of Eawag’s Environmental Microbiology Division and ETH Professor of Ecology of Microbial Systems, will take over as head of the task force from 1 August 2020. 

In addition to ozonation, filters using granulated activated carbon (GAC) are increasingly being deployed to eliminate trace substances from municipal wastewater. Working in conjunction with authorities and representatives from the field, Eawag has developed a document that will assist stakeholders with planning in relation to such measures.

Biodiversity and thus the state of river ecosystems can now be predicted. To achieve this, researchers from the University of Zurich and Eawag (Aquatic Science and Technology) are combining environmental DNA with hydrological methods. Using the river Thur as an example, the approach allows identifying target areas for conservation and initiating protective measures.

Four young researchers from the department SWW received an “Early Postdoc.Mobility fellowship” from the SNSF to broaden their scientific profile abroad: Mariane Schneider, Lena Mutzner, Omar Wani and Matthews Moy de Vitry. The four have already worked together as a team during their doctorate and have published, among other things, a review for the future of water management.

The Verband zum Schutz des Greifensees (VGS) (Association for the Preservation of Lake Greifensee) elected its new Council of Delegates on 25 June 2020. In addition to representatives of all municipalities surrounding the lake, the committee also includes cantonal agencies, farmers, fishermen, sailors and – for the first time – a research representative, with the election of Eawag’s Piet Spaak as an aquatic ecologist.

Natural environments vary in space and time and are now drastically changing due to human activities. Environmental changes, like increasing acidity in a pond, can strongly affect the long-term prospects of species. Katja Räsänen from Eawag’s department Aquatic Ecology aims to understand how natural populations of the moor frog adapt to environmental change.

A new social-ecological approach allows complex relationships in ecosystem governance to be modelled as abstract but easily grasped networks.

Since spring 2018, the newly developed underwater camera Aquascope has been recording a wide variety of plankton species in Lake Greifen. These sensitive organisms can thus, for the first time, be observed undisturbed in their natural habitat – an important step towards automated monitoring of water quality and aquatic biodiversity.

Thanks to a new instrument, water pollutants can be measured automatically over a period of weeks – directly in the field, rather than in the laboratory. The mobile mass spectrometer is housed in a trailer and can be remotely controlled by smartphone.

If one observes the competition between parasites and symbionts, much can be learned about the theory of evolution. Two Eawag researchers have thus shown in a new study that high parasite diversity promotes symbiont diversity.