Archive News

November 26, 2015When the biodiversity of an ecosystem is reduced by invasive species, competition for food plays a more important role than has previously been supposed. This was the conclusion of research conducted by Eawag and Bern University scientists on cichlid species in Lake Victoria, which suffered mass extinction following the introduction of the fish-eating Nile perch in the 1950s.

November 24, 2015According to a new international study – in which Eawag scientists played a leading role – the global climate shifted to a warmer state in the late 1980s. The research also indicates that the cooling initially caused by the eruption of El Chichón was followed by a rapid rebound in global temperatures.

October 12, 2015Since it was founded in 2004, the Swiss Fisheries Advisory Service, Fiber, has established itself as an important interface between research and practice. Fiber is jointly funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag).

September 30, 2015In collaboration with Griffith University in Australia, an Eawag research group has succeeded in developing humpback whale cell cultures in the laboratory.

September 17, 2015After alewife migration had been blocked by the damming of rivers in the Northeastern US, not only did new types of alewife emerge in coastal lakes but a distinct form of pickerel evolved which is specialized for alewife predation.

June 30, 2015The Society for the Study of Evolution has awarded the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize to Catherine Wagner, from the Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution.

June 25, 2015When recreational boats are transported overland, they are often accompanied by zebra mussels, attached to the hull. This alien species, which first appeared in Switzerland in 1960, can thus invade other natural waters.

June 23, 2015The creation of gravel islands can contribute to the success of river restoration projects, as these structures have positive effects on exchanges between groundwater and surface water.

April 22, 2015Today, invasive animals and plants spread all around the globe. Predicting the dynamics of these invasions is of great ecological and socio-economical interest. Yet studying them is fundamentally challenging because of the large spatial and temporal scales involved. Scientists at Eawag and University of Zurich are now using computer simulations and small artificial laboratory worlds, to study how rapid evolution makes invaders spread even faster.

April 21, 2015Biodiversity in Switzerland has continued to decline sharply in recent decades, and this trend is persisting. This is the result of an analysis by 35 scientific institutions all over Switzerland. Experts spoke today at the Zurich Zoo and the Neuchâtel Natural History Museum about their findings.