📣New Paper Published: “Antarctic phytoplankton and krill diet, 1955–1963” A new study analyzes phytoplankton communities and Antarctic krill diet from 1955–1963, offering a rare baseline for Southern Ocean ecosystem conditions before major climate-warming changes. 🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S095...

Congrats to Anthony Basooma on successfully defending his PhD, “Modeling biodiversity patterns and network connectivity in European streams, rivers & deltas,” supervised by Thomas Hein. Wishing you all the best in your next steps! 🎉

New npj Biodiversity paper: ecological thresholds for stream‑fish management 💧. Mapped vulnerability across ~1.73M reaches in the US+Europe and built a Decision Support System combining thresholds with protected‑area coverage to target conservation vs restoration. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

New: HydroPlan‑CA—a web Decision Support System, developed by Jan De Keyser & BOKU University—for smarter hydropower planning in Central Asia💧 This tool integrates hydrological, technical & environmental data in an interactive GIS. Open access, no install. 🔗Explore more: hydro4u.eu/sites-soluti...

New study: Reconnecting the Johler Arm (Danube, Austria) turned a sidearm from lentic to year‑round lotic, lowered chl‑a & zooplankton, and re‑wired food webs—less detritus, more periphyton/biofilm—benefiting fish and habitat renewal. doi.org/10.1111/rec....

#DANSERProject General Assembly last week, hosted by Univ. of Zagreb at FAZOS (Osijek). We began with a field trip of site visits, then reviewed 18 months of progress. Focus: restoring the Danube’s sediment balance for a sustainable basin future. 🌱💧

New in Global Ecology & Conservation: a Delphi survey on European eel conservation 🐟 Priorities: EU‑wide recruitment monitoring, removing migration barriers to reopen habitats, and improving habitat quality. Findings guide evidence‑based action. 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New data paper: Danube Fish Database 🐟 Unified, open fish‑occurrence data from agencies, NGOs, GBIF, JDS, EFI, and national programs. 133,131 records, 114 spp., 1856–2024. Supports conservation, invasive‑species tracking, and climate analyses. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Colleagues from our BIGER working group presented at ASLO–SIL Congress 2026 (Montreal): -Meta‑ecosystem views on river restoration (Upper Danube) -Floodplain connectivity & ecosystem services -GHG fluxes from springs→streams (East Africa) -Floodplain GHG patterns 🔗 www.aslo.org/aslo-sil-2026/

📢New paper: Drivers of stream metabolism in Uganda’s tropical highland headwaters. GPP is light‑limited; ER rises with stream size and nutrient‑rich sediments. TSS is the key control of net heterotrophy. Heavier rains may boost sediment loads and anthropogenic impacts 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ca...

New paper (Ecohydrology): Hydropeaking lowers young-of-the-year (YOY) brown trout and grayling in Alpine rivers. Key drivers: sub‑daily flow fluctuations, event frequency, and down‑ramping. Management should be oriented to reduce down‑ramping and events during YOY emergence. doi.org/10.1002/eco....

Excited to announce the art exhibition "Parliament of Streams" by Carlos Monleón with CDL MERI & BIGER team, at das weisse haus in Vienna from the 17 Apr–13 Jun. This is an immersive audio visual instalation on the Danube ecosystems, from field to lab work. 🔗 dasweissehaus.at/en/exhibitio...

Parliament of Streams

Solo Exhibition by Carlos Monleón  curated by Anne Faucheret Duration: 17.04. – 13.06.2026  Location: DAS WEISSE HAUS, souterraine Address: Hegelgasse 14, 1010 Vienna, Austria Opening: Thursday, April...

dasweissehaus.at

Excited to announce the art exhibition "Parliament of Streams" by Carlos Monleón with CDL MERI & BIGER team, at das weisse haus in Vienna from the 17 Apr–13 Jun. This is an immersive audio visual instalation on the Danube ecosystems, from field to lab work. 🔗 dasweissehaus.at/en/exhibitio...

Parliament of Streams

Solo Exhibition by Carlos Monleón  curated by Anne Faucheret Duration: 17.04. – 13.06.2026  Location: DAS WEISSE HAUS, souterraine Address: Hegelgasse 14, 1010 Vienna, Austria Opening: Thursday, April...

dasweissehaus.at

By 2050, Central Asia’s electricity demand may double. Our study maps sustainable hydropower potential with integrated ecological + geohazard criteria with a transparent workflow using public geodata—baseline for responsible development doi.org/10.1016/j.ap...

Welcome to our new colleague MSc. Mackarena Coronado! In her PhD, she will study how aquatic macrophytes buffer temperature and affect ecosystem functioning in lowland rivers under climate change 🌱💧

Happy to share our new paper on restoring free‑flowing rivers in Europe: expert input from 45 countries identified 27 priorities. Priorities shift by focus (ecology, community, economics, governance). Framework links barrier removal, connectivity, governance and policy🌍 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s432...

HyPeak webinar: Hydropeaking & benthic algae. Elisabeth Bondar‑Kunze on disturbance effects on stream periphyton/algal communities; plus María Dolores Bejarano Carrión on impacts on riverine plants (individuals→ecosystems). 🔗Register: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

🌍 Call for papers: Microbial Drivers of Aquatic OM Degradation & Carbon Cycling. Seeking original high-quality research and reviews on microbial processes in aquatic systems. Please consider contributing or sharing within your networks! 🔗 www.frontiersin.org/research-top...

New paper: “Waves Under Control?”🌊 Ship-induced waves erode shores and reduce biodiversity. This meta-analysis shows mitigation must be ecosystem-specific; combining breakwaters with shoreline complexity is promising across trophic levels in rivers, lakes, and estuaries 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/fwb....

New paper out: Lateral hydrological connectivity (between rivers & floodplains) shapes the relative abundance of water frogs and common toads, shown via eDNA. Species respond indirectly and differently to connectivity, guiding wetland restoration and conservation💧🐸 🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s107...

Ronald Pöppl presents at IAG Conference in New Zealand. He shares new insights on sediment restoration in the Austrian Danube. Key advances of the DANSER project: historical evolution, sediment transport, and landscape modeling build evidence for sustainable river management. More: danserproject.eu

Excited to share our new paper about water quality in Kampala’s Lubigi wetland. Stormwater/sewage overloads wetland’s treatment capacity, causing persistent microbial contamination. Wetlands are vital buffers, but robust infrastructure and source control are essential. 🔗 doi.org/10.2166/wash...

New paper out: This well-timed paper provides a European-scale framework integrating Habitats Directive + WFD indicators, using Bayesian Networks to identify restoration opportunities and spatial targets aligned with the Nature Restoration Regulation aims. 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.wa...

Exciting news for 2026! New paper out: River–floodplain metacommunities as complex networks 🔗 doi.org/10.1002/edn3... Connectivity matters: A Bayesian multilayer analysis shows how movement, interactions, and environment shape biodiversity, incl. top predators and invasive species 🌍💧

River‐Floodplain Metacommunities as Complex Networks: The Interplay of Species Interactions, Dispersal, and Environment

A network-based framework reveals how species interactions, environmental conditions, and dispersal shape heterogeneous river-floodplain metacommunities. Using spatiotemporal eDNA data, Bayesian netw...

doi.org

New in Microbial Ecology: A model–data fusion study shows how human impacts shape bacterioplankton in Taihu Lake river networks across the rainy season, integrating MIKE11 water-level simulations. By Zhao, Hein & Wang— the study provides insights for ecosystem health assessments

Last week our team held its annual retreat at Kalkalpen National Park. We shared project updates, exchanged ideas, and explored new collaborations—then enjoyed the winter wonderland outdoors. Feeling inspired and recharged! ❄️🌲

🎉 New Article Published! Excited to share ‘specleanr': an R package for flagging environmental outliers in ecological data. With 20 detection methods, it offers a user-friendly, reproducible tool for biogeographical modeling and data analysis. 🔗 Read more: doi.org/10.1002/ecog...

🎉Great news to end the week! Congrats to Nadija Čehajić on defending her Master’s thesis "Spatial patterns of greenhouse gas emissions in a floodplain system". Supervised by T. Hein, E. Bondar-Kunze & A. K. Sieczko, this work offers key insights into greenhouse gas dynamics in floodplains.

🚀More exciting news! Our new paper, "Introducing fwtraits – an R package for freshwater biodiversity traits," is out! Anthony Basooma & co-authors present fwtraits, a tool for accessing standardized ecological data for freshwater species via freshwaterecology.info doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...

🌟Exciting news! Our article "The dynamics of linked social–ecological action situations reveal governance changes in the Austrian Danube" is out! We analyze the shift in Donau-Auen National Park governance- from top-down to polycentric and participatory. 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.je...