Daumenreplantation - Klinische Ergebnisse und Wirtschaftlichkeit

Michael Phillips' Airwolf Super Star - SS4 - photographed October 2001

Use of invertebrate traits for the Biomonitoring of European large rivers : the effects of sampling effort on genus richness and functional diversity

International audienc

Establishing (e)DNA-Methods for Governmental Biomonitoring Efforts and Ecological Assessment in German Federal Waterways

The German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG, for its acronym in German) is the nationwide advising departmental research institution regarding hydrology, water use and quality, ecology and water protection of the German Federal Waterways that comprise inland waterways as well as marine coastal waters. The Federal Waterways of Germany are important habitats and distribution corridors for aquatic biodiversity. However, the ecology of these large rivers is heavily impacted by shipping, hydromorphological alterations, chemical pollution and the distribution and establishment of invasive species. All these factors have led to a decline of native biodiversity and ecological status. Since the 1970s, tremendous efforts have been undertaken to restore water quality and biodiversity. Continuous monitoring and assessment of both chemical components and biological quality elements (BQEs) required by law should indicate the success or failure of restoration measures as well as ongoing and future ecological consequences of multiple stakeholders’ interests and demands. Standardized ecological assessment procedures are already in place for both rivers and streams. However, these widely used procedures have several shortcomings and require a high level of taxonomic competence, which is being lost at an increasing rate. DNA and environmental DNA (eDNA)-based methods, such as DNA barcoding and (e)DNA metabarcoding, are promising alternatives to overcome the impediments to the morphology-based identification of organisms. But, these new methods need to be tailored to the challenges of large river bioassessment. The implementation of such state-of-the-art methods for future biomonitoring and ecological assessment efforts in large rivers should therefore ultimately serve the legal requirements regarding the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and promote the application of (e)DNA methods from basic and applied research to water managers and regulatory authorities. Here we present the goals and approaches of our ongoing project that are 1) to create standard operation procedures (SOPs) for (e)DNA analyses for large rivers and 2) update or establish new methods for biodiversity assessment and biomonitoring (e.g. presence-absence analyses) of the federal waterways; and 3) to transfer the gained knowledge to water managers and practitioners. To accomplish these goals, the focus of our research relies on the BQEs fish and macrozoobenthos (led by Saskia Schmidt), as well as phytobenthos and phytoplankton (led by Demetrio Mora)

Simulating the spread and establishment of alien species along aquatic and terrestrial transport networks: A multi-pathway and high-resolution approach

The introduction and further spread of many alien species have been a result of trade and transport. Consequently, alien species are often found close to traffic infrastructure and urban areas. To contain and manage the spread of alien species, it is essential to identify and predict major routes of spread, which cannot be obtained by applying common modelling approaches such as species distribution models. Here, we present a new model called CASPIAN to simulate the dispersal of alien species along traffic infrastructure and the establishment of populations along these routes. The model simulates simultaneous spread of species of up to eight different modes of transport along roads, railways and waterways. We calibrated and validated the model using two species that spread within Germany as case studies: the terrestrial plant Senecio inaequidens and the freshwater clam Corbicula fluminea, and performed a shortest path analysis to quantify the relative importance of individual routes for spread. The application of the model yielded detailed predictions of dispersal and establishment for >600,000 segments of the traffic network throughout Germany. Once calibrated, the model captured the general spread dynamics of the two species with higher accuracy for the freshwater environment due to the higher quality of data available for the aquatic species. The quantification of spread routes using the shortest path analysis revealed a clear backbone of major routes of spread, which varied depending on the type of traffic network and the starting points considered. Major routes of spread aligned with high traffic intensities, but high traffic per se did not necessarily result in high spread intensities. Synthesis and application. By simulating the spreading dynamics of alien species along transport networks across multiple pathways, CASPIAN enables the identification of major spread routes along different dispersal pathways and quantification of their relative importance, which helps prioritising pathways of introduction as required by international biodiversity goals such as the CBD Aichi targets.We thank the “BMVI Network of Experts” of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) of Germany for funding through the Federal Railway Authority of Germany (project number 2017-U-10-1210). We thank for their valuable input: Marion Leiblein-Wild (Federal Railway Authority, Germany); Katja Broeg, Nicole Heibeck, Mariusz Zabrocki (Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany); Daniel Esser, Andreas Sundermeier (German Federal Institute of Hydrology) and Pia Bartels (Federal Highway Research Institute of Germany). Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL

Invertebrate traits for the biomonitoring of large European rivers: an initial assessment of alternative metrics

International audienc