Projects

PREDATOR

May 2024 till March 2027

The goal of the PREDATOR project is to understand the impact of recreational fishing pressure on the behavior of natural fish populations. The project involves conducting experiments at the whole-ecosystem (lake) level by integrating experimental angling with behavioral assessments, including whole-ecosystem scale telemetry system. Fishing pressure is varied using a simulated no-take protected area installed in the natural lake. The target species are northern pike (Esox lucius) and Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis), which represent two of the most popular predatory fish species targeted by recreational anglers in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

PERCHTRACK

February 2025 till 2027

Large perch (Perca fluviatilis) are not only popular among anglers, but also extremely interesting for fish researchers. Little is known about the swimming routes, spawning and nursery habitats of these imaginative fish. With a two-year research project into the largest specimens in the Haringvliet and Hollandsch Diep (PERCHTRACK), the project partners hope to gain more insight into the matter.

Waidgerecht

October 2024 till October 2025

Do the released fish survive and in what proportions? Does catching and releasing have an effect on physiology, behavior, reproduction or growth? And what can be done in angling to treat fish as gently and appropriately as possible if they should or must be released for whatever reason? The WAIDGERECHT project aims to answer these questions.

Evolution of cognition

July 2023 till November 2025

This project aims to investigate how individual level evolutionary adaptations to size-selective mortality leads to the evolution of cognition, how this shapes collective cognitive abilities and what are the survival consequences in the face of natural and unnatural (human-induced) predation. These questions will be answered using a combination of experiments using selection lines of zebrafish (Danio rerio) evolutionarily adapted to size-selection, agent-based models and swarm robots.

Individual-based Ecology

The Anthropocene is characterized by an unprecedented loss of biodiversity. This biodiversity loss can be clearly attributed to human-induced global changes such as land use change, climate change, or invasions of non-native species. These changes increasingly lead to non-equilibrium and non-stationary dynamics, and transitions of ecological systems. Since the functionality of the biosphere is essential for nature and humanity alike, it is crucial to understand underlying processes, and to reliably predict and manage biodiversity and ecosystem changes. Photo: Florian Möllers, AVN.

The Scientific Group on the European Catfish

2013 – Today

Although being one of the world’s largest freshwater fish in the world, the European catfish Silurus glanis L., remains poorly known, mainly due to large and deep rivers and lakes, difficult to study, where it lives. Our group formed in 2013 includes scientists from a dozen countries all over Europe. We aim to bring scientific information on biology and ecology of this species in a broad context. In particular, we provide new information on genetic, trophic ecology, habitat use and behaviour of this species. The European catfish is also seen as a multidisciplinary model, for instance the extreme body size of this species implies novel behaviours and new questions that stimulate cross-sectional researches.

marEEchange

01.01.2023 - 31.12.2025

This project aims to explore how to attribute causal responsibility for a regime shift to actors (fishers, anglers, administration, fishery managers) and circumstances (in particular climate change). Furthermore, it studies the reorganization after a regime shift in real time for the Western Baltic sea, and assess how the period of reorganization may open a window of opportunity for a change into a regime of sustainability. Finally, the project wants to propose pathways into a sustainable future for the Western Baltic sea, and contribute to implementing in transdisiciplinary collaboration with key actors from the commercial and recreational fisheries, as well as from administration and the wider society.

LAKE FISH TELEMETRY GROUP

The objective of the ALTER-Net funded Lake Fish Telemetry Group is to form collaborations among research groups that collect freshwater fish movement data via acoustic telemetry or other high-resolution tracking technology. By sharing large volumes of data collected from lakes across countries and continents, we can conduct replicated analyses of spatiotemporal fish behaviour, and examine big ecological questions that are impossible to examine from a single lake alone.

CoCooN

CoCCoN is an interdisciplinary network supported through the strategic partnership program between Princeton University and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Our aim is to focus on two main questions: (1) the role of social interactions and interaction networks for dynamics of complex social, socio-economic and socio-ecologial systems, and (2) fundamental dynamics governing the spreading of behavior, so-called “behavioral contagion”, and its role in collective cognition.