Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

Aquatic vegetation promotes prey diversity but not the diversification of predator phenotypes

Freshwater fish have evolved to forage in a range of habitats, from open water in lakes to benthic shorelines and streams. Much research has focused on how prey differences, such as zooplankton versus benthic macroinvertebrates, might select for divergence in predator traits acro...

Differential Impacts of Proxy Archives on Paleoclimate Reconstruction Performance

Abstract Reconstructing past climates is challenging because pre‐instrumental observations are geographically sparse and proxy records are noisy; data assimilation offers one approach to address these limitations. Although such reconstructions are now widespread, the extent to wh...

Developmental divergence in gene regulation underlies trophic innovation in Lake Victoria cichlids

Abstract The role of developmental shifts in the emergence of ecological diversity during adaptive radiation remains largely uncharacterized. Here, we investigate the developmental gene regulatory landscape of trophic innovation in the rapid adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes f...

On-line analysis of N 2 O isotopic composition during biological nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment to disentangle production and reduction processes

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is a potent greenhouse gas, and emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) represent a significant and highly variable source. Understanding the dynamics in microbial pathways of N 2 O formation and reduction during biological nitrogen removal is ess...

Dual Roles of Cyanopeptides as Substrates and Inhibitors of Enzymes in Surface Waters

Abstract Harmful cyanobacterial blooms produce diverse bioactive metabolites, cyanopeptides, whose environmental persistence remains uncertain. First, we investigated enzymatic reactions with cyanopeptides as substrates in aquatic systems. The aquatic enzyme pool from the riverin...

Emergent properties of urban landscapes shape urban eco-evolutionary dynamics

Abstract Context Urbanization transforms natural ecosystems into heterogeneous and fragmented landscapes, creating novel selective pressures that can drive eco-evolutionary dynamics. However, the specific role of urban spatial structure in shaping these dynamics remains poorly un...

Stream biodiversity and function benefit from forest fragments in agricultural landscapes

Abstract Riparian forests buffer stream ecosystems from intensive land use. However, with ongoing land-use changes, riparian forests often remain as isolated fragments. Despite this, the relevance of isolated forest fragments in deforested landscapes remains unclear. We evaluated...

A boost on the final stretch: intense river metabolism and wetland discharge increase aquatic CO 2 dynamics in the Danube Delta

Many river deltas are aquatic hot spots for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions to the atmosphere. Their patchwork of wetlands, lakes, channels, and river reaches often complicates the analysis of CO 2 sources such as ecosystem respiration or lateral water transfer. Sensing techniqu...

36Cl concentrations from polar ice cores set new constraints on the Carrington event.

The Carrington event of 1859 CE is considered one of the largest geomagnetic storms of the observational era and often used as a benchmark for a worst-case scenario. Yet, there exists no robust evidence of an associated solar energetic particle (SEP) event of a significant magnit...

Long-term temperature, oxygen and water clarity trends in Swiss lakes

Abstract. Water temperature, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen concentration, and water clarity are key variables routinely measured in Swiss lakes by lake monitoring programs run by cantonal environmental offices and international lake commissions. In most lakes, data is...

Post-heatwave immune challenge reshapes selection on heatwave responses

Abstract Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, yet predicting selection on heatwave-induced phenotypic responses is difficult because their fitness consequences may depend on subsequent environmental conditions. We experimentally tested how variation...

Phytoplankton community responses to 20 th century eutrophication of Swiss Plateau lakes: a proxy comparison from short sediment cores

Abstract. During the last century, temperate lakes have been strongly impacted by human eutrophication and climate change, causing shifts in phytoplankton communities and higher abundance of cyanobacteria. Paleolimnological reconstructions can extend the timeframe of observations...

Glacier retreat shapes organic nutrient availability across lake succession

Glacier retreat is rapidly transforming landscapes, creating thousands of new lakes that act as natural laboratories of ecological succession. In these newly formed ecosystems, colonizing animals must meet their requirements for essential organic nutrients, such as long-chain pol...

The Zooplankton International Geospatial dataset: A global repository of spatiotemporal freshwater zooplankton community composition data from lakes and reservoirs to support ecological research

Abstract Zooplankton transfer substantial energy in aquatic food webs and are used as indicators of environmental change. Syntheses of zooplankton community dynamics globally require datasets that span a wide range of environmental gradients; however, these datasets are limited d...