Department Fish Ecology and Evolution

The global biodiversity crisis is particularly dramatic in freshwater ecosystems which have suffered exceptionally high species loss and population declines. Switzerland is warming at twice the global average and contains a range of habitats from natural to intensively modified, serving as an excellent case study to design solutions to multifaceted conservation threats. In addition, there exists high local endemism in perialpine lakes, several imperiled species, and as yet undescribed species in Switzerland’s lakes and rivers.

As such, we will integrate taxonomic research mapping and recognizing  new species into spatial conservation planning and climate sensitivity analyses. Conservation management must balance competing economic uses whilst supporting biodiversity, as well as evolutionary processes, both now and into the future. Our interdisciplinary project involving scientists, governmental agencies, and NGOs seek to identify and design data-driven conservation strategies.