The latest news from Eawag

On 1 September 2024, Linda Strande took up her new position as Head of Department at Sandec (Photo: Eawag, Peter Penicka).
Institutional
Linda Strande takes over as Head of the Sandec ...
October 29, 2024

On 1 September 2024, Linda Strande took up her new position as Head of Department at Sandec. She succeeds Christoph Lüthi.

Farmland or forest? Researchers found amphipods less frequently at groundwater extraction sites located near farmland than at those in the middle of a forest (Photo: Wikimedia, Adrian Michael).
News
Land use influences organisms living underground
October 22, 2024

Forest or farmland: The impact on amphipods in the groundwater is detectable, even if the groundwater extraction site is up to one kilometre away.

Gebänderte Prachtlibelle, Männchen (lat. Calopteryx splendens, engl. Banded demoiselle) mit ihrer Beute (Foto: Maja Ilić).
News
Biodiversity increases organic nutrient availability ...
October 17, 2024

Insects and spiders are superfoods: rich in essential fatty acids and therefore an important food supply for birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals.

The use of treated municipal wastewater to irrigate agricultural land has been permitted in some of Switzerland’s neighbouring countries since 2023 (Photo: Adobe Stock).
News
Dry summers: reusing treated wastewater could help
October 17, 2024

With climate change, hot and dry summers are becoming more frequent, causing water shortages in some regions of Switzerland. Reusing treated wastewater could help to solve this problem. This has been demonstrated by an Eawag team on behalf of the FOEN and some cantons. The researchers also explain what still needs to be done to put the option into practice.

Confluence of the Aare, Reuss and Limmat rivers in the canton of Aargau (Photo: Andreas Gerth/FOEN).
News
European streamflow data and where to find it
October 16, 2024

A new catalogue and database of over 17,000 European river catchments facilitates the work of researchers in the field of hydrology. The EStreams project, carried out at Eawag, provides hydrological and meteorological data as well as information on the landscape of the river regions. The records go back up to 120 years.

LinkedIn
Improving fish migration in times of climate change
October 11, 2024

Many fish species migrate back and forth between habitats in the course of their lives. However, man-made obstacles make life difficult for these species. Cold-loving fish are also affected by climate change, especially if access to cold-water zones is made more difficult. Renaturalisation can solve this problem. An Eawag project will now help to identify obstacles and remaining cold-water zones so that restoration measures can be planned in a more targeted manner.

The fisheries advisory service (FIBER) puts research findings relevant to fisheries into practice (Photo: Adobe Stock).
Institutional
Fisheries advisory service: new location in ...
October 11, 2024

The Swiss fisheries advisory office (FIBER) promotes sustainable fisheries through advice and training. It now has a location in French-speaking Switzerland.

Ponds, as here in Opfikon (ZH), can hold large quantities of water in a short time. This will be important in the future if heavy rainfall becomes more frequent and heavier as a result of climate change (Photo: Eawag, Max Maurer).
News
Mitigating the consequences of heavy rainfall with ...
October 10, 2024

Combined sewer overflows following heavy rainfall could be avoided through the use of Blue-Green Infrastructure, such as infiltration basins, retention ponds, and porous pavements.

LinkedIn
Sandec organises Exchange Day with TU Delft Water for ...
October 10, 2024

Members of Eawag's Sandec Department helped organise and participated in the recent Water for Impact (TU Delft) x Eawag Sandec Exchange Day. The aim of the Exchange Day was to enhance mutual understanding of each group’s work, facilitate knowledge exchange, and initiate collaborative efforts for future projects and research.

Confluence of the Limmat and Aare (Photo: Jan Ryser/FOEN).
News
Biological evaluation of water bodies in a time of ...
October 3, 2024

Aquatic invertebrates are used as bioindicators to evaluate the quality of Swiss watercourses. However, climate change is also leading to changes in the species composition of these organisms. Eawag has now investigated the impacts of increasing temperatures on water body evaluations on behalf of the FOEN. The findings: the indicators are expected to remain relevant at least for the coming decades.

Photo: Adobe Stock
LinkedIn
Human exposure to food packaging-related chemicals
September 27, 2024

A new study led by the Food Packaging Forum provides an overview of chemicals from food contact materials that are present in humans. This research reveals the extent to which chemicals used in food packaging and other food contact articles have been found in human bodies globally, and further highlights significant gaps in Biomonitoring and Toxicity data.

LinkedIn
11th International Steven Hoogendijk Award (ISHA) goes ...
September 26, 2024

Last week, the 11th International Steven Hoogendijk Award (ISHA) of the “Batavian Society of Experimental Philosophy” was awarded to Eawag researcher and fresh Head of Department Linda Strande.

LinkedIn
Insights into the world of water research
September 20, 2024

Last Saturday, numerous visitors flocked to the Eawag and Empa campus in Dübendorf for the Open Day of the two research institutes. Around the Eawag main building, our researchers gave insights into their daily work and at the same time provided information on the pressing issues surrounding water.

Lenny Winkel in conversation (Photo: Andri Bryner, Eawag)
Water Resources & Drinking Water
Lenny Winkel appointed ETH professor
September 19, 2024

Lenny Winkel (*1975), currently Associate Professor at ETH Zurich and Group Leader at the aquatic research institute Eawag, has been appointed as Full Professor of Environmental Inorganic Geochemistry in the Department of Environmental Systems Science by the ETH Board.

LinkedIn
Researchers to decode Europe’s diversity of life
September 9, 2024

For the protection of biodiversity, it is crucial to know the reference genome for as many species as possible.

LinkedIn
Artificial intelligence facilitates water quality ...
September 4, 2024

Monitoring plankton is an important method of controlling water quality. Researchers show how AI could play a role in this in the future (Text in German).

Art work, Jael Klaus
News
Blue-green biodiversity: recognise, conserve, promote
September 3, 2024

Biodiversity is not a political programme: Only just 1.6 % of all documents searched at federal level make reference to the term. This is one of the many results that the WSL and Eawag institutes have compiled in the joint research initiative ‘Blue-Green Biodiversity’ and which are being presented today at the Special Info Day to an expert audience from administration, politics, research and practice.

Most mosquito repellents contain the active ingredient DEET (Photo: F.A.Z. Purchase Compass).
News
Biological degradation of mosquito repellents only ...
August 22, 2024

Microorganisms in biofilms in rivers can break down harmful substances. Some are also able to degrade biocides, including the insect repellent diethyltoluamide (DEET) - or so it is thought. Researchers at the aquatic research institute Eawag have now discovered that DEET is degraded better when the proportion of treated wastewater in the water is high. They attribute this to specific enzymes that occur primarily where wastewater treatment plants return the water to the aquatic environment. However, the enzymes involved are not straightforward to predict.