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The ecological research is focused on fluvial systems and includes both basic research and applied research. Much of the research within our research profile is about studying different ecological connections in nature. The research mainly looks at fish but other organisms are also studied. In our basic research, we look at the winter ecology of fish and the importance of the connection between land and water for salmonids. In our applied research, we study issues related to water regulation, fish passage, fish migration, fish farming and endangered species of mussel.

A core team of a few biologists in the early 2000s has grown into an international team of prominent researchers. Through conscious efforts, the research group has grown in recent years with the recruitment of two professors, one promotion to professor and three to promotions to reader.

Senior researchers:

• Eva Bergman, professor, limnology, fish ecology
• Olle Calles, reader, fish ecology, measures in regulated watercourses
• Lutz Eckstein, professor, plant- and landscape ecology
• Lovisa Lind Eirell, senior lecturer, ecology
• Ann Erlandsson, reader, molecular biology
• Larry Greenberg, professor, fish ecology
• John Piccolo, professor, nature conservation biology and sustainability
• Johan Watz, reader, fish ecology
• Martin Österling, reader, endangered species and mussel ecology

Affiliated researchers:

• Richard Durtsche, professor (Northern Kentucky University)
• Denis Lafage, visiting research fellow, ecology (Université de Rennes)
• Anders Nilsson, professor, akvatisk ekologi (Lund University)

Doctoral students:

• Louis Addo, doctoral student
• Florian Eggers, doctoral student
• Karl Filipsson, doctoral student, fish ecology
• Raviv Gal, doctoral student, ecology
• Henry Hansen, doctoral student
• Jacqueline Hoppenreijs, doctoral student, ecology
• Jeffery Marker, doctoral student
• Roman Motyka, doctoral student
• Sebastian Rock, doctoral student
• Samuel Shry, doctoral student
• Velizara Stoilova-Tsvetanova, doctoral student

Project assistants, field technicians and laboratory engineers:

• Khadija Aziz, project assistant
• Niclas Carlsson, field technician
• Mahboobeh Hajiesmaeili, project assistant
• Geni Carmen Zanol, laboratory engineer

Research areas NRRV:

Freshwater is essential to life on Earth, providing irreplaceable ecosystem services including drinking water, power and transport, food and irrigation, and flood control, as well as recreational and cultural values. Although freshwater ecosystems make up only 0.01% of all the water on Earth, they are disproportionally rich in plant and animal diversity and are among the most imperiled. Two important anthropogenic stressors with negative impacts on biodiversity are habitat destruction and loss of connectivity. These anthropogenic stressors are expected to be exacerbated by ongoing global warming. Because aquatic and terrestrial systems are tightly coupled, it is now widely recognized that sustainable management of freshwaters must be accomplished at the watershed scale, as manifested by the EU Water Framework Directive. Conservation plans should apply sound ecological knowledge to help meet societal needs while conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services.

River Connectivity

Rivers are dependent on unencumbered movement from headwaters to river mouths by many different organisms. The construction of barriers such as dams not only hinders free movement within rivers but also modifies riverine habitats and their associated biological communities. Measures to improve river connectivity and restore habitat are thus key challenges for river managers.

The river connectivity group conducts research on the following areas:

• Understanding how riverine ecosystems respond to dam removal through studies of river foods webs, river metabolism and altered migratory behavior
• Migratory behavior and the ecological consequences of impaired connectivity as well as develop solutions to improve upstream and downstream passage in regulated rivers
• Habitat improvements in regulated rivers, such as restoring riffles and spawning habitats as well as linking habitats in tributaries with main stem rivers
• Swedish public perspectives of dams

The Aquatic-Terrestrial Habitats and Linkages

In recent years, ecologists have come to realize that ecosystems have diffuse boundaries, and that habitat perturbations can have far-reaching effects across these boundaries. Changes in land-use in terrestrial habitats, for example, can have strong effects on biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems; only recently have we come to realize these effects may reciprocate back to terrestrial systems. The tight couplings of adjacent ecosystems means that feedback loops may amplify the effects of habitat change, leading to disruption of ecosystem services such as productive agricultural of forest land, or sustainable fisheries.

The aquatic-terrestrial group conducts research on the following areas:

• Multi-scalar effects of landscape patterns as drivers of reciprocal ecosystem subsidies
• Effects of forestry practices on food webs and reciprocal aquatic-terrestrial linkages
• Modelling habitat quality based on the interaction between flow and habitat for different organisms
• Swedish public perspectives of forests

Winter ecology in a changing world

Major ecological changes are expected to occur during this century as a result of ongoing global climate change. In relative terms, changes in temperature are expected to be greatest in winter at northern latitudes, with warmer stream temperatures and shorter periods of ice cover. Aquatic organisms must adapt to these physical changes in their environment, and these changes have repercussions for behavior, predator-prey interactions, food availability and life history strategies.

The winter ecology group conducts research on the following areas:

• Effects of winter temperature on the behavior and physiology of salmonids subjected to predation risk
• Effects of egg incubation temperature in winter on behavior and life history of salmonids
• Effects of ice cover on salmonid behavior related to foraging, aggression and predation risk from both aquatic and terrestrial predators