L9: Resilience of the littoral community of Lake Constance: effects of neozoa, trophic- and climate change

The most important environmental changes at Lake Constance in the last years are re-oligotrophication, increase of water temperature and the immigration of new species. Although these impacts are most pronounced in littoral regions, many studies, so far, focused on the pelagic system and it is unknown how the littoral ecosystem reacts to these changes.

The project investigates changes in the littoral fish and macrozoobenthos communities of Lake Constance due to re-oligotrophication, neozoa invasion and global warming. We investigate the dynamics in neozoa invasions, shifts in diet and size spectra of dominant species and whole communities, as well as predator-prey-relationships between macroinvertebrates and littoral fish species.

A large part of the work will be analyses of existing long-term data sets. In addition, we will also use stable isotope analysis to explore changes in the diet of macroinvertebrates and fish.