ISC 2026 Lake Ecosystems

Lakes are home to a significant diversity of species and provide vital ecosystem services that support the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. However, these services are declining due to stressors such as climate change, eutrophication, and overuse. For example, one-quarter of the world’s population lives in the watersheds of drying lakes. In this course, participants studied lake ecosystems as part of a hypothesis-driven research project. Using professional equipment, they recorded vertical profiles of physicochemical parameters and phytoplankton biomass, analyzed nutrient concentrations, and identified plankton under a microscope. Based on this broad data set, they were able to clearly attribute the deviations from expected natural conditions observed in all lakes to eutrophication and climate change. The fact that these two factors also pose problems for Germany’s vital drinking water supply from reservoirs was convincingly demonstrated during the course by Prof. Karsten Rinke, head of the Department of Lake Research at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Magdeburg, using the example of the Rappbode Reservoir in the Harz Mountains in an online lecture that was very well tailored to the participants’ level of knowledge.