Global freshwater biodiversity, biogeography & conservation (GLOWABIO)
Research Group led by Sami Domisch
Global biodiversity is declining across ecosystems, and freshwater organisms and habitats are among the most threatened. Compared to the terrestrial and marine realms, freshwater biodiversity remains understudied in terms of its ecological significance and distinctiveness, resulting in a lack of effective conservation at regional to global scales. While finding appropriate countermeasures, a key challenge is first to gain a comprehensive picture of the current status of freshwater biodiversity.
The starting conditions are as follows: the information and data about freshwater biodiversity is globally unevenly distributed, the analysis workflows for assessing spatial freshwater biodiversity - including connectivity across habitats - are challenging for many researchers. In addition, the need to address a high spatial resolution in freshwater ecosystems, given that small rivers contribute most to the river network, remains often undervalued.
Our research group addresses these challenges by applying cutting-edge global geospatial analyses, where the term “global” refers to worldwide and range-wide analyses, as well as to single study areas distributed globally. The high-resolution stream network dataset Hydrography90m provides the basis for all analyses, given that it represents a seamless and standardised dataset. It has been developed using open-source tools and therefore offers the possibility of an easy interoperability. For instance, the Environment90m dataset offers a suite of high-resolution environmental information, both present and for future projections, which can be directly attached to the network. Moreover, we develop and maintain data processing and analysis tools that support researchers to capitalise on these data, such that the data & tools can be applied anywhere in the world. Here the hydrographr R package - also including API-functions for remote server processing - and the interactive GeoFRESH platfrom offer the possibility to apply easy-to-use hydrographic data processing tools for a wide range of users. Our data and tools have been featured in numerous studies and we invte you to check out the research and publications of the group.
We employ these tools to study, for instance, the environmental contingencies regarding the distribution of aquatic insects, assess how freshwater habitats cluster given environmental regionalisation, how spatial modelling approaches can guide conservation priorities in different yet highly biodiverse parts of the world, how the river network structure governs biodiversity and species assemblages, or to assess the significant but underestimated role that network connectivity has in spatial freshwater biodiversity science.
During 2019-2024, the Research Group was funded by the Leibniz Association (Leibniz Competition, grant number J45 / 2028) and the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin (IGB), Germany. Since 2024, the research group is a permanent part of IGB.
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