Molecular biology methods facilitate the biodiversity assessment in running waters and the identification of aquatic organisms that can provide information on the ecological status of rivers.

This project aims at establishing and validating (e)DNA-based methods for the biomonitoring of phytoplankton, phytobenthos, benthic macroinvertebrates and the fish fauna in German federal waterways. By generating standardised sampling designs and laboratory protocols and by comparing (e)DNA-based data with classical taxonomy-based results, we will evaluate the applicability of molecular biological methods for the determination of the aquatic biodiversity and the ecological assessment of large rivers.

This R&D project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) and jointly conducted by the Departments U2 – Microbial Ecology and U4 – Animal Ecology of the German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG).