The Rhine-Aare River fish movement project

Luis Habersetzer, Jelger Elings, Maja Bosnjakovic, Sara Süess from Eawag Kastanienbaum, Department of fish ecology and evolution present their research project.
The fragmentation of the habitat in Swiss rivers caused by hydropower utilization has led to a disruption of fish migration. To balance energy production and fish movement under a changing climate, knowledge about timing, routes and accessibility to cold-water refugia of different riverine fish species is needed. Using a large-scale acoustic telemetry network in the Rhine-Aare River network, we will track the routes of some of the most important and vulnerable fish species over several years and under changing environmental conditions. In the presentation we will talk about the background and objectives of the project, implementation and methodology as well as possible applications for fundamental and applied research and practice.