The Ponto-Caspian amphipod Obesogammarus obesus (Sars, 1894) was first recorded in the Rhine River near Koblenz, Germany in October 2004. Additional records of small numbers of O. obesus from the same location in 2005 and 2006 indicate that this alien species may have become established in the central section of the Rhine River. Ship transport via the Main-Danube Canal, connecting the Danube ba...

The invasive amphipod Dikerogammarus villosus has become increasingly dominant in German river ecosystems since the River Rhine invasion in the mid-1990s. Because it is preying on other invertebrate taxa, its appearance is often assumed to be associated with a drastic decrease in species diversity and changes in natural benthic communities. Despite this, the trophic function of D. villosus and ...

The determination of free Zn(2+) ion concentration is a key in the study of environmental systems like river water and soils, due to its impact on bioavailability and toxicity. AGNES (Absence of Gradients and Nernstian Equilibrium Stripping) and DMT (Donnan Membrane Technique) are emerging techniques suited for the determination of free heavy metal concentrations, especially in the case of Zn(2...

Over a period of 2 yr eels were collected at several sites along the river Rhine as well as from adjacent waters and examined for Anguillicola crassus in the swimbladder. Additionally eels were collected once from a site on the river Naab (Danube system). All eels were searched for both juvenile and adult stages of A. crassus, revealing prevalences of 80% in eels from the river Rhine and 39% in...

The Klingnau reservoir, situated in north Switzerland, suffers from sedimentation in its left enlargement. The dam is placed in the Aare River about 1 km upstream of its confluence with the Rhine. Due to natural conservation and flood protection reasons, it has been sought for decades to slowdown the sedimentation process in the reservoir. For this purpose, 20’000 m3 of deposited material will ...

For 65 kilometers, between Bingen and Koblenz, the Rhine River flows through a deep valley. This area, called the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, contains extraordinary historical evidence of art, history, and the interaction between man and nature. The presence of this virtually intact, valuable evidence is the reason why the local authorities have nominated this cultural landscape for inclusion to...

BACKGROUND Floodplain meadows along rivers are semi-natural habitats and depend on regular land use. When used non-intensively, they offer suitable habitats for many plant species including rare ones. Floodplains are hydrologically dynamic ecosystems with both periods of flooding and of dry conditions. In German floodplains, dry periods may increase due to reduced summer precipitation as projec...

The effects of a quaternary ammonium compound, ditallowdimethylammonium chloride (DTDMAC), on natural populations of bacteria and phytoplankton from the lower River Rhine were examined to estimate their sensitivity to the discharges of cationic surfactants in the river basin. In short-term experiments, significant decreases in the growth rate of bacterioplankton and in the photosynthetic rate o...

Urs Uehlinger Department of Aquatic Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), CH-8600 D€ ubendorf, Switzerland Karl M. Wantzen Limnological Institute, University of Konstanz, ATIG-Aquatic-Terrestrial Interaction Group, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany Rob S.E.W. Leuven Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research (IWWR), Faculty of Sci...

Sensitivity analysis of flood damage calculations for the river Rhine Contents