Martin Schletterer

TIWAG - Tiroler Wasserkraft AG, Austria, Innsbruck

Zusammenfassung Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Erstellung eines Gesamtkonzepts zum Fischmonitoring an einer unstrukturierten Blockrampe, welches in weiterer Folge als Grundlage für weitere Untersuchungen an Fließgewässern dienen sollte. Die hierbei betrachtete unstrukturierte Blockrampe befindet sich an der Ötztaler Ache im Ortsgebiet von Brunau (Bezir...

The dwarf bulrush (Typha minima Funk ex Hoppe) is considered as a sensitive target species in natural alpine river landscapes. It disappeared from many rivers due to straightening, thus reintroduction efforts for species conservation have been initiated. Recently, at the Inn river between Stams and Rietz, i.e. a section of about 3 kilometres, the r...

A floodplain is considered as the basis for high production and biodiversity of large rivers. To test the hypothesis of the determining role of the floodplain as a supplier of plankton to the channel of a large unregulated river, we implemented a three-year study in the Ob river-floodplain (West Siberia, Russia) and revealed that factors of seasona...

Hydropeaking is one of the largest hydropower-related disturbances to natural processes in river (eco) systems. The artificial flow fluctuations caused by on-demand electricity generation are known for their impact on aquatic ecosystems. This particularly affects those species and life stages that are unable to adapt their habitat selection to rapi...

A habitat preference study of Schizothorax eurystomus in the Shakhimardan Basin performed by Hydro4U researchers using point electrofishing revealed that juvenile snow trout prefer shallow waters around 20-40 cm of depth, while sub-adults and adults favor deeper areas of >30 cm and >50 cm, respectively. All size classes showed a high plasticity for...

EuropaBON EBV workflow templates The information provided here represents the EBV workflow templates collected during the EuropaBON online workshop on Essential Biodiversity Variable (EBV) workflows from 22–24 February 2023. The templates were designed to capture comprehensive descriptions about the three workflow components (data collection and s...

Nowadays, the functionality of fishways is typically evaluated using fish traps (fykes or nets) positioned within the passage structure [1]. However, the use of fish traps rarely yields long-term results about migration in fishways. In order to enable the continuous, non-invasive counting of fish, different camera systems were developed [1-3]. The...

The information represents the EBV workflow templates collected during the EuropaBON online workshop on Essential Biodiversity Variable (EBV) workflows from 22–24 February 2023. The templates were designed to capture comprehensive descriptions about the three workflow components (data collection and sampling, data integration, and modelling) that...

Knowledge of the historical and present dynamics of populations of migratory fish can promote our understanding of factors affecting their recruitment and abundance. Taxonomic identification of 23,802 bone remains and 13,539 scales of fish from 30 archaeological sites along Volga River revealed that they belonged to 41 different fish species. These...

This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the length-weight relationship, condition factors, and age of Schizothorax eurystomus in the Shakhimardan River basin in Central Asia, along with a comparative perspective to other Schizothorax species in the region. The study found that S. eurystomus exhibits positive allometric growth, which is cons...

The Volga River is the largest river in Europe in terms of basin area (1.36 mio. km2), length (3531 km), and water content (annual flow 254 km3). We conduct long-term water quality studies in the Volga headwaters: in the Upper Volga Lakes, the free-flowing section, as well as in the Ivankovskoye and Uglich Reservoirs. At the source of the river, th...

With the globally increasing awareness regarding the interconnectivity between freshwater ecosystems, projects for re-establishing connectivity with fishways as well as stock management are increasing. To ensure the quality and impact of such projects and for extending the scientific state of knowledge on this topic, a detailed monitoring of these...

Hydrology and temperature are known as key drivers for fish migration in floodplain-channel systems of large rivers. The Lower Irtysh contains valuable species of whitefish and sturgeon. Thus, along the Konda River, a complex study was carried out in order to investigate fish migration in spring, with a focus on daily and monthly dynamics. To estim...

At water-level stabilization or rise, zooplankton communities of floodplain become isolated from the channel that ceases the recruits' inflow from the floodplain and brings to a sharp drop in number of river zooplankton. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account dynamics trends (i.e., fall or rise) in river water level when assessing zooplank...

The study of biodiversity in key areas and conservation corridors in the Central Asian mountainous region is becoming increasingly relevant in light of large-scale anthropogenic interventions in the natural environment. Particularly, the rapid expansion of hydropower development leads to extensive habitat alteration, fragmentation and degradation,...

Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera are three orders of freshwater macroinvertebrates with a short terrestrial adult life-stage that they use to disperse by flying upstream. This aerial dispersal can be assisted by native riparian forest, but regional variation has not yet been empirically tested. In this study we compared the EPT community o...

In the Russian Federation, the protection category “Zapovednik” represents a strictly protected area, where the access is restricted and the aim is to keep the area “forever wild”. We provide an overview about the organization of these nature reserves and highlight their contribution to fundamental research. Aquatic ecosystems in zapovedniks provid...

The Ob is the seventh longest river in the world and its length (including the largest tributary Irtysh) is 5410 km. The huge size of the Ob River catchment and diverse natural resources of the region give rise to numerous anthropogenic factors affecting aquatic ecosystems. The patterns of longitudinal changes in the composition aquatic communities...

Metacommunity theory connects the diversity patterns of the community across the landscape with the effects of ecological processes. As dispersal is one of the main factors driving the metacommunity structure, it is important to understand the interaction between landscape and dispersal to apply metacommunity theory. Herein, we summarize the main c...

During the industrialization in Europe, rivers were straightened and designed to fit human activities, thus nowadays only a few natural river systems remain as reference conditions as well as guiding principles for river restoration projects. Therefore, the natural state of some river types is often described using historic records and maps. This s...

Zusammenfassung Die erfolgreiche Etablierung vitaler, sich selbst erhaltender Fischpopulationen in Fließgewässern hängt wesentlich von geeigneten Lebensraumbedingungen für alle Altersstadien der vorkommenden Arten ab. Die Europäische Äsche ( Thymallus thymallus ) ist eine Salmoniden-Fischart, die in vielen europäischen Ländern aufgrund ihres massiv...

In recent decades the abundance of the European otter Lutra lutra (Linnaeus, 1758) increased in many Austrian regions resulting in the decline of fish stocks in some lentic and lotic waters (e.g. fish ponds, smaller brooks). We developed habitat structures in rivers, which should act as fish shelters and limit otter predation nearby these measures....

Hydropeaking is one of the major hydropower-related disturbances of natural processes in river systems. The artificial flow fluctuations that are caused by the on-demand production of electricity are known for their severe impacts on aquatic ecosystems. These particularly affect those species and life stages that are not able to adjust their habita...

During their adult life stage most EPTs (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera) disperse by flying following the riparian corridor. Although it is likely that riparian forest fosters EPT dispersion, this has not been empirically tested in a larger dataset yet and several additional open questions remain. First, it is unclear if the effect of ri...

Re-establishing fish continuity is a major aim of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). At existing barriers, the type and size of the barrier, space availability and height constrain the development of a fishway. In this context, it became evident that conventional solutions cannot be implemented at all locations. Thus, the WFD initiated t...

Hydropower globally represents the main source of renewable energy, and provides several benefits, e.g., water storage and flexibility; on the other hand, it may cause significant impacts on the environment. Hence sustainable hydropower needs to achieve a balance between electricity generation, impacts on ecosystems and benefits on society, support...

The cover image is based on the Research Article Increased hydropower production and hydropeaking mitigation along the Upper Inn River (Tyrol, Austria) with a combination of buffer reservoirs, diversion hydropower plants and retention basins by Robert Reindl et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.4052.

Anthropogenic stressors have altered the hydromorphological characteristics of rivers worldwide. Environmental guiding principles are essential for planning sustainable river restoration measures. The alpine river Biya, located in the Russian Altai mountains, originates from Lake Teletskoye and joins the Katun near Biysk, forming the Ob. The Biya r...

Der Beitrag thematisiert, wie wir zwei Auslandsexkursionen i. S. v. „Forschendem Lernen in der Natur“ konzipiert haben, bei denen Masterstudierende verschiedene Kompetenzen kombinieren und anwenden sollen. In diesen Lehrveranstaltungen sollen die Studierenden einen vollständigen Forschungszyklus durchlaufen (eigenständige Wissens- und Erkenntnisbil...

The study reviews the two habitat models CASiMiR (microscale) and MesoHABSIM (mesoscale) regarding the aspects scale, data collection, model setup, handling habitat preferences, result presentation and application. Both models were applied at a river stretch at the upper Inn River in Austria, which provided a basis for closer comparison and analysi...

Research on hydropeaking in Austria started in the 1990s and the implementation of the WFD stipulated large research projects since the year 2009. The first research projects supported the process understanding and in a second investigation step, measures were evaluated. The mountains in the region of Tyrol create large heads and thus support the p...

This document aims to establish a common understanding on the role of sediment in achieving the objectives of the Water Framework Directive, and to provide guidance on how to address pressures on sediment quantity and sediment contamination, in the context of the River Basin Management Plans, and also other policies’ planning instruments. It covers...

Springs are important habitats and determine the characteristics of headwater streams. However, they are rarely studied and usually not included in monitoring programs. Our study characterizes the sources of three large rivers and contributes to the knowledge about the biggest East European drainage divide. The catchment area is characterized by de...

This open access book presents (selected) new and innovative developments for sustainable and fish-friendly hydropower. It offers unique insights into the challenges, practices and policies of hydropower developments across 8 European countries, providing examples from on-site studies and European-wide analyses. The case studies throughout the book...

The Upper Inn River is affected by hydropeaking. To mitigate hydropeaking impacts between the villages Ovella and Prutz the diversion hydropower plant GKI has been designed to buffer fast flow changes and divert water into a bypass tunnel. This Testcase enabled the comparison between the impacted and mitigated situation. We exemplify the applicatio...

The RETERO project aims to reduce live fish experiments for the physical evaluation of injury and mortality risks during downstream passage through turbines, weirs or bypasses and to improve the predictions of numerical models. The focus of this presentation is on the design of a new “backpack sensor” for downstream passage studies which does not u...

River alterations for natural hazard mitigation and land reclamation result in habitat decline and fragmentation for riparian plant species. Extreme events such as floods are responsible for additional local species loss or population decline. Tributaries might provide refugia and subsequent source populations for the colonization of downstream sit...

Rivers of Europe, Second Edition, presents the latest update on the only primary source of complete and comparative baseline data on the biological and hydrological characteristics of more than 180 of the highest profile rivers in Europe. With even more full-color photographs and maps, the book includes conservation information on current patterns...

The four major rivers that flow into the eastern Baltic Sea (the Vistula, the Nemunas, the Western Dvina, and the Narva) are described. All of these are lowland rivers. Most of the Vistula catchment is located in Poland, the Nemunas catchment—mainly in Belarus and Lithuania, the Western Dvina catchment—mainly in Russia, Belarus, and Latvia, and the...

• Nymphs of all 29 described Prosopistoma species share a conspicuous synapomorphy: a round mesonotal shield, the carapace. They occur in the Palaearctic (nine species), the Oriental (12 species) and the Afrotropic as well as Australian regions (six and two species, respectively). Relatively little is known about their ecology, but past and extant...

This chapter contains a comprehensive description of the Volga River, the largest river in Europe, and its main tributaries, the Kama, Oka, Sheksna. It starts with a review of human history and biogeographical setting including paleogeography of the basin, as well as description of physiography and climate, and features of hydrological and biogeoch...

Fish are some of the most threatened vertebrates in the world due to their often-sensitive response to environmental changes. Major land-use changes in the European Alps have direct and indirect impacts on fish communities, and these impacts are expected to increase in the future. Therefore, the identification of factors that are associated with th...

This article highlights the importance of integrative water management in the Ob catchment. The Trans-Siberian Railway, which crosses the Ob near Novosibirsk, is part of one of the most innovative infrastructure projects of the 21st century, the Breitspur-project. The hydropower plant on the Ob near Novosibirsk exemplifies the multi-purpose use of...

The Yenisei is an impressive river system. It drains into the Kara Sea with an average annual discharge of 673 km³ and thus represents the largest Arctic river. The three hydropower plants on the Yenisei have an installed capacity of 12 721 MW and along the major tributary Angara, the four HPPs of the Angara cascade 11 999 MW. Thus, in the Yenisei...

Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPTs) are three orders of aquatic macroinvertebrates with a similar life-cycle: they live in aquatic freshwater ecosystems until they disperse by flying upstream. The aerial dispersion depends on the landscape connectivity, with landscape features influencing it, as topography in mountainous areas (Chiu et...

In the degraded European landscapes riparian corridors have become key features to maintain connectivity between habitat patches for multitude of organisms. This role of riparian forests has been assessed from the purely structural point of view, to complex models specific for particular species or groups of species, from mammals to plants, from en...

The rare mayfly Prosopistoma pennigerum was once widely distributed across Europe and occurred virtually in every large river. Today, it holds fast against the ever-growing destruction of its habitat with a few relic populations remaining. Preliminary data and information on its congeners suggest that free-flowing rivers with near-natural hydrodyna...

The species composition of a community is driven by the dispersal capacity of the species forming that community and their ecological niche. While the ecological niches of EPTs (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera) are well-studied due to their wide use as indicators for the ecological status of freshwater ecosystems, their dispersal capacity...

Translocations are applied in the context of infrastructure projects to preserve certain vegetation types. Within the EIA of a large hydropower project in the Austrian Alps, manifold mitigation measures were defined. Among those, the transplantation of about 1.4 ha Carex -fen at an altitude of about 2000 m was defined. One year before the start of...

Hydropeaking is an anthropogenic regime that results from the strong flow variations in the receiving waters of storage hydropower plants. These variations are due to flexible energy production, i.e. the sudden increase of electricity demands or from its decrease, affecting the fish assemblages of that river stretch. We evaluated the mitigation pot...

The present case study deals with a controlled drawdown beyond the operational level of the Gepatsch reservoir (Austria). Based on the awareness of potential ecological consequences, an advanced set of measures was conducted and an integrative monitoring design was implemented. This pre-and post-event monitoring included measurements regarding the...

For Europe, a reduction of 80% of the potential storage volume due to reservoir sedimentation is predicted by 2080. Sedimentation processes trigger the decrease of the storage volume and a related restriction in hydropower production. Further, the artificial downstream flushing of deposited fines has manifold effects on the aquatic ecology, includi...

Zusammenfassung Hydroakustik, das heißt der Einsatz von Echoloten und Sonaren, ist in Binnengewässern eine etablierte Methode. Je nach Fragestellung kommen verschiedene System zum Einsatz: (1) Das Single-beam-Echolot ist grundsätzlich ein klassischer „Fischfinder“. (2) Das Dual-beam-Echolot kombiniert hohe und niedere Frequenzbereiche. (3) Bei Spli...

Biodiversity monitoring via environmental DNA, particularly metabarcoding, is evolving into a powerful assessment tool for riverine systems. However, for metabarcoding to be fully integrated into standardized monitoring programmes, some current challenges concerning sampling design, laboratory workflow, and data analysis need to be overcome. Here,...

Zusammenfassung In den letzten Jahren wurden vermehrt DNA-basierte Methoden zur Unterstützung konventioneller Ansätze von Biodiversitätserhebungen vorgeschlagen. Hierbei wird der Verwendung von Umwelt-DNA (oder environmental DNA – eDNA) ein besonders großes Potenzial zur Verbesserung von Biomonitorings zugeschrieben. Anhand von eDNA kann man mittel...

A recent eDNA-metabarcoding study assessing fish diversity in the Upper Volga catchment did not detect sterlet at any of the sampled stretches, despite recent sightings that suggest its presence. We designed a TaqMan qPCR protocol to test for sterlet in selected eDNA samples from that study. In-silico and in-vitro tests confirm the protocol’s high...

The headwaters of the Volga River exhibit large reaches with near‐pristine conditions, and therefore long‐term biodiversity monitoring of this catchment can provide rare and valuable information on a European lowland river. More specifically, freshwater fish species assemblages are a good indicator of ecosystem status, as they are particularly sens...

Hydroelectric power plants managed in response to sub-daily changes of the electricity market undergo rapid variations of turbine discharge, entailing quickly fluctuating water levels downstream. This operation regime, called hydropeaking, causes numerous adverse impacts on river ecosystems. The hydrological alterations which affect hydropeaking ri...

The spatial distribution of fish upstream of a vertical trash rack was investigated at the hydropower plant Kirchbichl in the alpine River Inn (Tyrol, Austria). The objective of the research project “FIDET” was to establish a non-invasive methodology to study fish presence and flow characteristics at large hydro power sites. A new monitoring approa...

Within the implementation of the EU water framework directive, creating longitudinal connection is a proper task. Currently several monitoring devices and methods for monitoring fish migration in fish passes exist. Many of them are still lacking detailed conclusions on migration behaviour (fish trap: temporal resolution) or require an immense expen...

Upstream fish passage around instream barriers is typically facilitated by the installation of fishway structures. However, at some locations it is necessary to install fish lifts, which directly transport the fish vertically over and around the barrier. In this work, we report biological observations from the fish lift Runserau on the River Inn in...

The cover image, by Minh Tuan Bui et al., is based on the Research Article Water temperatures in the headwaters of the Volga River: Trend analyses, possible future changes, and implications for a pan‐European perspective, https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3275. Acknowledgements: REFCOND_VOLGA project. Photo credit: Martin Schletterer.

Globally, multiple stressors acting on large rivers strongly influence their ecosystem functions. They do so by altering both their biodiversity and integrity, which may in turn degrade the available ecosystem services. We present the catchment characteristics and discuss different management strategies for the two longest European rivers, the Volg...

User Guide for MATLAB code and link to all measurement data: https://github.com/jtuhtan/hydro-sig

Water temperature is a physical property influencing abiotic and biotic parameters in an aquatic ecosystem. In different Central European rivers and lakes, a general trend of water temperatures in the range of +0.05 to +0.8 °C per decade was identified. Our case study analyses whether similar patterns apply to the headwaters of the Volga River, in...

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become a state-of-the-art remote sensing tool for the geosciences. Commercial systems are largely autonomous and provide high resolution imagery at low cost. UAV-based imagery provides an efficient and effective means for the collection of environmental intelligence data. Due to advancements in small-scale digit...

The lateral line system provides fish with advanced mechanoreception over a wide range of flow conditions. Inspired by the abilities of their biological counterparts, artificial lateral lines have been developed and tested exclusively under laboratory settings. Motivated by the lack of flow measurements taken in the field which consider fluid-body...

The Volga is the longest river in Europe and 16th longest in the world. The riverine landscape of the Volga is of exceptional scientific and economic importance to Russia; the basin contains approximately 40% of the Russian population and relates to 45% of the country's industrial and agricultural produce. The Volga River drains an area of 1.4 mill...

Genetic based tools can be used to answer applied questions in fisheries management and conservation. We present two such applications: (1) a population genetic analysis and (2) environmental DNA (eDNA) used to non-invasively detect the presence of species. In the first study, we confirmed that brown trout in Gossenköllesee represent one of very fe...

Downstream fish migration in middle-sized rivers in Austria. Questions concerning the impact of hydropower plants on downstream migration of fish have traditionally focused on diadromous species and are gaining importance worldwide. In Europe, in this regard mainly studies have been performed considering Atlantic Salmon and European Eel, whereas e...

Digital terrain models (DTM) were produced with the structure from motion (SfM) technique, using data from high resolution terrestrial photography. In addition 360-degree spheres were created from ground taken photos. These spheres allow capturing the environment at this moment and coming back to the environment virtually later on. Also overlapping...