Institute of Aquatic Ecology and Fisheries Biology IGF Jena:

The activities of the Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Fisheries Biology Jena (IGF), founded in 2005 by Dr. Falko Wagner, focus on the aquatic ecology of running and standing waters. From the beginning, the topic "ecological passability of flowing waters" has formed the central part of the institute's work. In addition to the conception and optimization of fish protection systems and fishways, the evaluation of already implemented systems is in the center of attention. In this context, three projects commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency and two research projects directly funded by the BMBF have been carried out in recent years. The "Forum Fischschutz und Fischabstieg [engl. Forum Fish Protection and Fish Downstream Passage" (https://forum-fischschutz.de), initiated and managed by the Federal Environment Agency as a central platform for the topic of fishways in the German-speaking region, has been technically coordinated by the IGF together with the engineering firm Floecksmühle since 2019. Dr. Falko Wagner was appointed to the expert panel in 2018 to contribute to the development of the best practices guide for restoring ecological continuity on behalf of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) of Switzerland and is active in the DWA working group WW 7.2 on the evaluation of fish protection and fish ladder systems (https://de.dwa.de). In addition to the topic of fish protection and fish migration, the improvement of the ecological condition of flowing waters and thus also revitalization measures are in the foreground of the work of the IGF Jena. Also in this topic, a project funded by the Federal Environment Agency was successfully completed and a user-oriented website was created: (https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/wasser/fluesse/gewaesserrenaturierung-start#informationsplattform-unterstutzt-potenzielle-massnahmentrager).