We are thrilled to announce that the latest PONDERFUL animated video is now available on YouTube! This engaging video walks viewers through the various steps involved in building a new pond for biodiversity, making it an invaluable resource for anyone interested in contributing to nature conservation.

José Teixeira of PONDERFUL partner CIIMAR said:

“YouTube has become an increasingly effective platform for science communication. In PONDERFUL, it is helping us reach a broader audience and convey the significance of ponds and pond landscapes. Our latest animation video offers easy-to-follow instructions for the process of building ponds, mixing the latest scientific evidence with a touch of humour to make the learning experience enjoyable and accessible to all. By communicating in a straightforward and entertaining manner, we aim to enhance public and policy makers understanding of the vital role small water bodies play in our ecosystems and the importance and tools for building new ponds”.

In our commitment to making PONDERFUL accessible to a global audience, they are available in nine different languages: Catalan, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. This multilingual approach ensures that different countries can benefit from the valuable insights shared in the video and that it can serve as an effective education tool for younger generations at a wider geographical range.

YouTube’s enduring presence as a video-sharing platform means that our content can be viewed anytime, making it a lasting resource for educators, students, and nature enthusiasts alike.

We invite you to watch our video and help us in spreading the word about the importance of pond conservation here. Check it out on our YouTube channel: @ponderful4601.

Here I review some recent research papers that caught my eye and got me thinking, or suggested some practical actions we could take for ponds. Results from PONDERFUL are also making valuable additions to our understanding of ponds so keep an eye on the scientific publications page of our website for updates.

Ponds and other small freshwaters

Chironomids are one of the most abundant groups of freshwater invertebrates, but they are a taxonomically challenging group and much less frequently surveyed than other macroinvertebrate groups like dragonflies, water beetles and water snails. This makes the paper by Přidalová and colleagues on chironomids in Central European ponds all the more important for giving us an unusual insight into this groups of animals. They describe chironomid diversity in 246 ponds in Slovakia, from the Pannonian Plain to the Carpathians, recording 225 taxa including 192 species from six subfamilies (Podonominae, Tanypodinae, Diamesinae, Prodiamesinae, Orthocladiinae and Chironominae) representing around 85% of the total diversity of pond-dwelling chironomids. The ponds surveyed were waterbodies with surface area of under two hectares and maximum depth of eight metres, and included temporary, semi-permanent and permanent ponds of both natural and artificial origin. Both alpha and gamma diversity were greater at lower altitudes. Diversity peaked at higher temperature but was lower as the proportion of surrounding forests increased. Consequently, ponds with a mean annual air temperature of approximately 4.8°C and a low proportion of surrounding forests were found to support the most diverse chironomid communities. Interestingly there was no relationship between chironomid diversity and urban land cover or pond size.

In a previous edition of Freshwater Reports I wrote about the work of the Swiss team who described the benefits of a ‘massive’ pond creation programme for amphibian conservation, clearly sharing similar ideas to the PONDERFUL team. Now, the same authors have written more about the details of pond networks considering 12 amphibian species in Switzerland. They found that ponds created where there were between two and four occupied ponds within a radius of approximately 0.5 km had more than 3.5 times higher incidence of target species than isolated ponds. Species had individual preferences regarding pond characteristics, but breeding sites with larger (≥100 m²) total water surface area, that temporarily dried, and that were in surroundings with maximally 50% forest benefitted multiple target species (https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cobi.14281).

Peatlands are a hotspot for ponds and are also major sinks of carbon. A new study brings these two facts together to advise researchers that they must include pond emissions to avoid overestimating carbon removal by peatlands. Specifically, net peatland carbon budgets must include emissions from open waters. Working in Quebec, Canada, Taillardat et al. (2024) found significant carbon and methane emission from pools that made up about 5% of the surface area of the peatlands. The study pools were supersaturated in CO₂ and CH₄ and were net carbon greenhouse gas sources. As shown by other pond studies, including PONDERFUL, CO₂ and CH₄ concentrations and fluxes fluctuated over the seasons and were explained by water table level fluctuations and temperature changes. The authors caution that there is a need to take account of these emissions to void overestimating sequestration potential provided by peatlands.

Other interesting papers

Many people reading this newsletter will already be aware of the on-going debate on whether freshwater invertebrate communities are becoming richer or declining in diversity. This research is based on river data where there are large datasets available for analysis and results remain unresolved with some studies reporting recovery slowing or stagnting (biodiversity recovery in European rivers has stagnated since 2010), other reporting a mixed picture and still others reporting unequivocally positive outcomes (significant improvements in freshwater invertebrate biodiversity in all types of English rivers). Of course, none of these studies include data on ponds.

A recent addition to this debate perhaps explains some of the inconsistency. Sinclair et al. (2024) noted that multi-decadal improvements in the ecological quality of European rivers are not consistently reflected in biodiversity metrics. They found that river invertebrate communities improved, becoming more like reference conditions, from 1992 until the 2010s, after which improvements plateaued. Improvements were generally reflected by higher taxon richness, providing evidence that certain community metrics can broadly indicate anthropogenic impacts. However, richness responses were highly variable among sites, and there were no consistent responses in community abundance, evenness or composition. They concluded that that, without sufficient data and careful metric selection, many common community metrics cannot reliably reflect anthropogenic impacts, helping explain the prevalence of mixed biodiversity trends.

Two studies in the Netherlands have recently taken a different approach to analysing the recovery of freshwater invertebrates by focussing on two invertebrate groups widely known to be sensitive to river pollution. Assessing 40 years of change in mayfly and caddis fly populations van Kouwen et al. (2024) and Becker et al. (2024) found interesting patterns. For the area’s 35 Ephemeroptera species, there was a general initial recovery of biodiversity, up to about the year 2000, which subsequently appeared to halt. The general lack of further recovery after 2000 suggested that, while extensive hydromorphological restoration measures were taken (dos Reis Oliveira et al., 2020), these were ineffective in restoring Ephemeroptera biodiversity. Recovery after the year 2000 was limited to only a few Ephemeroptera species, likely as a result of slight further improvements in water quality (Van Puijenbroek et al., 2014). Van Kouwen et al. concluded that before additional investment in large scale restoration projects are made, those stressors that hamper biodiversity recovery should first be identified and alleviated. For caddis flies there was a different outcome following initial recovery. Richness and abundance of all Trichoptera significantly increased from 1980 to around 2010. After this point, caddis generally declined except for the 5 most abundant species. Trichoptera increasing in abundance were less sensitive to climate change and poor water quality, or were sensitive species which benefited from local restoration measures. Species with stable or declining abundances showed higher sensitivity to climate change.

Practical actions

An interesting example of the need to maintain networks of ponds, even in the most highly protected sites, comes from Doñana National Park, Iberia’s largest wetland – and an iconic pondscape. The decline of the Doñana ponds is well-known and a conservation cause celebre. A recent paper highlights the critical threat to the amphibians of this highly protected area. In 2003-2004, 6 species of amphibian were present across more than 50% of the area studied by Díaz-Paniagua and colleagues. In contrast, 18 years later, this was the case for only two species, Pelophylax perezi and Hyla meridionalis. Declines were greatest for Epidalea calamita, followed by Pelobates cultripes, Triturus pygmaeus, and Lissotriton boscai. The mean number of species per sampling unit dropped from 4.3 to 3.1. To preserve Doñana’s amphibian community, the park’s pond network must be restored, which implies reducing regional groundwater overexploitation. The availability of temporary and permanent ponds in Doñana is determined by rainfall, the sandy substrate, and the ground waters that sustain these wetlands. Climate change and aquifer overexploitation are jointly drying up ponds in Doñana, reducing the extent and hydroperiod even of permanent or semipermanent ponds to the point that terrestrial vegetation (e.g., pines, heath, rockroses) is colonising what used to be pond basins just a few years ago.

There are many examples of the importance of ponds for endangered species and new evidence suggests that endangered Little Brown Bats in North America may also benefit from ponds. Working in the Yukon in Canada Kukka et al. (2024) assessed the use of ponds along an urban-rural gradient by Little Brown Bats. Using ultrasonic detectors to survey 99 ponds they found that virtually all (98%) of the ponds were used by the bats. Bats selected more isolated ponds and there was less bat activity at ponds surrounded by open water and wetland habitat which the research team did not expect. They concluded that ponds surrounded by additional wetland habitat may have been too exposed for bats at high latitudes, where nights are short and not completely dark. Isolated ponds that are darker, such as those surrounded by mature forest, may be particularly valuable for little brown bats by helping them to avoid predators while foraging.

Finally, a very practical approach to protecting pond biota: make ponds on the top of low hills which ensure they are not directly connected to adjacent freshwaters. In New South Wales, Australia, work to protect the threatened Green and Golden Bell Frog (Litoria aurea) from the invasive Eastern Mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) has taken a novel approach. Because Gambusia moves between aquatic systems during floods, Gould et al. (2024) set out to determine whether constructing ponds on elevated plots were less likely to be colonized by fish. Gambusia presence was monitored at 50 ponds which comprised 24 constructed ponds, 19 of which were on elevated plots, along with 26 historic ponds already present prior to the study. None of the ponds constructed on elevated plots were ever colonized by Gambusia during the study period, while most (three out of five) constructed at lower elevation and historical ponds (25 out of 26) were. The results showed clearly that plateau ponds provided a safe haven for the endangered amphibian, in an otherwise highly disturbed and damaged industrial landscape. Elevation difference, rather than proximity to Eastern Mosquitofish sources, was the key driver preventing colonisation. There are a variety of situations where ponds benefit from isolation and this adds another example.

Freshwater scientists, practitioners and policymakers are invited to an international conference to explore the role of ponds for biodiversity conservation and nature-based solutions at a time of climate change.

International pond conference 2024: Ponds and pondscapes for biodiversity, climate and people is hosted by PONDERFUL and the European Pond Conservation. This major online event will take place on 12^th and 13^th November, bringing together freshwater scientists, practitioners and policymakers from around the globe to exchange the latest research, practical applications, and policy developments on the importance of ponds for biodiversity, change adaptation, and as nature-based solutions.

All elements of the conference, including attendance, will be free of charge.

The scientific committee is now inviting abstract submissions for 10-12 minute talks (followed by Q&A) and posters. View the conference themes on our website and submit your abstract through our online system. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 19^th July 2024.

The two-day event will include sessions on freshwater science, including talks on research on ponds and climate, the value of ponds and pondscapes for biodiversity, modelling and assessment of ponds and ponds’ contribution to regulatory and support services and to wellbeing.

Practitioner focused sessions will include sessions on how lessons learnt from pond science can be applied to inform and support the practices of land managers and advisors, from maintaining and increasing biodiversity to maximising the value of ponds as nature-based solutions.

Sessions on ponds in policy and legislation will focus on the integration of ponds into policy and legislation, nationally and internationally.

Policymakers and practitioners will soon benefit from two major new publications, being developed through PONDERFUL.

The PONDERFUL technical handbook is a 100-page book for people involved in planning, designing and implementing practical projects that use ponds and pondscapes as nature-based solutions for addressing social, economic and environmental challenges.

Bringing together expertise from across the PONDERFUL consortium and new research findings from the project, it includes practical guidance on managing, restoring and creating ponds. The handbook also provides advice and information on funding pond and pondscape projects and a series of case studies from across Europe and South America, demonstrating how these small waterbodies can help solve societal challenges.

Stakeholders inputted into the technical handbook in the workshops, held in autumn and winter 2023-24.

For policy makers and legislators, a quick guide to the use of ponds and pondscapes as nature-based solutions will be provided by the PONDERFUL policy guidance document.

Professor Jeremy Biggs, CEO of UK PONDERFUL partner Freshwater Habitats Trust, said: “Together, these two documents will provide up-to-date guidance on ponds and pondscapes, based on new evidence from PONDERFUL. The project has generated exciting results on the potential for ponds and pondscapes to help us adapt to climate change and the technical handbook and policy guidance document will help ensure this information is presented in a way that can be used by policymakers and practitioners.”

Both documents will be published in September 2024.

What do the Mediterranean temporary ponds of Albera, farmland grazed by cattle near San Carlos in Uruguay and a pond network in the suburbs of Aarhus, Denmark, have in common?

They’re all PONDERFUL DEMO sites.

These pondscapes are similar in other ways too: they are nature-based solutions that have been implemented for providing Nature’s Contributions to People as we adapt to climate change: from watering cattle in a time of drought, to providing habitat for declining species and reducing flood risk in nearby towns and cities.

Through PONDERFUL, we have now created a series of 16 leaflets, sharing insights about these pondscapes and the Nature’s Contributions to People they provide. Now published on the PONDERFUL website, in both English and the relevant local language, the leaflets share details such as:

• Biodiversity
• Other Nature’s Contributions to People provided by the pondscape
• Links to local policies

How these ponds are working as nature-based solutions to address societal challenges

• A cost-benefit analysis
• Success stories: what the pondscape is achieving for people and biodiversity

Many of the DEMO sites also feature in the PONDERFUL technical handbook, which will be published later this year.

Dr Beat Oertli, Professor at PONDERFUL partner University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland said: “Through PONDERFUL, we have focused on these demonstration sites to learn more about how pondscapes can support us to as we adapt to our changing climate. Our research has helped us learn more about the benefits being provided by the implemented nature-based solutions, as well as discovering more about the biodiversity supported by these pondscapes.

“Despite their importance for wildlife and people, we know that small waterbodies have traditionally been overlooked. So, by publishing information about these pondscapes we are raising their profile among policymakers and the wider public. We also hope that people across the world will be inspired by the nature-based solutions provided by these pondscapes and consider how they can also manage, restore and create small waterbodies to provide Nature’s Contributions to People.

“Our DEMO site leaflets will be an important legacy for PONDERFUL and will be a useful resource and an inspiration for land managers, policymakers and local businesses for many years to come.”

Download the PONDERFUL leaflets: Leaflets – Ponderful

All 16 leaflets are included in a downloadable booklet (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.12160725).

As we prepare to launch the PONDERFUL decision support tool, Dr Maryam Lotfian and Professor Dr Florent Joerin (both of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland) explain how the initiative could change the way we manage, restore and create ponds and pondscapes as nature-based solutions.

What will people use the decision support tool for and what will it do?

The decision support tool is a web-based system that will enable people to compare different potential nature-based solution (NBS) implementations linked to pond or pondscapes. It predict various Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) provided by the implemented NBS, under different land use and climate change scenarios.

That means, for example, users can compare the creation of 20 new ponds versus the creation of 50 ponds, based on their impact on amphibian populations and carbon flux, under a climate change scenario driven by fossil fuel development.

The tool provides a ‘satisfaction score’ illustrating how well a particular NBS implementation aligns with the decision maker’s management objectives. Based on this overall score, as well as detailed scores per NCP indicator, users can compare the likely results of different actions. People can then use this comparison, along with their own criteria such as cost and completion time, to make a decision on how to approach their pond or pondscape project.

Additionally, the tool is an awareness tool, showing users the impact of NBS implementations on various NCP indicators, such as carbon balance, water storage and biodiversity. We hope the decision support tool will also help raise awareness about the impact of ponds on our environment and ecosystem.

Who is the decision support tool aimed at?

Understanding who the user is has been vital in developing the structure of the tool. We have designed the decision support tool to be used jointly by an expert and a decision-maker.

The expert must be familiar with the land on which pond or pondscape management, restoration or creation is planned. This is because some questions require expertise about the pondscape under consideration, such as expectations of qualitative increase in species richness or the approximative amount of expected carbon balance under an NBS implementation. The decision-maker’s role will be to formulate political expectations regarding the criteria and objectives they wish to achieve through the development of pondscapes.

Decision-makers can also use the tool independently, provided they have a certain level of knowledge about the location and can input variables such as selecting and ranking NCP indicators and setting management objectives for the selected NCP.

How did you research the decision support tool to find out what people need?

We discussed the decision tool during the stakeholder workshops held in autumn/winter 2023-24 in eight different countries where PONDERFUL has implemented DEMO-sites. Additionally, we have collaborated with a pilot test in Switzerland (pondscape from the Jorat Nature Park), where we held three workshops with local decision-makers.

These discussions gave us invaluable insights from some of the people who will be using the decision support tool, helping us adapt it to ensure it is accessible and easy to use.

What difference could the decision tool make to ponds as a nature-based solution for climate change adaptation?

The decision tool not only guides decision-makers in choosing their pond management actions but also serves as a tool to raise public awareness about the role of ponds as Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). It illustrates the impacts of different pond actions on biodiversity under various climate change and land use scenarios. We believe that using the tool can convince decision-makers to take action.

What are your hopes for the decision tool and how it will be used?

We hope that the decision tool will raise awareness among decision-makers and stakeholders about the important role of ponds as NBS. Once they are convinced to take action, we hope the tool can guide them in making decisions more easily and simplify the comparison of various NBS implementations. Additionally, we hope the tool will be used for educational purposes to illustrate the potential impact of different actions and enhance people’s understanding of the role of ponds.

Depending on the final outcomes of the modelling results from PONDERFUL, we also hope the tool can be easily used in areas beyond the project’s investigated pondscapes, and in other countries.

What were the biggest challenges you faced when developing the decision support tool?

This is the first tool of its kind for ponds and pondscapes so it’s not surprising that we have had to overcome some challenges along the way.

The main challenge was that the MCDA (Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis) approach requires certain parameters as input from the user. And these can be complicated or difficult to understand. Therefore, the challenge was to adapt the questions to be easy to understand while still obtaining the necessary input values for running the MCDA.

Additionally, decision-makers need very precise data relevant to their specific context, but the tool operates on a national or international scale, making it challenging to achieve this level of precision. Furthermore, decision-making processes vary greatly from one country to another, and even from one region to another within the same country. Therefore, we have chosen to focus the tool on strategic decisions that are best suited to the level of precision of the available data. Decision-makers can then adjust these strategies using local and contextual data.

Finally, another challenge is the dependency of the decision tool on the PONDERFUL integrated models, which predict the impact of ponds on NCP indicators. Currently, this integration is done manually, but we are now working on optimising this process to establish an automated connection between the decision tool and the models.

What has been the most interesting and enjoyable aspect of developing the decision support tool?

The most interesting part of the process was the exchanges we had with stakeholders during the workshops organised for the pilot study. These discussions were not only engaging but also helpful in improving the tool step-by-step and inspiring ideas on how the tool can be adapted for future uses.

Additionally, brainstorming between the two of us on how to adapt the tool and its connection with the PONDERFUL modelling results has been enjoyable. Even the coding itself was sometimes fun!

The PONDERFUL decision support tool will be available on the PONDERFUL website from November 2024.

In the PONDERFUL project, I am leading the work package for stakeholder involvement, policy, society, and sustainable financing. The main area I am responsible for is policy analysis, but I am also supervising and coordinating the work with other tasks and am in charge of the last deliverable on the PONDERFUL final framework.

My expertise is in political and social sciences. I work with numerous issues related to sustainable development, with a particular focus on policy and governance aspects linked to biodiversity conservation. That includes, for example, the implementation of biodiversity-related and other environmental policies, ecological and socio-economic assessment of ecosystem services, and the application of Nature-based Solutions. Recently, I have worked a lot with small waterbodies, such as ponds and wetlands, but I have also focused on other environments, including forests, mountains, coastal and urban areas.

I gained my PhD degree in 2011 at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, with a dissertation about planning processes for biodiversity. Since 2015, I have been working at Uppsala University, first as a post-doctoral researcher, then as senior lecturer. In 2017, I became an associate professor at Uppsala University, Department of Earth Sciences, within a research programme of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development.

I wanted to get involved in PONDERFUL, because I think that small waterbodies are extremely important, but at the same time, quite neglected. So, being involved with PONDERFUL has given me the opportunity to help raise their profile and make them more visible in both research and practice, but also for general society.

I also think that it is vital to involve social and political scientists in projects like PONDERFUL. While ecology research is important, it is imperative that we understand more of the social and political context, so we are able to apply the solutions to environmental problems in practice.

Besides PONDERFUL, I work with another Horizon 2020 project called NEXOGENESIS, which focuses on the interdependence of water, energy and food security and the ecosystems that underpin that security. I am also involved in the PUDDLE-JUMP , which is looking at hydrological and other ecosystem services that can be provided by small waterbodies created by people (such as ponds and wetlands). In addition, I am leading a large research programme called LANDPATHS, which is developing new strategies for governance and management that strengthen landscapes’ biodiversity and promote multifunctionality.

PONDERFUL is now at its final stage and I can see that we have already achieved a lot to learn more about ponds and pondscapes as Nature-based Solutions. It is exciting that our results are being widely disseminated and will reach a wide audience. My hope is that this will make both decision makers and regular people more aware of the values that small waterbodies provide and support their future creation, restoration and management.

PONDERFUL was a key attraction at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) Science Day in September.

Around 600 people from across Berlin and beyond attended the public event, which PONDERFUL partner IGB has held since 1992. The Science Day focused on informing and educating visitors about IGB’s research activities on lakes, rivers and ponds, as well as addressing freshwater issues of public concern. The event, which attracted people of all ages, featured several interactive elements and gave people the opportunity to interact with IGB researchers.

The PONDERFUL group at IGB created a stand, which included two microscopes. Visitors used the microscopes and ID sheets to identify the main groups of benthic macroinvertebrates, found in ponds at nearby PONDERFUL demo-site Schöneiche. These aquatic invertebrates can be important indicators of water quality. Attendees also played a memory card game to learn about the main Nature Contributions to People provided by ponds. They were also invited to list local names for ponds at Schöneiche.

Dr. Thomas Mehner of IGB said: “Our stand attracted a lot of attention and sparked interesting conversations about the role of ponds. Many visitors observed that almost all the ponds at the demo-site had become dry during the last decade and, as a result, we had discussions about regional hydrology and the roles of stakeholders.

“It was surprising to understand that many people are not aware of the role of ponds – or freshwater in general – as the habitat for development of many insect groups, including dragonflies and beetles. The event was a great opportunity to share PONDERFUL with a wider public, as well as engaging in discussions about the importance of ponds for biodiversity.”

Practitioners and members of the public will soon be able to learn about Nature-based solutions at pondscapes across Europe and South America. The PONDERFUL consortium is producing 16 leaflets focusing on PONDERFUL results and success stories at PONDERFUL DEMO-sites in eight countries.

Eight DEMO-sites were chosen for the PONDERFUL project, encompassing 20 pondscapes where Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have been successfully implemented.

Through PONDERFUL research, we now have strong evidence of good practice for NbS implementations in these DEMO-sites. The consortium is developing a leaflet for each pondscape to share the results and a selection of success stories. These will be made available early 2024 on the PONDERFUL website.

The success stories include for example:

• Reducing flood risk at Lystrup pondscape in Denmark and Imrahor (Ankara) pondscape Turkey.
• A pondscape as water reserve for sustaining extensive cattle farming in Uruguay.
• The coexistence of natural habitats and tourism at La Pletera in Catalonia, Spain.
• The development of a nature education centre in a city centre in Schöneiche (Berlin), Germany
• Developing multifunctionality at the pondscape scale in Rhône Genevois, Switzerland.
• Implementing protection status promoting biodiversity and infrastructure for recreation and nature observation at Tommelen pondscape in Belgium.
• Reducing the agricultural pressure on the landscape to improve water quality and habitats at Albera temporary ponds in Catalonia, Spain.
• Creating and managing clean water ponds for biodiversity and for people in a farmed landscape in the UK.

In total, around 40 success stories have been developed for the leaflets. Some of these will also feature in the PONDERFUL technical handbook.

Dr Beat Oertli, Professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland said: “Through PONDERFUL we are gaining insights on how pondscapes can provide Nature-based solutions as we adapt to climate change. Our research is showing the multiple benefits of high quality pondscapes for biodiversity and people.”

“These leaflets bring together success stories from a diverse range of sites across Europe and South America. We hope they will not only be informative but will also inspire landowners, managers and practitioners to to replicate the good practices and create and manage pondscapes to provide Nature-based solutions.”

I’m an aquatic ecologist working on the ecology of temperate, dryland and tropical aquatic systems. I’m particularly fascinated by the processes underpinning community assembly, biodiversity and food web structure in relation to human induced ecosystem alteration. It is my ultimate objective to enhance our understanding of the structure and the functioning of aquatic ecosystems, and to translate scientific insights into effective and sustainable ecosystem conservation.

I obtained my masters in Biology at KU Leuven (Belgium), where I subsequently conducted my PhD research focusing on the importance of fish community structure for freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of man-made ponds. This research has contributed to the development of a science-based biodiversity conservation plan for a large Natura 2000 fish pond region in Belgium (De Wijers). I spent several years as post-doc in the research group of Luc De Meester at KU Leuven working on a variety of research projects dealing with aquatic ecology and biodiversity in relation to human induced environmental pressures. More recently, I’ve combined working at KU Leuven with a post-doc position in the research team of Thomas Mehner at the Leibniz Institute für Gewasserökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB) (Berlin, Germany). My current research activities relate to community ecology and conservation biology in ponds, lakes and wetlands in temperate and tropical regions.

I’m involved in multiple work packages of the PONDERFUL project, but most notably I deal with the collection and analysis of empirical data. In collaboration with a team of engaged master and PhD students at IGB and KU Leuven, I contributed to the collection of field data from a large number of ponds in Belgium and Germany. I’m also responsible for combining data from multiple research teams together into one integrated database that we will use for an overarching analysis of patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in relation to land-use intensity along gradients of climate.

PONDERFUL is highly inspiring as the project is driven by an international and interdisciplinary consortium of passionate researchers. Together, we’re highlighting the importance of small standing waterbodies in climate change mitigation and adaption. Importantly, we’re also facilitating the effective conservation of freshwater biodiversity and associated ecosystem services.

PONDERFUL provides a unique opportunity to obtain valuable insights into patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning along environmental gradients at the spatial scale of Europe. We’re now entering the most exciting phase of the project, which involves the analysis of the obtained data and the integration of research findings from different work packages and disciplines. I’m especially looking forward to learning how ponds and the species they support respond to land use, how this translates into effects on ecosystem processes and related ecosystem services, and how local factors interact with regional landscape factors.

I’m convinced that the research findings of PONDERFUL will lead to small standing waterbodies being included in effective conservation programmes and policies to safeguard freshwater biodiversity in the face of climate change.